Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Can a sixteen year old with a scant educational foundation teach themselves english, math, reading and science? Maybe. Can they concentrate and work hard enough to get an exceptional ACT score on the second try? Maybe. Can they enter college at seventeen, rent an apartment, and negotiate the university bureaucracy (including paying for it all) with basically no parental (or mentor) support? Doubtful. Upon entering college, she admits to having never written an essay or taken a multiple choice test, coupled with no background knowledge of history, current events, geography, art or culture. Yet, somehow, with no formal or peer academic support, goes from failing her first test to acing the final in one semester. Is that possible in one course where one has an particular aptitude? Sure. An entire course schedule? No way. This fabricated or delusional memoir would have us believe that a feral child could achieve academically at a speed and level that defies credulity. I know people with advanced degrees, inherent talent, and excellent work habits that could not pull this off. The physical and psychological abuse she suffered seems believable. However, the litany of family member accidents (exposed brains, third-degree burns, severe head injuries) that are survived with little or no professional assistance is just more of the same fantasy. I have seen her interviewed, and she appears to be a person of normal intelligence, but certainly no savant. This book is fiction.