This story is about Tara Westover and her brothers, sister and parents and their way of living. Her father raises them to fear the medical "establishment", has them "homeschool" used loosely and believes that their mother's oils & tinctures could cure the plaque!
Tara is raised in pure hell because of her father but doesn't realize any of the issues until she steps in a classroom for the first time at the age of 17. She teaches herself math, grammar, and science to take the SAT to be able to attend BYU, and does where she studies psych, politics, philosophy & history, where she learns about pivotal times in History such the Holocaust, Civil Rights Movement. She becomes so eager to continue to learn she ends up traveling overseas and as far from Buck's Peak as possible, to Harvard and Cambridge University.
She struggles to survive and abusive brother with anger management issues, a mentally ill father who has told her all her life to go outside of Buck's Peak and believe anything other than his believes will take her straight to hell, she struggles with what she wants and her sexual identity.
This story is beautifully written and pulls at your heartstrings, it's sad to think that their people who still feel and believe as her father but to see Tara survive & Trive in the midst of it all shows with faith in yourself and determination, which she had in spades you can accomplish what you want in life. 5💜/5