Reviews with content warning for Alcoholism - Spare

I usually avoid memoirs and biographies due to their voyeuristic feel, but something about 2023 has made me want to listen to a few, and Spare was undoubtedly one of them.

I highly enjoyed the narration Prince Harry gave, and the story itself was fun to listen to. His ghost writers was phenomenal in my opinion. I'm very glad I listened to it instead of reading it, however, because I think I would have found myself bored by some of the longer chapters had it not been read to me.

Something else for readers to be weary of besides long chapters and perhaps boring text, should you choose to read this rather than listen- this story bares all... Like ALL. You will hear a LOT about the Prince's... Todger, as he calls it. Like a LOT. Where it's been, who's seen it, how it's been injured so uh. Fair warning there.

Beyond the todger, this book really doesn't pull punches. I saw shocked at points, angered at others, cried at some. But I also felt myself thinking: is it all true? God I hope not. It's that bad.

Give it a listen.

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ms4321's review against another edition

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informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

While this didn't completely warm me to Harry himself, you can't but have sympathy for him and Meghan by the end of it. His difficulty to come to terms with his mother's death and the racism Meghan experienced from the British tabloids was horrible.

The memoir itself was fairly well written. Although, it did get a little wishy-washy for my taste at times. (Yes, Harry very much seems to be his father's son in that respect). The philosophical talking fox, moon and dust bin was a bit much for me.

Personally, I didn't find the military escapades or drug induced self-destruction very interesting. I'm not pro-war or pro-military and I'm not interested in Harry's recreational drug use. This was something that made up a good chunk of the centre of the book and kind of slowed everything down for me.

His descriptions of Africa were a bit strange and problematic (very heart of darkness), especially considering they were coming from the perspective of someone whose direct ancestors colonialised half the planet.

I thought the whole situation with Harry, William and Charles seemed a bit petty (but unsurprisingly so) on all sides. It just kind of made me wonder if these three grown men have anything better to be doing than dragging each other in the media.

On the whole, this was a quick enough read if you listen to it as an audiobook and it gives an insight into Harry, his experiences and the lives of the current royal family. Although there was a few off the wall stories I'd rather wipe from my mind forever, 'Spare' does, more or less, exactly what it says on the tin.

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ash_bees's review

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informative slow-paced

3.0

Living life under a microscope has it's consequences. A young prince loses his mother at a tender age and is haunted--literally and figuratively--by the cause of her death.

Other reviewers commented that this reads as if written by multiple authors, I'd suggest at least three. The writing could have benefitted from a really heavy editor, and would have been more effective if it was cut down to half or a third. But that seems to be par for the course for books I've read from people with celebrity status.

The takeaways from this are two-fold: (1) the importance of speaking up to right wrongs, especially when you're an ally and not the target; and (2) knowing that speaking up may not change the offender's future actions but can gain you more allies or let other similarly situated people know they're not alone.

Lots of trigger warnings for this book. I wouldn't necessarily say it's spilling the tea, but it does cover lots of death, feelings of abandonment and betrayal, and stalking.

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ladynavalon's review

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slow-paced

1.0

This book should have being a (bunch of) therepy sesión(s). The more these characters (M&H) expose themselves, the less cresibility they gain. Because, when you have such a public live, what's the point of liying over and over?
Dear reader, don't lose your time on this!

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issyd23's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.0

You know his life is fucked when he’d enter a war zone to escape the paps. Vive la république! 3🎳

NB This was actually quite boring as I’ve read 3 Royal bios & knew everything already. The Palace Papers is 100x better! Kate Middleton’s chapter is tantalising. However, this did make me want to go to Botswana.

Other thoughts:

I cannot believe I now know that Prince Harry is circumcised
Find it hilarious that according to Haz Charles is in his ‘Camilla era’ - Taylor take note! ✍️
On a serious note his hatred of the media (especially Murdoch) is palpable - I wonder if he’ll pursue them in court
On a personal note I don’t love that Harry is convinced we (US + allies) were the ‘good guys’ in Afghanistan - and his refusal to think critically about the wider implications and complexities of the war/occupation.

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christinastuart26's review

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reflective slow-paced

3.5

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natbooks_'s review against another edition

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informative slow-paced

3.25

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