Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Spare

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Spare by Prince Harry

26 reviews

issyd23's review against another edition

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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xandra_lyn's review against another edition

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emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

I really enjoyed this memoir. I felt Harry did a good job of telling about his life and showing his love for his family throughout. It got heated at the end, but he had a lot of things to defend.

Overall, it highlights the damages of generational trauma - the trauma of death, of repressing your feelings, of being hounded by the press. I'm grateful Harry was willing to share this when most of the world seems to ridicule.

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vaguely_pink's review against another edition

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emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

2.5

I'm fascinated by the royals in the same way I'm fascinated by cults. As an American, it's just a wild and supremely fucked up institution. So I was interested to hear what Harry had to say in this memoir. Unfortunately, I fear he has said too much.

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.

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kaiciemesser's review against another edition

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challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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kshertz's review

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adventurous informative sad medium-paced

4.75

Listen, I judged this book so hard but… I loved it. His love for his mom, he doesn’t shy away from tough topics. He’s actually been through a lot. I felt like I will never fully understand his life, but
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

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rainbowyeticorn's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

I could really identify with the sibling aspects of this book. It really reminded me of the fraught interactions I've had with my own siblings, of my own feelings of wanting that bonded closeness but being rejected over and over again for whatever unknown reasons. I also really appreciated Prince Harry's honesty about his struggles with mental health, his inherent racism and the steps he took to address it, and examining the dehumanization of war. If I had one critique it was the Prince's streetstre aversion to using pharmaceuticals while also experimenting with street drugs. This narrative in no way helps fight the ableist stigma against taking prescribed medications for mental health support. Medications are researched and tested and they can improve and save lives. I just would have appreciated if Prince Harry had acknowledged that somewhere in his narrative, even if that is or isn't what eventually helped him.

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