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themeanfrench's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Stalking, Alcohol, Mental illness, Child death, Drug use, Grief, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Addiction, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Sexism, Eating disorder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Gaslighting, Rape, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Death, and Dementia
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Cancer
katherine_sharp's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
4.0
lisbethssalamander's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
4.75
I loved this book. While my preferred genre of music is rock, I do listen to pop sometimes, and I like Lily Allen's music. I got into her music several years ago, long after the controversy around her had died down, so I didn't know at the time about the whole "Lily Allen is awful" thing. After learning more about her and now having read this book, I definitely do not think she is awful, and I'm glad I read her book.
She starts the book by talking about her upbringing, and you can see where her problems in life began. With an absent father, Keith Allen, and a mother who seemed distant, she seemed to feel out of place, and that feeling seemed to follow her throughout her life. She claims that having a famous father did not help her become famous, and she is quite insistent that people believe this. I don't know. I am not British and I had never heard of Keith Allen, but I have to believe that being the daughter of a famous person will open doors for you even if you want to claim they did not. She does have real talent, unlike some other products of nepotism, so at least she has that going for her.
She then goes on to describe her career, and she spend a long time discussing the pitfalls of fame. Honestly, I would not want to be famous for anything. She was stalked, harassed by the media, she gets hate and abuse poured on her constantly on social media, and all for what? For having a few viewpoints about femininism and not liking the Iraq War years ago? It's so far out of proportion. And the constant obsession over her weight. I looked up her pictures online and struggled to find even a single picture where she looked even slightly overweight. The only time she looked bigger was while she was pregnant. This constant scrutiny over female bodies needs to stop. I couldn't help but feel horrible for her while reading about all of the abuse she's had to endure over the years. Yes, she has done and said some things, but I couldn't find evidence that she deserved anything of the magnitude of what she's received.
I felt the most compassion for her when she talked about going through her stillbirth with her baby George. This is one of the most painful experiences a family can experience and I have some personal experience of my own with this tragedy. I found myself tearing up while reading about what she went through. While I'm not sure she was in the right frame of mind to be having children at that time, nobody derives to go through that.
I read this book immediately after reading Billy Idol's autobiography, which was interesting, because he did things that were so, so much worse than anything she ever did, yet never received even a fraction of the criticism she's received over the years. He cheated, behaved promiscuously, did crack and heroin for years, and had an alter ego he called "Zuul" which came out when he got mad where he would act like a madmen and have these immense blowups at the people around him until they would blow over and Zuul would go back into hiding for a time. Yes, his career took place before the internet existed, but even so, I have to believe that the treatment of her existed because she was doing things that normally only rock star men were doing and getting away with. No one called out men for cheating or doing loads of drugs, and in fact, those things are so rampant in the business that no one really bat's an eye when the male members of bands do them because they are pretty much expected. But it's different when a woman does those same things.
Granted, the fact that she has children is the only thing that made me judge her while reading this. I didn't judge her for any of the other acts, because she did them, she owned up to them, and that was refreshing. I don't want to read another fake autobiography like Richard Blade's where the subject claims to be a perfect angel. But bringing children into a situation like that bothers me because no matter what the parent thinks, this kind of behavior does mess up the children, and they will likely need a lot of counseling when they get older.
Since she wrote this while she was still fairly young, I hope she writes another autobiography to catch us up on what happens down the line. She's since married David Harbour and seems happy with him. She claims to be working on a new album and has 50 songs ready at the moment, so hopefully a new record will be coming out soon. I do recommend the book, even for those who aren't fans of hers. I thought it was very good and it even inspired me to revisit some of her music.
She starts the book by talking about her upbringing, and you can see where her problems in life began. With an absent father, Keith Allen, and a mother who seemed distant, she seemed to feel out of place, and that feeling seemed to follow her throughout her life. She claims that having a famous father did not help her become famous, and she is quite insistent that people believe this. I don't know. I am not British and I had never heard of Keith Allen, but I have to believe that being the daughter of a famous person will open doors for you even if you want to claim they did not. She does have real talent, unlike some other products of nepotism, so at least she has that going for her.
She then goes on to describe her career, and she spend a long time discussing the pitfalls of fame. Honestly, I would not want to be famous for anything. She was stalked, harassed by the media, she gets hate and abuse poured on her constantly on social media, and all for what? For having a few viewpoints about femininism and not liking the Iraq War years ago? It's so far out of proportion. And the constant obsession over her weight. I looked up her pictures online and struggled to find even a single picture where she looked even slightly overweight. The only time she looked bigger was while she was pregnant. This constant scrutiny over female bodies needs to stop. I couldn't help but feel horrible for her while reading about all of the abuse she's had to endure over the years. Yes, she has done and said some things, but I couldn't find evidence that she deserved anything of the magnitude of what she's received.
I felt the most compassion for her when she talked about going through her stillbirth with her baby George. This is one of the most painful experiences a family can experience and I have some personal experience of my own with this tragedy. I found myself tearing up while reading about what she went through. While I'm not sure she was in the right frame of mind to be having children at that time, nobody derives to go through that.
I read this book immediately after reading Billy Idol's autobiography, which was interesting, because he did things that were so, so much worse than anything she ever did, yet never received even a fraction of the criticism she's received over the years. He cheated, behaved promiscuously, did crack and heroin for years, and had an alter ego he called "Zuul" which came out when he got mad where he would act like a madmen and have these immense blowups at the people around him until they would blow over and Zuul would go back into hiding for a time. Yes, his career took place before the internet existed, but even so, I have to believe that the treatment of her existed because she was doing things that normally only rock star men were doing and getting away with. No one called out men for cheating or doing loads of drugs, and in fact, those things are so rampant in the business that no one really bat's an eye when the male members of bands do them because they are pretty much expected. But it's different when a woman does those same things.
Granted, the fact that she has children is the only thing that made me judge her while reading this. I didn't judge her for any of the other acts, because she did them, she owned up to them, and that was refreshing. I don't want to read another fake autobiography like Richard Blade's where the subject claims to be a perfect angel. But bringing children into a situation like that bothers me because no matter what the parent thinks, this kind of behavior does mess up the children, and they will likely need a lot of counseling when they get older.
Since she wrote this while she was still fairly young, I hope she writes another autobiography to catch us up on what happens down the line. She's since married David Harbour and seems happy with him. She claims to be working on a new album and has 50 songs ready at the moment, so hopefully a new record will be coming out soon. I do recommend the book, even for those who aren't fans of hers. I thought it was very good and it even inspired me to revisit some of her music.
irenesuamar's review against another edition
5.0
I listen to the audio-book which is read by her (I loooove books read by the author). I think this book is particularly good as an audio book because you know "her voice". There were many occasions where she seems tired through her reading which in my opinion makes the journey she goes through.
Many of us have read stories about her in the tabloids, in the news, in blogs..so I love to hear/read her story first hand, and she does it in an amazing way. It is heartbreaking, well-articulate and honest.
Many of us have read stories about her in the tabloids, in the news, in blogs..so I love to hear/read her story first hand, and she does it in an amazing way. It is heartbreaking, well-articulate and honest.