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jayleetheninja's review against another edition
5.0
This book.
If her first book had me emotional and gave me a different level of respect for her, this one just took it to the extreme.
There’s an entire chapter (essay) dedicated to Isis, her character in Bring It On, and how she’d play her differently today. It took me until halfway through the chapter to realize how unfairly POC were portrayed in that movie, but also how they were received by audiences, how they were received by my 11/12 year old self and how it quietly shaped and affected my view on race. I may never have seen her character as the villain, but I also never 100% sided with her either. Since the BLM movement, there’s been a lot of books, shows, podcasts, etc. talking about how these biases are established and they all seem so…heavy. She did it differently. Beautifully. With the same respect and importance it deserves, but also in a way that will make you think and remember as an emotional touchpoint. I can’t thank her enough for that.
If her first book had me emotional and gave me a different level of respect for her, this one just took it to the extreme.
There’s an entire chapter (essay) dedicated to Isis, her character in Bring It On, and how she’d play her differently today. It took me until halfway through the chapter to realize how unfairly POC were portrayed in that movie, but also how they were received by audiences, how they were received by my 11/12 year old self and how it quietly shaped and affected my view on race. I may never have seen her character as the villain, but I also never 100% sided with her either. Since the BLM movement, there’s been a lot of books, shows, podcasts, etc. talking about how these biases are established and they all seem so…heavy. She did it differently. Beautifully. With the same respect and importance it deserves, but also in a way that will make you think and remember as an emotional touchpoint. I can’t thank her enough for that.
prettypious's review against another edition
5.0
She’s such a good story teller and I enjoyed the stories she chose to tell even though as a public figure you can peep the ones that she didn’t
kimmaloo's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 stars. Some of her stories are extremely powerful and thought provoking. Worth the listen.
mariahistryingtoread's review against another edition
4.0
TW: suicide, suicidal ideation (she does have a trigger warning at the beginning of the chapter she talks about it), rape, infertility issues, miscarriage, allusions to homophobia and transphobia regarding her daughter Zaya
Gabrielle Union is a controversial figure for a variety of reasons ranging from the reasonable to the overblown to the patently ridiculous. As a celebrity, her entire personality is fabricated, to a point, to achieve maximum likeability in the public eye. While parts of who she really is surely contribute to the persona that has been crafted for her, I will never know to what extent.
All of that is to say that while I like Gabrielle Union, if it came out tomorrow that she pays her nanny $5 an hour to take care of her toddler daughter 24/7 while Gabrielle sips mai tais in the Caribbean for months at a time with no contact, then I would be utterly nonplussed.
Each chapter is a story of Gabrielle Union’s past that relates in some broader way to her life overall. The past can be as recent as within a few weeks of the time that she was writing the book or as far back as when she discusses her rape which took place in 1992. There is a lot of discussion of how her ideas of Blackness have changed over time and shaped her evolution as a person. As someone who very much ascribes to the idea that you never stop learning (provided you don't actively bury your head in the sand, of course) I appreciated her willingness to open up about her journey in spite of how it may be perceived.
One conflict I did have was her chapter about Isis - the character she plays in Bring It On. I'm not about to describe the plot of a movie that is 20 something years old, so Google it if you want details, but an underlying theme is cultural appropriation.
The chapter is an overwrought apology to the character for not embodying modern ideals about how Black people or characters should act in unfair circumstances. The thing is that an apology denotes something wrong has occurred. The way Isis reacts as a character is not the wrong way to react to the appropriation of their cheers by the white cheerleaders, it's just different.
Every Black person gets to choose for themself how they want to react to oppression or injustice. Isis’ decision to stay reserved and refuse to rise to the bait is goals for many a Black woman. Personally, I find her behavior commendable. Other Black women may feel it is not far enough or that Isis was defined by outdated respectability politics. That's okay, too.
The point, though, is that at the end of the day, this disagreement does not inherently discredit Isis’ choices in her specific circumstances. For something else, we could potentially argue that a person handled a situation incorrectly; there are times when there really is only one good course of action. But, in a mostly white movie where this was tacked on as barely a subplot, it's unreasonable to expect a nuanced perspective.
All of this is a long way of saying that while I understand where Gabrielle Union is coming from, she is projecting a lot of negativity onto a character that is a strong Black character even if Union no longer agrees that Isis’ path forward was the right one. Just because in Union's personal journey, she has changed how she perceives Black resistance does not automatically mean that Isis is a regressive or reductive character for the Black community. Isis is a product of Union in a lot of ways and it's understandable that she has a lot of protective feelings over the character, however, Isis is still a character that Union is putting on and should not reflect what Union believes moreso than what makes sense in the context of the movie or the time period it exists.
