Homeschooled: A Memoir

by Stefan Merrill Block

A heartbreaking and empowering debut memoir about a mother’s all-consuming love, a son’s perilous quest to discover the world beyond the front door and the unregulated homeschool system that impacts millions like him

Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were “stifling his creativity.” With no background in education and no formal training, she began to instruct Stefan in the family’s living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother’s erratic whims. She forced him to bleach his hair and to crawl like a baby in a strange and regressive attempt to recapture his early years.

Long before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother’s increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.

At once a novelistic portrait of mother and son, and an illuminating window into an overlooked corner of the American education system, Homeschooled is a moving, funny and ultimately inspiring story of a son’s battle for a life of his own choosing, and the wages of a mother’s all-consuming love.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography Memoir, Education, Adult

288 pages, Hardcover

Expected publication January 6, 2026

About the author

Stefan grew up in Plano, Texas. His first book, The Story of Forgetting, was an international bestseller and the winner of Best First Fiction at the Rome International Festival of Literature, The Ovid Prize from the Romanian Writer's Union, the 2008 Merck Serono Literature Prize and the 2009 Fiction Award from The Writers’ League of Texas. The Story of Forgetting was also a finalist for the debut fiction awards from IndieBound, Salon du Livre and The Center for Fiction. Following the publication of his second novel, The Storm at the Door, Stefan was awarded The University of Texas Dobie-Paisano Fellowship, as well as residencies at The Santa Maddalena Foundation and Castello Malaspina di Fosdinovo in Italy. Stefan's novels have been translated into ten languages, and his stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, The New Yorker Page-Turner, The Guardian, NPR’s Radiolab, GRANTA, The Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. Stefan's third novel, Oliver Loving, is forthcoming from Macmillan/Flatiron Books. He lives in Brooklyn.

Reviews

[Erica Lane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE a messy, intimate family memoir and this one delivered. A mother's love turned narcissistic and dangerous, an introspective, bookish son, struggling to spread his wings...so good.

[Allyce | · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 stars - honestly, I was a bit let down by this book. As a parent who is debating homeschooling my 2026 kindergartener, I was hoping to have a lot of insight into homeschooling from the child's perspective. Homeschooled is more focused on the author's experiences with a "toxic mom" (she clearly was dealing with major mental health issues) and less on homeschooling. The last 40 pages are very strong and emotional, however, I didn't find what I was looking for in this book.

Homeschooled would be a good read for those who enjoyed I'm Glad My Mom Died and Hillbilly Elegy.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advanced copy. Homeschooled hits shelves on January 6, 2026.

[Sara Mion · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating memoir about growing up with a very controlling and manipulative mother.

While homeschooling was a large part of his need for control that ultimately had a great impact on the authors life, I was hoping for more extrapolation on how homeschooling as a whole gives these sorts of parents a cover. While homeschooling in and of itself isn’t always a bad thing, or doesn’t mean parents will ultimately neglect and abuse their children in this way, there is often some confusion in the community where abusive families can hide, while also sharing their tips and tricks with other families who wouldn’t otherwise seek this sort of distrust of their larger community or “others”.

As someone who was homeschooled myself (in what for me was a very positive experience that prepared me for college and beyond, different from the author), I cringed as I heard the names of the popular champions of homeschooling from the 90s. Along with the common phrases and excuses for needing to abandon the public school system and those supportive of it. That mindset is STRONG among many homeschooling communities and easily leads to an even more controlling environment under the guise of more “freedom”.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with a copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

[Merryweather · Rating 5 out of 5]

This memoir pulls you in quickly and keep you there. The author, Stefan Merrill Block, is not the first to speak out about the damage homeschooling caused him, and he won't be the last. In fact, I suspect we will continue to see an increase in stories of this type as a new wave of homeschoolers enter adulthood. However, this memoir is particularly special. Block recounts his childhood openly and honestly, with a hindsight that truly illuminates some of the real horrific experiences he had as a preteen living in isolation. However, he narrates this without judgment. He doesn't try to pass his mom off as "bad" or "good". He simply recounts his
childhood, and hers, with a voice that is
compelling and sympathetic. This book is a great starting point for the important conversations that need to be had regarding homeschooling.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Based on the description of this book, I was expecting a personal account of homeschooling, for better and worse. Instead, this memoir about the author’s experience of being “homeschooled” (there were very few actual lessons) by his narcissistic mother, who simply couldn’t cope with being alone and having her youngest child grow up, was devastating. Her emotional abuse and manipulation hit me very hard, yet the author presents her with respect and even affection. Despite my personal reaction to the content, this is a powerful and revealing memoir that provides much to think about.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for allowing me to read an ARC of this title.

[Brice Montgomery · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley & Hanover Square Press for the ARC!

