Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

How on earth did this foul book get such high reviews? I had to force myself to read to the end; it is such a drag throughout. Throughout the book, and especially Part I, Tara went into excruciating detail describing her home life and youth. Nothing wrong with that, except juxtaposed with Parts II and III, Tara only glossed over perhaps the most helpful parts to the readers, such as: how did she overcome her imposter syndrome? How was she finally able to make friends and boyfriends, rather than sticking out like a sore thumb when she first entered college? How did she excel in school when her sister was tested to be at the fourth grade level? Things that could've helped readers (maybe those who had experience trauma) overcome their own tragedies, strive for something better, and insights from someone who's gone through it. This book provided nothing helpful or worthwhile to readers whatsoever. This book is probably best served as something sensational, shocking, like a grotesque car wreck you can't look away from. 99% of this book is about Tara's awful family and the extreme, gruesome violence they've inflicted on Tara and others. Everything from setting one's leg on fire, body exploding, driving off the cliff without seatbelts on, stabbing a pet to death with a small knife, severe physical/verbal domestic and child abuse, things that are just disgusting and pointless to read. Sure, describing such violence goes to show how dysfunctional her family is, but it does nothing to help readers gain something greater from it. One minute, Tara cannot shake her "whore" complex, cannot relate to any of her roomates or schoolmates, and does not even know about the Holocaust or slavery, and the next minute, she's become the social butterfly genius who gets 100% on math tests when she was failing just a month before, and getting accepted to the most prestigious schools. These stories are absurd because Tara left out all of the crucial details. It was as if one day, she took a trip to Italy with some classmates, struck up some small talk, and suddenly, she fits right in, like magic! How did this happen? Did she really just turn so brilliant overnight by studying? Or did her teachers give her preferential treatment due to her background? If it's just from studying, how come her sister, after a year-long of studying, only tested to about the fourth grade level? If she only managed to get into BYU for college, how did she suddenly get into Harvard and Oxford and Cambridge? It seems like she was able to use her abusive and highly unusual background to gain sympathy and then access to something that she may not have gotten into had she had a normal upbringing and education. And how did she eventually have relationships with her boyfriends? How did she suddenly overcome her complex? Tara is unlikeable and unrelatable. You'd think that after having studied at Cambridge and Oxford, she'd call the cops after finding out that her crazy older brother Shawn had stabbed a pet to death, or any of the other times when he threatened to kill her or has gone as far as to physically maim her. You'd also think that she'd stop going home (every single semester) since every time she goes back, she endures more abuse. You'd think she'd either call the cops or just cut contact with her crazy family once and for all. One more thing: How did her family members learn to use the computer? It seems like they could all use IM, email, the internet, and they all know how to type and find each other online. I thought they're not even allowed to watch TV, and yet, they can use the computer and internet. Wow! Despite her PhD, this book is written in a scattered, superficial, and sophomoric manner. It contains extreme violence, the stories and the response is often absurd and endlessly frustrating. Her father and brother Shawn should've been arrested decades ago. This book utterly failed to provide anything worthwhile to her readers other than a sensational heap of crap.