Tara Westover

Tara is the narrator and main character of her own story. She grows from a naïve and trusting child to a critical and confident woman. Her transformation is riddled with complications that involve religious and familial influence. She must and does learn that people’s lives are products of their own decisions, and that she gets to make decisions about her own life.

Tara grows up on Buck’s Peak at the base of mountains in Idaho, isolated from the rest of society. She spent her childhood preparing for the end of the world by storing food and helping her mother create herbal remedies. She fully trusts her parents and believes her father’s stories and theories. She works for him on multiple occasions and he puts her in serious physical danger. This also happens twice on recreation road trips. It is at the urging...