Stefan Merrill Block’s Homeschooled is a “toxic mom” memoir that thoughtfully threads the needle between compassion and critique.

Normally, I think a reader’s experience is irrelevant to a book review, but I was homeschooled from preschool until college. I’m either the ideal target audience or the worst possible reader for a memoir about being forcibly removed from public school, so take my comments accordingly.

Block’s memoir is ostensibly tethered to the idiosyncrasies of his particular mother, but I was surprised at how familiar she felt as an archetype within the homeschool community. In Block’s depiction, she harbors an anti-intellectual paranoia that leads her to avoid doctors while believing that white people are capable of photosynthesis. She praises Stefan with an obsession that would raise even Freud’s eyebrows, and she insists that traditional education isn’t as holistic as just sort of hanging out.

I grew up with so many kids in Stefan’s position, and, unfortunately, very few of them had the opportunity to go to high school or college. At least their moms were happy.

Perhaps because I recognized this breed of homeschooling parent, I was a little disappointed to find that the book’s title is little more than a buzzy hook. (I guess I’m Glad My Mom Died was already taken.) I wasn’t expecting a sociological treatise on homeschooling, but I do wish Block spent a bit more time writing about how his story fits into a movement. There’s a mention or two of people like Michael Farris, but Block seems to think his experience is distinct simply because his parents weren’t Christian nationalists. It’s to the book’s detriment—homeschoolers might be insular, but they don’t emerge in isolation, and this individual story isn't really unique enough to fill out so many pages.

Homeschooled is very well written, but because so much of the book surrounds Block’s struggle for identity apart from his mother, it flounders as soon as she isn’t the center of focus. Several narrative avenues, such as local suicides or Block’s burgeoning sexuality, entertain just enough of the author’s attention to cause frustration when they are immediately dropped. Many pages feel wasted when they’re simply building to examples of volatile motherhood that we’ve seen depicted more clearly in earlier chapters of the book. Likewise, a late revelation about the mother’s childhood trauma fails to inspire compassion as much as confusion. It feels like an attempt to explain behavior that, sadly, remains inexplicable.

Even so, I think Stefan Merrill Block tells his story in a way that's worth reading, and if the marketing copy piques your interest, it's a great way to spend an afternoon. Homeschooled might not be the most memorable memoir, but it feels like a fitting tribute to the specificity of a complicated relationship.

[Susan McAulay · Rating 5 out of 5]

One caveat before I begin this review; I know the author. I took a writing class with him at Center for Fiction in Brooklyn. That was why I picked this particular memoir to read. It was not why I enjoyed it, however. I liked it because it was well written and it resonated even though my life and upbringing was very different from his. The mark of a good memoir is that it will connect with readers even when the subject or life of the writer is not at all the same. The writer will draw in the reader and find commonalities among the differences.
Contrary to the title of the memoir, the subject of it is not really home schooling. There is no question that it figures in prominently, of course. However, the subject is really the relationship between the writer and his mother, who was obviously very troubled. Home schooling and how it was done in the writer’s life serves to highlight this relationship and as a metaphor. It is on this level that most readers, including myself, can relate. Many of us, if we were motivated enough and talented enough, could write a memoir about some relationship that affected us greatly, often though not exclusively in a negative way. I saw myself and my father in this situation, with our relationship, like the one between Stefan and his mother, as one that scarred me for life, even as much as it has propelled me to forge a very different relationship with my own daughter.
This was a very fast read, also mark of a successful memoir. I actually wanted just a little more from it. While I learned a great deal about the relationship, I felt like I was missing a little context about the time period, especially in Plano, Texas, being a born and bred New Yorker. From my knowledge of the author and from a few things in the text, I had some rough information about the time period but would have liked to have had a little more context about what Plano was like, and how homeschooling was there as compared in other places in the country at the time. Nonetheless, I can highly recommend this to those who enjoy non celebrity memoirs (my own preference, actually).
Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy of this memoir in exchange for my honest opinions.
Four and a half stars rounded up.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Homeschooled was Block's memoir of his education and life spent learning at home and how it shaped his later life and career. At the age of nine, Block's mother pulled him out of class as a response to his sulky behavior at his new school. He wasn't happy about her interference, as he was just starting to enjoy his class and beginning to make new friends, but once the trajectory was in place, there was no stopping his mother. Turns out she was an extremely needy woman who had decided that the answer to assuage her loneliness was to homeschool her son, and gain a malleable home companion. It ended up that Block was almost emotionally abused and forced by his mother's guilt tripping to be home for all eight grades. He knew that he would have major problems fitting in socially and academically with his peers, and when he finally broke away to begin high school, he found that he was completely hampered by his homeschooling. The book goes on to describe how he had to separate from his mother who persisted in trying to reel him back to her-even when he married, she floated the idea that she and her husband would move next to him to take care of their child, perhaps as a surrogate-he vetoed that.
The book lightly touches on the subject of homeschooling-its history as a counter-culture answer to public education, and, in the present, a way to exert evangelical control. It made me search for information on the effects of homeschooling on grown-up homeschooled children, but there is very little reported information that isn't sponsored by homeschooling sources. This would be a good read for those who enjoyed Glass Castle and Educated as it too is a first-hand account of a very atypical school experience.

