soulwinds's review against another edition
funny
informative
fast-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness
Moderate: Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Addiction, Alcohol, and Body shaming
Minor: Sexual content and Toxic relationship
gummifrog's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
3.5
I love Carrie Fisher and Star Wars, and I'm a few years late on this memoir. It made me appreciate Carrie more as a person and celebrity- she clearly had a complex relationship with her fame and the legacy of her role as Leia. Her daughter reading the poetry that Carrie wrote during the filming of Star Wars felt raw and real, her prose thoughtful and reminiscent of what your young 20's definitely feels like. Carrie herself is uproariously funny, and I found myself laughing out loud many times! She was also shockingly candid about her own death and image, so listening to this after her passing was bittersweet. I'll probably want to read her other memoir soon.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug use, Alcohol, Mental illness, Addiction, Misogyny, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, Death, and Death of parent
jrsmith415's review against another edition
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Toxic relationship and Body shaming
Minor: Sexual content
mommaschmidt15's review against another edition
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
5.0
A little bit of explicit language / not a book for younglings. But I loved the insight into what it was like to become Princess Leia. I love that the audio book was read by Carrie Fisher! It was a fun listen. :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Minor: Sexual content
zoiejanelle's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
reflective
sad
slow-paced
5.0
i always knew i loved carrie fisher, but this book made me love her more than i thought possible. a totally raw and real examination of her experience as princess leia and a very intimate look into her affair with harrison ford. her diary entries moved me, her poetry hit home, and every once in a while she’d make me cry with her oddly prophetic insights. i will definitely be reading more of her work.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Misogyny
Minor: Racism, Mental illness, Alcoholism, Addiction, Dysphoria, and Sexual content
ka_ke's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
Some may call it the ramblings of a woman who experienced and survived severe traumas, addictions, and toxic relationships. I would call the Princess Diarist realistic. Unlike some celebrity memoirs, Carrie Fishers feels raw and uncensored. It definitely carried on with far more detail than was perhaps necessary, but when you’re not necessarily in control of your own thoughts and actions, I suppose it can be hard to limit what is shared and what is not.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, and Misogyny
Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
roenfoe's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
4.25
If you read The Princess Diarist, please do so on audio! It is read by Carrie Fisher herself in accompaniment with her daughter Billie Lourd. It made the narrative and poetry in this work go the extra mile for me, I can't recommend it enough.
I really enjoyed The Princess Diarist, but I feel a must clarify: this is less so about the general diaries of Carrie Fisher on the set of Star Wars and more of a breakdown of her troubling relationship with Harrison Ford at the time. This book contains in-depth discussion of their emotionally abusive relationship that would absolutely be triggering for readers who have been through something similar. Hearing about what 19 year-old Carrie would stoop to, in order to please Harrison, reminded me of myself in early relationships and broke my heart. The difference is that Harrison was married and was over a decade older than her. There is so much to unpack with what their relationship consisted of that Carrie tries to discuss by brushing off that it was a long time ago. However, when we get to the section of the work that contains Carrie's poetry from the time, it is abundantly clear how much this relationship destroyed her happiness and self-confidence. This is an extremely sobering part of the book that really changed the way I see Harrison Ford for good.
The rest of the book contains funny and heartwarming anecdotes about how they chose Leia's hairstyle, her sweet gay makeup artist, and various shenanigans she has gotten up to since the films. It felt exactly like being on the phone with a fun and whacky aunt. I absolutely loved this book and feel like I understand Carrie a lot better because of it. She was a real firecracker both then and late in life. I would recommend this book for fans of Carrie, but maybe not as much fans of Star Wars. It's much more about her than it is about the films, but I personally found that to be a good thing.
I really enjoyed The Princess Diarist, but I feel a must clarify: this is less so about the general diaries of Carrie Fisher on the set of Star Wars and more of a breakdown of her troubling relationship with Harrison Ford at the time. This book contains in-depth discussion of their emotionally abusive relationship that would absolutely be triggering for readers who have been through something similar. Hearing about what 19 year-old Carrie would stoop to, in order to please Harrison, reminded me of myself in early relationships and broke my heart. The difference is that Harrison was married and was over a decade older than her. There is so much to unpack with what their relationship consisted of that Carrie tries to discuss by brushing off that it was a long time ago. However, when we get to the section of the work that contains Carrie's poetry from the time, it is abundantly clear how much this relationship destroyed her happiness and self-confidence. This is an extremely sobering part of the book that really changed the way I see Harrison Ford for good.
The rest of the book contains funny and heartwarming anecdotes about how they chose Leia's hairstyle, her sweet gay makeup artist, and various shenanigans she has gotten up to since the films. It felt exactly like being on the phone with a fun and whacky aunt. I absolutely loved this book and feel like I understand Carrie a lot better because of it. She was a real firecracker both then and late in life. I would recommend this book for fans of Carrie, but maybe not as much fans of Star Wars. It's much more about her than it is about the films, but I personally found that to be a good thing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
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