What an AMAZING book! I don’t normally pick up memoirs, but this was on the reading list for my book club so I picked it up and I am so glad I did. Almost hard to believe it is a true story. The narrative reads similar to fiction with one life event leading to the next like plot points. Tara’s life is intriguing and scary and downright different from what most people experience, and I could not stop reading. It follows her life isolated from mainstream society in a self-sustaining family of survivalists that don’t believe in schools, hospitals or any help outside of the family unit. Tara does not attend school for the first time until she is seventeen years old and then educates herself in an attempt to break from the cycle and experience the world. That education expands her mind and indeed takes her around the world, but not before getting pulled back in to several harrowing family experiences. Readers get a birds-eye view into her life as she attempts to redefine herself outside of the family; she gains a new identity but makes sacrifices along the way and it all unfolds masterfully with the words that Tara lays down on these pages. Once the book was done, I wanted more; I dug up interviews and articles about Tara and her life just to satisfy that need. I highly recommend this book!