[Amanda (THE CAFFEINATED READER) · Rating 5 out of 5]

At the end of this book I was crying bitter tears, stifling them as to not wake my sleeping son.

The author is recounting his experiences as a homeschooler in the early nineties. He astutely points out many times that it is not regulated and so a lesson may be anything.

When his mother takes him out of his elementary school in Plano tx, homeschooling has only just been legalized. Convinced that traditional curriculum and structure will only hinder his brilliance, his mother lets him seek out his own creativity.

For five years “lessons” consist of flash cards and trips to the movies. And intense isolation, searing loneliness for Stefan.

When he gets back to school in ninth grade he is extremely behind, both academically and socially.

Though I found myself angry, Stefan has such compassion for his mother, such patience.

By the end it all seems to come full circle. His momma exhibits true selflessness during the pandemic and her brilliant son does become a writer.

I could not put this down, the writing is so raw and honest, and homeschooling is of particular interest to me.
I’m even more convinced now that it should have more regulation. I’ve witnessed many “lessons” , baking used as math, gardening as science. Anyhow I digress, I loved this one, thank you so much to the publisher for allowing me early access.

[Charlotte Loper · Rating 4 out of 5]

While memoirs can be inherently difficult to review, I throughly enjoyed Block’s latest. As the reader quickly learns, the title is a bit of a misnomer given the limited amount of “school” that takes place. Rather, the memoir details a mother’s radical desire to preserve her son’s youth, no matter the cost. As Block grows, her measures only get more extreme until one day Block finds himself crawling around the house, ostensibly to improve his handwriting. As Block wrestles with pleasing his mother and finding his own identity, a captivating story unfolds.

Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the Advanced Reader Copy.

[Aaron Buitron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book. As a former homeschool student myself, Mr Block’s memoir hit close to home in some ways. My experience was compounded by cerebral palsy, but I certainly missed out on important social interaction with my peers and felt the loneliness he describes in this book. Mr Block paints a rich and engrossing portrait of his life with his codependent mother and somehow manages to make you love her despite the damage she caused him. A masterful memoir.

[Britta · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was interested in this book as an educator and was not disappointed! It’s worth it for the last 40 pages alone. There were definitely a couple spots I laughed out loud, and I think the strength of this book is with the push-pull in the relationship with his mother. I feel like more could have been said about the broader context of homeschooling. Maybe a few spots, like his relationship with his dad, could have been expanded on, but perhaps the memoir wouldn’t have been as nimble as it is if he had. Anyway, I do recommend this book and would give it 3.5/5.

[Dave · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a heartfelt and honest accounting of the authors relationship with his mother that gave off Educated vibes at time but mostly more light hearted. I suspect this will find a wide readership upon its January release and I would recommend just brace yourself for the feeling turns this memoir takes. I appreciate the author’s level humanity.

[Suzanne Leopold (Suzy Approved Book Reviews) · Rating 5 out of 5]

A memoir that reads like fiction, this book will pull you in instantly. It is not so much about homeschooling but about a child at home because of his mother’s irrational needs and fears of society norms. It is very honest and sometimes disturbing and I could not stop reading this book.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

This memoir is a crossover between Educated by Tara Westover and I'm Glad My Mom Died by Jeanette McCurdy, but with a healthy dose of something all its own. Stefan Merrill Block tackles a lot of different issues in this memoir, but it works because he uses his mother as the unifying agent. Definitely recommended.

[Wendy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Homeschooled: A Memoir is a heartbreaking, introspective look from a son and the love of his mother. This memoir was so well done. In a time before homeschooling was mainstreamed, this explored how a homeschool child was isolated from others, looked at and treated. It dives into a narcissistic mother who couldn't bear to let go,.

I felt so deeply for Stefan as he internally battled the love he had for his mother with his desire to go back to school. One quote, "That the longer I stay here, the further I will fall behind, and the harder it will be to ever go back" really resonated with me. His story and struggles really drew me in and kept me reading.

The reason I requested the ARC of this book was the title. Although it dealt with homeschooling, I felt it was secondary to the relationship between a son and his mother. The last few chapters of this book were by far the best, as Stefan is reflecting back on his life.

I believe you will enjoy this memoir if you enjoyed The House of my Mother by Shari Franke or Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance

Thank you so much to NetGalley & Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with a copy of this memoir.