The transformation that education has on Tara is nothing short of extraordinary. It’s like she completely changes, not just her habits, but her thoughts, her personality, and how she carries herself in the world. This point is driven home nicely in the book by Tara seeing the 16-year-old version of herself in the mirror but finding her to be a different person that doesn’t exist anymore. This is the point that the book wanted to drive home and it absolutely does.

There are a couple of things that I particularly didn’t like. I get that Shawn was an abusive brother and had anger issues. One or two incidents were enough to drive that point home, but every time his name got mentioned in the book, I knew what was coming and I dreaded reading about it, but had to. This I think could have been skipped. But I don’t want to be too harsh on the author, because she lived through that. I found myself being uncomfortable reading through the incidents, and she had to physically go through them.

I would have also liked a little more background into Tyler’s story, because he too gets a doctorate himself and creates a life for himself outside of the family. That information is lacking in the book, maybe because Tara herself doesn’t have that much insight into it.

Other than these minor things, the book is really good, and if you didn’t tell someone that the book is a memoir before they read it, I would bet you that most of them would be inclined to think that it is a work of fiction, because what Tara has pulled off in her life is nothing short of unfathomable, and that is what makes this book great. Not the writing style, but just the story of a person having so much stacked against her, but coming out on top.