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bookcheshirecat's review
3.0
➽ I don't follow the royal family at all, but I was intrigued by Prince Harry's memoir! It was interesting to learn more about his childhood, the grief over losing his mother and the role the media has played his entire life. These parts appealed the most to me, as the vicious nature of the paparazzi and the twisting of the truth by the media sound horrifying. I can't imagine being treated like an object for media attention instead of a person. Harry talks a lot about the practices of the magazines that have also turned against him and his wife, viciously ripping them apart for not fitting into the mould.
➽ In the end, the memoir wasn't anything too impactful. The writing was basic and though I appreciated that Harry narrated his own memoir, his narration style was pretty flat. I also wasn't a big fan of the big focus on Harry's military service. In general, I'm not interested in military propaganda, so seeing Harry talk about his pride about killing others didn't feel right - especially with the Islamophobic undertones!
Graphic: Grief, Racism, War, Death, Sexism, Stalking, and Violence
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Gore, Islamophobia, and Torture
tallhousecookies's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Torture, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Drug use, Racism, Death of parent, Racial slurs, Grief, Mental illness, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, and War
kathrynok's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Death of parent, Alcohol, Car accident, Racism, Bullying, Drug use, Grief, and Racial slurs
Moderate: Self harm, War, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
Minor: Gun violence, Animal death, Miscarriage, Suicide, Colonisation, and Violence
cptkirked's review
2.5
Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Pregnancy, Torture, and Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use, Car accident, Classism, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Islamophobia, and Animal death
cheuksin's review
3.75
The tunnel is called Pont de l'Alma, I told him.
Yes, yes. He knew it.
I want to go through it.
You want to go through the tunnel?
At sixty-five miles per hour - to be precise.
Sixty-five?
Yes.
The exact speed Mummy's car had supposedly been driving
Wow. The ghostwriter really worked some magic. At some times it does feel like someone tried to stretch an sentence into and essay. Harry mentions his mother in pretty much every paragraph. Oversharing is a understatement.
Honestly, anyone who could hate Harry and Megan after reading this book is a heartless bastard. My neutral opinion of Will and Kate has also depreciated.
Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Racism, Sexual assault, Stalking, and War
Moderate: Xenophobia, Drug use, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture
Minor: Infertility, Trafficking, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Rape, and Suicide
gracewiley's review
3.5
Graphic: Drug abuse, Death of parent, Stalking, War, Animal death, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism
Moderate: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Racial slurs
Minor: Colonisation, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Addiction, Classism, Pregnancy, and Torture
gemin1reader's review
4.5
Sometimes he only lightly covered things I was interested in and then went into great depths about things I am much less bothered by (helicopter flying, namely), hence the loss of half a star - just because there were moments where I wasn’t swept away! But it’s a really excellently written autobiography. I wish everyone would read it rather than take the headlines at face value because there’s so much context that’s been deliberately omitted from every press story.
Definitely a must-read of 2023!
Graphic: War, Grief, Racism, Death of parent, and Gun violence
Moderate: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Torture
jessiereads98's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Death, War, Mental illness, Misogyny, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Alcohol, Antisemitism, Torture, Grief, Sexism, Animal death, Violence, Stalking, Gore, and Racism
Moderate: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Car accident, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Gun violence, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Slavery, Bullying, Cultural appropriation, and Pedophilia
hnagarne's review against another edition
5.0
If there's anything we're supposed to take from this book, I think it's this:
The press took away his mother.
The press took away his ability to fight in a war that deeply moved him.
And now the press was coming for his wife.
Enough.
Spoilers below.
Admittedly I cared less for Part 2 (his time in the war). While I found his insights fascinating, and appreciated the (brief) moments where he mentioned the more problematic aspects of the War in Afghanistan, I overall didn't care much for these tales, and in general I don't really care for war stories or military propaganda. Still, Harry's desire to go to the war, and his reasons for doing so, were interesting. For one, he'd been deeply moved by the aftermath of 9/11/01, as I think a lot of people were at the time. He wanted to help. To not feel powerless in the face of devastating loss (perhaps as he did when he lost his mother). For another, it was much harder for the press to follow him there.
If there's one thing this memoir does, it's build upon the idea that Harry has detested the press since he was young, and that dislike for them has only grown as he's aged. Although the villains in this memoir could, at times, seem like his own family, I think Harry views the British media as the root of it all. Without them, maybe his family could hear him. Without them, maybe his family could see his side.
Throughout the book, Harry details how the British press is unrelenting, exploitative, greedy. They hounded Diana to her death. They made his deployment in Afghanistan untenable and unsafe for everyone involved. But more than that, they struck deals with insiders, traded stories... and his family let it happen. This is a family, after all, that relies on the good graces of the press. And there's a pecking order.
Harry is not shy to reveal that his father and Camilla have traded "bad" stories about him to lift their own images. And Charles and Camilla are not shy to admit to it (according to Harry). There even seemed to be a camaraderie between Harry and William in terms of when Camilla traded stories about William to improve her public image.
But his relationship with William is fraught. The Heir and the Spare. What surprised me is that the brothers have perhaps never been as close as the media portrays them to be. In school, William acted like he didn't exist. After he got married, he seemed to make less time for Harry. He seemed to rarely take his side in disagreements. As Heir, with more expectations, he also seemed jealous.
In one scene, William is mad at Harry because he got permission to keep his beard for his wedding. William, as Heir, was forced to shave his beard before his wedding. He didn't think this was fair. (Tough luck, Willy.) In another, William blows up at him for "stealing" Africa; that is, he was upset that Harry wanted to do aid work in Lesotho, since William viewed Africa (the whole continent, apparently) as "his." Honestly, there's some sort of colonization conversation to be had in there, and I'm not the person to have it, but, phew. This grown man really thinks he's the only white man in his family allowed to do aid work in the whole of Africa.
Anywho, this book is fascinating. Harry and Meghan have received a lot of criticism about stepping into TV/books/Archetypes after stepping away from the British media, but I'm not bothered. They thought silence would help and it's only made things worse. So if it doesn't matter <i>what</i> they do, they may as well tell their side and hope someone will listen.
All they want is peace.
Also, I'm sure security costs a shit ton.
Graphic: Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Car accident, Mental illness, Animal death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, and War
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Colonisation, Pregnancy, and Classism
marilwyd's review against another edition
3.5
An enjoyable memoir, while the leaked excerpts were mostly correct, they flowed a lot more within the book. None of it seemed out of place.
I’m not a monarchist/royalist, i firmly believe that they shouldn’t be part in a modern society. I disagree with Harry on a number of things, such as his respect for the monarchy and military. However, I do find it interesting to hear his perspective of these things, on his experience.
I know a lot of people bang on about how he left the royal family for privacy (he didn’t, he left to protect his wife and family from harassed by paps) and now he wrote a book, which is somehow hypocritical. To me it’s obvious that Harry is airing all his dirty laundry so that the tabloids can longer hold it over his head, the stories are told on his terms not some person who calls themselves a ‘royal expert’.
Moderate: Alcohol, Torture, Car accident, Drug use, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Death of parent, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, and War