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A review by alexampersand
My Thoughts Exactly by Lily Allen
5.0
Overall, this is a really interesting, insightful, and sad look into Lily's life, as well as the media, music industry, and showbiz as a whole.
I think we are definitely at a point in society where we are starting to realise the downfalls of fame and celebrity, and celebrities are starting to highlight some very insidious issues. In this book, myriad issues are brought to the forefront.
I love the fact that so many different issues are countered, with no real mincing of words. There's everything here from songwriting, to the music industry, to career manipulation, to sexual abuse, to mental health, to issues with the police and legal systems. Everything is so candid, and Lily is not afraid to write things that are even to the detriment of herself, or that don't paint her in the best light.
There's a lot about drugs (and maybe I'm naive, but even knowing Lily's reputation as a party animal, I was surprised at the volume and frequency of her drug use) and what impressed me most here was the way that they were written about. I feel like so often drug abuse is written either as a shameful, guilt-ridden thing that people try to distance themselves from, or else it ends up being glorified and encouraged. But Lily's tales manage to fall somewhere in the middle here. She doesn't try to wash her hands of how she behaved, and takes full ownership of her drug misuse. She pretty much describes it as all being a fun time... until it wasn't.
This self-awareness is something that is very prevalent all throughout the book, and something that I really admired. Especially while talking about her mental health issues and her co-dependency, I was struck by how utterly self-aware she was, and she says herself that this is the thing that has always stopped her from going off into the deep end.
The first couple of chapters, about her parents, were a slightly odd introduction. Obviously in the wider context of the whole book, they provided insight into her background and the ways that some of her later issues may have manifested. But being thrown straight into analyses of her parents and the ways in which they parented her (or didn't, as the case may be) felt like slightly being thrown into the deep end.
So all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this.And I really do hope life has become more manageable for Lily now. I know at least the album she recorded since writing this (the timeline seems a bit ambiguous, but I feel like this was written either during the recording process, or just before release) dealt with a lot of these issues too. And she does seem to be in a much better place now. So that's great.
I think we are definitely at a point in society where we are starting to realise the downfalls of fame and celebrity, and celebrities are starting to highlight some very insidious issues. In this book, myriad issues are brought to the forefront.
I love the fact that so many different issues are countered, with no real mincing of words. There's everything here from songwriting, to the music industry, to career manipulation, to sexual abuse, to mental health, to issues with the police and legal systems. Everything is so candid, and Lily is not afraid to write things that are even to the detriment of herself, or that don't paint her in the best light.
There's a lot about drugs (and maybe I'm naive, but even knowing Lily's reputation as a party animal, I was surprised at the volume and frequency of her drug use) and what impressed me most here was the way that they were written about. I feel like so often drug abuse is written either as a shameful, guilt-ridden thing that people try to distance themselves from, or else it ends up being glorified and encouraged. But Lily's tales manage to fall somewhere in the middle here. She doesn't try to wash her hands of how she behaved, and takes full ownership of her drug misuse. She pretty much describes it as all being a fun time... until it wasn't.
This self-awareness is something that is very prevalent all throughout the book, and something that I really admired. Especially while talking about her mental health issues and her co-dependency, I was struck by how utterly self-aware she was, and she says herself that this is the thing that has always stopped her from going off into the deep end.
The first couple of chapters, about her parents, were a slightly odd introduction. Obviously in the wider context of the whole book, they provided insight into her background and the ways that some of her later issues may have manifested. But being thrown straight into analyses of her parents and the ways in which they parented her (or didn't, as the case may be) felt like slightly being thrown into the deep end.
So all in all, I thoroughly enjoyed this.And I really do hope life has become more manageable for Lily now. I know at least the album she recorded since writing this (the timeline seems a bit ambiguous, but I feel like this was written either during the recording process, or just before release) dealt with a lot of these issues too. And she does seem to be in a much better place now. So that's great.