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ellie_rowo's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Violence, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
alyssamakesart's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Addiction
Moderate: Death, Sexism, Body shaming, and Pedophilia
Minor: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts
issyd23's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
linda_elaine's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Gaslighting, Sexism, and Sexual assault
greyt_things's review against another edition
2.0
But holy problematic wowsers. This book is just one long red flag and made for a deeply uncomfortable reading experience.
What Priscilla recounts as a great love story is straight up toxic grooming, manipulation and control, emotional and sometimes physical abuse, with a massive power and age imbalance thrown in for good measure.
I mean, you know from the get-go this is going to be a hot mess at best when their relationship begins when she was a 14 year old school girl, and he a 24 year old global music and movie superstar, #smdh
I started highlighting each dodgy/repugnant/straight up WTactualF moment but gave up when it was basically every damn anecdote.
The book was published in 1986 and I wonder if, with the benefit of our more enlightened times (thank God for the #metoo discourse), if she still sees it this way?
As I read Priscilla's words, I keep thinking about this quote from My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell:
"I can’t lose the thing I’ve held onto for so long, you know?” My face twists up from the pain of pushing it out. “I just really need it to be a love story, you know? I really, really need it to be that.”
“I know,” she says.
“Because if it isn’t a love story, then what is it”? I look to her glassy eyes, her face of wide open empathy. “It’s my life,” I say. “This has been my whole life."
Priscilla ends her memoir on their relationship with this in her epilogue:
"So much has been said and written about Elvis from those who knew him well to those who did not and said they did. I hoped to give a better perception of what he was as a man. Other books have painted a picture rather less than flattering, harboring on weaknesses, eccentricities, violent temper tantrums, perversions, and drug abuse. I wanted to write about love and precious, wonderful moments and ones filled with grief and disappointments, about a man’s triumphs and defeats, much of it with a child-woman at his side, feeling and experiencing his pain and joys as if they were one."
Again, with the benefit of time passed, I'm not sure she achieved what she set out to, though that reference she was a child-woman is at least a start to acknowledge the toxic truth of the situation.
I'm off to take a long shower to clean the ick from this book off me.
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Body shaming
05_haggler_prouder's review against another edition
4.25
I feel like she's sincere about the praise, but she's also terrified of the retribution she might face from the fans.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Body shaming, Grief, Rape, Addiction, and Infidelity
roxfoxreads89's review against another edition
3.5
However, I’m continually shocked at how many famous men are child predators.
Graphic: Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Body shaming, Misogyny, and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
skelleybean's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, and Alcohol
Minor: Grief, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Physical abuse, and Body shaming
emmablue's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Gaslighting, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, and Rape
Moderate: Death of parent, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Body shaming
honeybeewitched87's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Infidelity, Addiction, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Grief, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content
Minor: Child death and Body shaming