Book Review: Educated by Tara Westover

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I listened to Educated as an audiobook while visiting my brother in Washington, D.C. — he was out there doing medical work and renting a room in a haunted house full of cat statues, which is exactly the kind of setting this book deserves. And I remember lying awake in that strange house, crying in the middle of the night with my headphones in.

Not sad-crying, exactly. Grateful-crying. Educated is the rare memoir that makes you take inventory of your own childhood, your own family, your own luck — and I came out the other side of it feeling thankful for my life in a way few books have ever managed. It was incredible.

The spoiler-free setup, for the three people who haven’t read it: Tara Westover grew up in a survivalist family in rural Idaho, kept out of school, and didn’t set foot in a classroom until she was seventeen — then clawed her way to a PhD from Cambridge. The book is about what that education cost her.

What I Loved About Educated by Tara Westover

I ghostwrite memoirs for a living, so I read this genre with a mechanic’s eye — and Educated is the bar I measure other memoirs against, out loud and often. Westover handles memory itself with unusual honesty (she footnotes where her recollection differs from her family’s), and that rigor is exactly what gives the emotional moments their weight. You trust her, so the hard parts land at full force.

The audiobook, for what it’s worth, is a beautiful way to take it in — there’s something about being told this story out loud, in the dark, that print can’t quite replicate. Choose your haunted house accordingly.

What I Didn’t Love About Educated

Only a warning, not a complaint: this is a heavy read, and it does not hold your hand through the heaviness. Don’t queue it up expecting a cozy self-improvement arc — expect to sit with some hard things (possibly at 2am, possibly in tears).

Final Thoughts on Educated by Tara Westover

My final score: 5 out of 5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do I recommend this book? 👍 A thousand times yes.

If memoir is your genre (or your project — I see you, future authors), my list of favorite memoirs as a ghostwriter and my Born a Crime review are right this way. Everything else I’ve rated lives on the shelf.

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