I have a hard time reviewing memoirs because they are so incredibly personal and it's hard for me to judge and lay stars on someone's personal story. However, I can say without a doubt...I loved this book! Not only is it a powerful story but it is extremely well written, so well written in fact that it's easy to forget that it's a memoir. This is the amazing story of Tara Westover and her incredible rise from an isolated, unschooled child in the mountains of Idaho to earning a PhD from Cambridge University. Through interesting stories and harrowing tales of growing up in a family of mental illness, Tara lets us inside her childhood and the madness that ensued. Her father is fearful of the government and refuses to send his children to school. He has the family preparing for the end of the world and Tara lives in a state of fear. Until she's older and she starts to see her family from an outsiders perspective, thinking maybe there is more to this world than the mountain. She begins to educate herself and in the process starts to extricate herself from what she's always known and begins a journey of discovery- discovering the world beyond the mountain and who she is without her family. At times this was hard to read, but this is a powerful story. Thank you @randomhouse for this advance reader in exchange for my honest review.