My wife loved this book, and sometimes I read books just so we can read the same books and have something to talk about. Honestly, I wasn't as impressed with this as she was. After such a widely-publicized conservatorship battle, it was definitely interesting to see Britney's perspective on things, and to hear her speak out for the first time on a lot of issues. Her family (and especially her dad) are awful, although that wasn't really a revelation in the book since everybody kind of knew that already. The book felt really honest; it definitely read like something she wrote rather than some highly-polished piece of generic nonfiction written by a ghost writer, but that was also kind of the problem too.

While it read as authentic, it also kind of read as a little whiny. Not that Britney Spears shouldn't be sympathized with for the awful things she's experienced in her life, but words like "trauma" were thrown around very liberally (even about mundane things like her not being allowed to go out and party with her friends), and it became really difficult to objectively figure out where to feel real sympathy because everything was the worst thing that could ever happen and nobody understands how bad it was. I hate to minimize her experience (and certainly don't want to minimize the experiences of women in general), but when you put "it's tragic that my ex-boyfriend gets to sleep around and is celebrated for it, but I'm treated like a slut when I do it" right up there alongside "my father had me committed to a psychiatric facility and forced me to perform a Vegas residency to make himself some money," it becomes difficult to figure out whether the book is trying to do anything other than get people to see her as a victim her whole life. Which seems like the opposite of what a book called "The Woman in Me" that ends on a note of female empowerment should be about?

This was a mildly interesting read for anyone interested in the Britney Spears story, or in celebrity memoirs in general. Britney definitely has a bizarre story to recount. But it didn't really do anything for me other than satisfy a mild interest in a celebrity news story that's several news cycles old at this point.

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Created Feb 28, 2024 at 1:57pm • Submit your own review...