ashley729 's review for:

Rebel Rising: A Memoir by Rebel Wilson

4.0

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This was a really good book to end my year on. It was inspiring to see how Rebel found her place and things eventually clicked. Some parts were pretty out of touch, she talks about being “bogan” which is Australian white trash, but she went to an all girls private school and she used to visit her grandmother’s beach house — some parts feel rather materialistic, but once you overlook that, it was a good read. Her writing style is incredibly conversational, I really felt like she was telling me a story just for me, The first half was about her childhood and it was cool to see how she grew up, how she overcame challenges in school, her gap year in South Africa, got into law school, kept trying to get into a drama school that rejected her, and then how she got her start in acting. She certainly struggles with her weight, and it’s interesting to see the back and forth with emotional eating followed by her path to healthier living and self love. There was a lot of name dropping and self promotion (she had her party on the same island as Kim Kardashian, and she planned it BEFORE Kim), but the name dropping certainly made the book juicy. There were some vulnerable moments, such as filming with Sacha Baron Cohen and how he sexually harassed her as she was starting out in her career. She also opened up about her romantic life and how she eventually found happiness in that area as well — it gave me hope for myself as I near my next year single as a Pringle, and getting sing of mingling. I feel the pressure she writes about with timelines and our bodies and feeling behind, and her acknowledgement/doing it on her own timeline is inspiring. A heart warming, humorous, little bit delulu read to say goodbye to 2024 and open my heart to the possibilities in the new year.