That's a fair criticism.

I think some of those questions were answered, I'm not 100% on these, but if memory serves: Only the 2 youngest children didn't have birth certificates, and both of them got birth certificates before getting drivers licenses. Before the essential oils company the dad owned a construction business that seems to have done pretty well earlier on, but had some major problems later on and the junkyard opened first to supplement income, then as the primary source, which is most of what Tara remembers. I don't remember the details about the night with the dog, but I remember it being logical, like the dog wasn't barking or she didn't see it.

I admit that my background answers the religion question, so I'm not sure what your viewpoint would have been. Mormonism reflects its history as an isolated, expansionist, western, cowboy era religion, and puts a lot of emphasis on traditional gender roles - including emphasis on (large) families - and self-sufficiency but also helping out your village, (things that are not necessarily bad on their own, but living in the rural America reinforces them, just as it fostered them). Her family took self-sufficiency to an extreme, and was comparatively progressive with gender roles, although the rigid patriarchal structure comes up over and over. I didn't feel like the specific religion played much of a role in her story. The rural-ness of an area will lead to similar outcomes in most of America, and the author might have taken for granted that background information, while only explaining what was unique.