I know that all celebrity memoirs involve ghostwriters. Union has a particularly good one and/or must be heavily involved in the process because the book reads like she talks - and that's not just because she narrated the audiobook version herself. I find her charming, in general, so I was poised to enjoy the stories regardless of content.
The way that she and Dwyane Wade have been endlessly supportive of their daughter Zaya, literally from Day 1, is heartwarming. I wish all parents were able to love their children more than their ignorance. They didn't always know what it all meant or the right terminology or what to do, but they were willing to try and learn as they went. I admire them both a lot for stepping up in such a way. Not enough parents do.
If you read the first book, then you already know what to expect. I was not disappointed.
Gabrielle Union is a controversial figure for a variety of reasons ranging from the reasonable to the overblown to the patently ridiculous. As a celebrity, her entire personality is fabricated, to a point, to achieve maximum likeability in the public eye. While parts of who she really is surely contribute to the persona that has been crafted for her, I will never know to what extent.
All of that is to say that while I like Gabrielle Union, if it came out tomorrow that she pays her nanny $5 an hour to take care of her toddler daughter 24/7 while Gabrielle sips mai tais in the Caribbean for months at a time with no contact, then I would be utterly nonplussed.
Each chapter is a story of Gabrielle Union’s past that relates in some broader way to her life overall. The past can be as recent as within a few weeks of the time that she was writing the book or as far back as when she discusses her rape which took place in 1992. There is a lot of discussion of how her ideas of Blackness have changed over time and shaped her evolution as a person. As someone who very much ascribes to the idea that you never stop learning (provided you don't actively bury your head in the sand, of course) I appreciated her willingness to open up about her journey in spite of how it may be perceived.
One conflict I did have was her chapter about Isis - the character she plays in Bring It On. I'm not about to describe the plot of a movie that is 20 something years old, so Google it if you want details, but an underlying theme is cultural appropriation.
The chapter is an overwrought apology to the character for not embodying modern ideals about how Black people or characters should act in unfair circumstances. The thing is that an apology denotes something wrong has occurred. The way Isis reacts as a character is not the wrong way to react to the appropriation of their cheers by the white cheerleaders, it's just different.
Every Black person gets to choose for themself how they want to react to oppression or injustice. Isis’ decision to stay reserved and refuse to rise to the bait is goals for many a Black woman. Personally, I find her behavior commendable. Other Black women may feel it is not far enough or that Isis was defined by outdated respectability politics. That's okay, too.
The point, though, is that at the end of the day, this disagreement does not inherently discredit Isis’ choices in her specific circumstances. For something else, we could potentially argue that a person handled a situation incorrectly; there are times when there really is only one good course of action. But, in a mostly white movie where this was tacked on as barely a subplot, it's unreasonable to expect a nuanced perspective.
All of this is a long way of saying that while I understand where Gabrielle Union is coming from, she is projecting a lot of negativity onto a character that is a strong Black character even if Union no longer agrees that Isis’ path forward was the right one. Just because in Union's personal journey, she has changed how she perceives Black resistance does not automatically mean that Isis is a regressive or reductive character for the Black community. Isis is a product of Union in a lot of ways and it's understandable that she has a lot of protective feelings over the character, however, Isis is still a character that Union is putting on and should not reflect what Union believes moreso than what makes sense in the context of the movie or the time period it exists.
I know that all celebrity memoirs involve ghostwriters. Union has a particularly good one and/or must be heavily involved in the process because the book reads like she talks - and that's not just because she narrated the audiobook version herself. I find her charming, in general, so I was poised to enjoy the stories regardless of content.
The way that she and Dwyane Wade have been endlessly supportive of their daughter Zaya, literally from Day 1, is heartwarming. I wish all parents were able to love their children more than their ignorance. They didn't always know what it all meant or the right terminology or what to do, but they were willing to try and learn as they went. I admire them both a lot for stepping up in such a way. Not enough parents do.
If you read the first book, then you already know what to expect. I was not disappointed.
alicebme's review against another edition
4.0
Really enjoyed this follow up memoir. She’s a little older, I’m a little older, and she had some helpful things to say about things we have in common (and things we don’t). Her honesty and vulnerability is fanfuckingtastic. She’s true blue.
mannlissa's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
3.5
rae_bookmarkchronicles's review against another edition
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
5.0
Loved hearing more from her about her experiences in the industry and about her daughters
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Rape