Have you ever had to cut someone out of your life? No phone calls, texts, and your friends know not to invite both of you to the same event? Why do we feel the need to extract certain people out of our lives? Is cutting people off healthy? Or is it immature? What if the toxic person is a member of our family?

This week, our theme is inspired by Educated, a memoir by Tara Westover. Tara didn’t have a birth certificate until she was nine years old and she didn’t see her first classroom until the age of 17. It’s like The Village by M. Night Shyamalan, but interesting.

Raised in the mountains of Idaho, her survivalist parents taught that standard education and professional medical care were tools used by the Illuminati to spread the lies of the Devil. They believed her mother possessed special healing powers, rendering her the best source to treat any ailment, including skull fractures and fourth-degree burns.

We’ll let that sink in.

She spent days canning peaches in preparation for the end of the world and hauling junk metal with her father to make money. Her father’s curious behavior she’d later suspect to be undiagnosed bipolar disorder, and his sporadic bouts almost brought her to the grave on numerous occasions. Not surprisingly, when Tara’s ambition turned from marriage and babies to college and travel, her family was not pleased. Not. One. Bit.

A showdown begins that forces Tara to choose between a life without her family or most certain death by their hands.

We’re not exaggerating. It got real, real quick.

Travel with us from the peaks of Idaho to the halls of Cambridge with Educated.

Welcome to Lit Society. Let’s get LIT!

(Featured Image: Tara Westover, photographed at the University of Cambridge, JUDE EDGINTON, THE TIMES)