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theabee's review
4.5
Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Classism, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Stalking, Violence, War, Addiction, and Animal death
christinastuart26's review
3.5
Graphic: Drug use, Gun violence, Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Car accident, Death, Death of parent, and Miscarriage
nikitanavalkar's review against another edition
3.0
Me: …facepalm. Definitely stolen Harold. Everyone would say.
That’s Harry in a nutshell. Well meaning, nice guy prince, but ultimately out of touch with reality. Yes, even with his brilliant service work and military experience and his all around compassion. I was extremely impressed with him and his growth after the docuseries, and still am to a certain extent, but not gonna lie, this book made me lose some of my respect for him. And it’s not due to any specific thing, just a culmination of a bunch of things. And I get it, at the end of the day he’s a prince and it’s hard for him to be relatable and I wasn’t expecting that anyway. But Harry, no one needs details of every single thing that ever happened to you, including that time you had todger (dodger? Idk) frostbite and that one time you peed your pants as an adult. Of course I’d also blame the editor for not cutting out a lot of fat from the book, but then who can say to a prince this is unnecessary tmi let’s delete it I suppose. As clear from the fact that the memoir is “by Prince Harry” and not Harry Windsor or Wales or whatever his last name is.
Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciated the candidness of the writing, the almost innocence of it. Even when too forthcoming and a bit whiny, it felt honest at all times. So much of it is sad, especially the parts with his mum and his complete denial about her passing and so many more instances of his life in a golden cage. From which he was unceremoniously thrown out and forced to fly too late, with a young family in tow at that. Tbh, Meghan is the best thing that happened to him IMO. People can diss her all they like, especially in the UK, but he’s the one that married up. She had everything going for her before his ridiculous life brought a wrecking ball into hers. Even in the book, he sounds more mature, more lucid from the point she came into his life. When he’s talking about her and their life together. And their love rings powerful and true. So the haters can just sit down.
And whatever else I think about the book, I will always support him, and them making money by any other honest means rather than just taking tax payers’ money for being an outdated, r*cist, colonizing institution. Unlike his family. No matter if that means airing out his dirty laundry. So more power to them.
Graphic: Addiction and Emotional abuse
loloburns's review against another edition
3.5
As a tell all memoir, I didn't immensely enjoy it, instead, reading it with the mind that it was written by a person. Just a person. Its heartbreaking.
I have never cried as much reading a non fiction book as reading this.
Graphic: Addiction, War, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Grief, Classism, Drug use, Death of parent, Racism, Stalking, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Death, Violence, and Car accident
Moderate: Animal death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, and Alcoholism
Minor: Vomit, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, and Kidnapping
vaguely_pink's review against another edition
2.5
And not too much about the monarchy or whatever. But perhaps too much about the war. And his frostbitten penis.
I suppose I can sympathize with having a hard time editing out bits of your life when composing a memoir, especially when that life has been lived so publicly and with such scrutiny over events that were inaccurately reported. And when you've endured so much trauma. But this book was entirely too long and often felt disjointed. I often tuned out during the middle section of the book where he goes on for eons about how much he loved the war.
Which is a shame because he has some very poignant and important things to say about how we treat those in the public eye. You just have to endure many stories about flying helicopters and camping in Botswana that you might not be interested in and paragraphs of the former Prince of Wales reminding you of all the "great work" he's done.
At the end of the day, if you're at all intrigued by the inner workings of the British monarchy and Harry specifically, Spare is probably worth a read. Just be aware that it definitely needed a more discerning editor.
Graphic: Classism, Grief, Gun violence, and War
Moderate: Death of parent, Stalking, Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Cursing, Drug use, Medical content, and Racism
Minor: Colonisation, Miscarriage, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
thesapphiccelticbookworm's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Racism, Animal death, Car accident, Death of parent, Grief, War, Drug use, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol
Minor: Addiction, Colonisation, Genocide, and Incest
kshertz's review
4.75
I get it. Now I know why he made the choices he did. Definitely see both sides in many of the situations though. Which is why it’s not 5 stars. You know it’s super biased 😂 but I still really loved it and will recommend it
Moderate: Addiction, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, War, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Medical content, Mental illness, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pregnancy
yarnarh's review
0.5
Felt sad for him that paparazzi were harassing him but my god is he delusional and out of touch.
Graphic: Classism, Alcoholism, Car accident, Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Murder, War, Addiction, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Drug abuse
genevieve_eggleston's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Miscarriage, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Gore, Alcoholism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Alcohol, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, War, Mental illness, Addiction, Animal death, Death, Blood, and Cursing
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Infidelity, Bullying, Classism, Gun violence, and Sexism
Minor: Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Homophobia, Infertility, Racial slurs, and Religious bigotry
miggyfool's review
3.75
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Sexism, Stalking, Addiction, Animal death, Antisemitism, Bullying, Classism, Car accident, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Islamophobia, Murder, Pregnancy, Racism, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Xenophobia