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danimcthomas's review against another edition
4.0
Moderate: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Suicide, Suicide attempt, War, Drug use, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Racism, Alcohol, Bullying, Car accident, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse
siankrb's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Violence, and War
Moderate: Antisemitism, Gore, Abortion, Animal death, Cultural appropriation, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Car accident, Gaslighting, and Medical content
Minor: Racism, Addiction, Confinement, Alcohol, Classism, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Infidelity, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Racial slurs
dmswack3's review
4.5
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.
Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Suicide, Car accident, Infertility, Child death, Islamophobia, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Death, Miscarriage, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Alcohol, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Hate crime, Addiction, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment
choufrise's review
3.75
Graphic: Classism, Death of parent, Grief, and Drug abuse
Minor: Car accident, Suicide attempt, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Colonisation, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts
deidrelj's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Stalking, Death of parent, and Grief
Moderate: Drug abuse and Drug use
Minor: Miscarriage and Suicide attempt
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
lisasilv's review
4.0
Graphic: Grief and Death of parent
Moderate: Bullying, Car accident, Gaslighting, Mental illness, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Cultural appropriation, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, War, Suicide attempt, and Colonisation
ellaticonstellation's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, and Abandonment
queerloras's review
3.0
Moderate: Pregnancy, Racism, Sexism, Death of parent, War, Colonisation, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Classism, Car accident, Blood, Bullying, Grief, Drug use, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Misogyny
Minor: Suicide and Suicide attempt
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