Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Spare by Prince Harry

186 reviews

at806's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Mental illness, Racism, War, Death, Kidnapping, Violence, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Animal death, Car accident, Miscarriage, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

hannahcstocks's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Violence, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Classism, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Child abuse, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Death of parent, Death, Racism, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Murder, and Miscarriage

kim_lommaert's review

dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and War

Moderate: Racism and Stalking

Minor: Alcohol, Drug use, Miscarriage, and Suicidal thoughts

dogoodwithbooks's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

CW: death/grief, car accident, recreational drug and alcohol use, divorce, warfare, 9/11 attacks (recounted), animal death, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety, depression, harassment, suicidal ideation, suicide, heart attack 

While this book deals with a lot of heavy topics, Prince Harry is brilliantly able to tell his side of the story for the first time ever. 

Over the course of 15 hours and 40 minutes, Prince Harry’s memoir felt more like a long podcast than a book, which I thought was interesting. Don’t be put off by the total duration as the chapters are very short and you can breeze through them very quickly if you want to. 

After hearing Prince Harry’s point of view, I think that the reasons behind things he did made a bit more sense. I’m not going to lie because I wasn’t a huge royal family observer prior to Spare, but I do think that this book brought more insight on who the royal family might actually be. Add that to the poignant and illustrative writing style going over Prince Harry’s life story, this is a book worth investing in and especially through an audiobook.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Grief, Mental illness, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, and Suicide

Minor: Animal death

julesvision's review against another edition

emotional funny informative sad tense slow-paced

4.25

I quite liked this book, really;  Although I did find it a bit slow in its entirety, it was a pleasant read.  Harry uses some really beautiful, lavish prose and I found it to be quite poetic at times. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Stalking, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

gwendle_vs_literature's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

In the grand scheme of all books I would only give this about a 3.5* rating; I’m not generally the biggest fan of non-fiction, but I decided decided that I want to read at least one non-fiction book every year.  I give this 4* as far as biographies go, because it doesn’t feel fair to compare it to “Piranessi” “Pride and Prejudice” or “The Canterbury Tales”.

I was aware in general how badly the press had treated Megan and Harry (I’d witnessed some of it, and also watched the Netflix documentary) but this book goes back further in time, beginning with Diana’s death and ending (in the epilogue) a few days after the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II.

I struggled through the section on his military service — it was interesting, but I have a hard time viewing the military in any kind of positive light. I also felt that Harry had blinders on when he talked about how the wealth of the monarchy (and other vastly rich families) was acquired “when the system was unjust and wealth was generated by exploiting workers and thuggery, annexation and enslaved people” . . . as though the system is now just and workers are no longer exploited; as though keeping land and wealth and possessions obtained in that way could ever be moral.  But I suppose we all (or most of us) make excuses for our families. Maybe his position on that will evolve in time — it seemed to be rooted mainly in loyalty to his Granny. 

The revelation that he has no memory of ever hugging or being hugged by his father or grandmother, and that he and William have only ever hugged a few times was so sad — not just for Harry, but for all of them. 

The text is mostly well-written and well edited, with only a few examples of Harry using the wrong word — in one case the opposite word (he said “nonplussed” when he meant “un-phased”, which is a common mistake, but which any editor worth their salt should have caught).  

I can definitely recommend reading this book if you enjoy non-fiction, or are trying to challenge yourself by reading more of it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Miscarriage, Hate crime, Drug use, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Death of parent, Mental illness, and Grief

ashbooks5's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

4.5

First let me say: I think Prince Harry is extremely brave for having this published especially with the way the press have eviscerated both he and Meghan in the last couple years. In this book, he lays all of his cards on the table and finally allows the world a chance to see the story from his perspective. Within these pages, Harry recounts his life from the day of his mother, Princess Diana's, death to literally only a couple months ago when he is informed that his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, has died. 

I think that Harry is a deeply emotional person who has not been allowed to show or share that emotion in both public and privately among his family and I think that can do a number on a person. When he receives the news that his mother has died, no one hugs him or really comforts him. He is expected to show that infamous British stiff upper lip. I was shocked to find that for most of his life, Prince Harry thought that his mother faked her death and intended to resurface in the future. Every day he thought that he would receive a call from his mother who would tell him where to meet her. Reading about this was heartbreaking. 

The first section of the book recounts how Harry acted out a lot in his teens and twenties after his mother's death. Some of these stories are hilarious such as his encounter with shrooms at Courteney Cox's house and how he had one of his school friends shave his head (I cackled) but some were also definitely disappointing like his decision to dress up as a Nazi officer to attend a costume party. I actually remember seeing those pictures and being highly disappointed in him as he was my "favorite" prince of the two. 

The military section of the book was kind of boring but I appreciated it because Harry was allowed to be himself completely in the British army. Also, his position was revealed numerous times in the press when he was serving in the military in Afghanistan, and I am surprised whoever did this wasn't arrested because he ended up being targeted. 

The last section was all about his love story with Meghan Markle and I loved it. (I may have thrived on the fact that I got married within a few months of this royal couple.) I am appalled at the treatment of Meghan Markle by both the British and American press. I think we can all know why she's been getting such a different treatment but there are those who pretend to not see the rampant racism. It is for this reason that Harry asked to take a step back from royal service which ended up leading to them basically being booted from the royal family (with no security, might I add). 

Other things I took away from the book:

• Harry's frostbitten...um...nether-regions after his exploit to the North Pole (I wish I could say I didn't laugh buuuuuut)
• The anger of his family when Harry speaks against the press
• How much Prince William (and Kate Middleton) needs to get over himself
  • No like seriously...
• Harry's love of Botswana and his work with conservation and also his work with veterans
• How much of a boss Meghan Markle is 
• My happiness when Harry started therapy

All in all, I enjoyed Spare. I wish all of the best for Harry and Meghan.  Honestly, I'm happy for them both because they're living away from the limelight and as privately as they can. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gaslighting, Car accident, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Drug use, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and War

hannahpings's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

ended up liking spare a lot more than i thought i would. a moving, engaging reflection on self-actualization, liberation, and love. this is a man!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Car accident, Death of parent, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Racism

kbairbooks's review

challenging emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

I did not grow up knowing anything about the Royals, and for many years of my teenage and young adult life did not understand the appeal of learning and speaking about these people. I remember times in my life seeing headlines and wondering, how could they possibly be true and how could they possibly talk about other human beings like that no matter what their status is. Over the past couple of years, more or less since Megan‘s entrance into the Royal family, I became more interested and learned more about the royal family and their dynamic and so forth. The amount of empathy and sorrow I feel for Harry and Meghan, and also the pride and joy of their strength of character, their strength of heart, and their love for each other is just beautiful to witness. And overall I appreciate the vulnerability and honesty of writing a book such as this which is so open and vulnerable. It takes a courageous person to be vulnerable and speak their truth regardless of others’ perceptions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Misogyny, War, Abandonment, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Pregnancy, Racism, Car accident, and Racial slurs

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

ash_bees's review

informative slow-paced

3.0

Living life under a microscope has it's consequences.  A young prince loses his mother at a tender age and is haunted--literally and figuratively--by the cause of her death.

Other reviewers commented that this reads as if written by multiple authors, I'd suggest at least three.  The writing could have benefitted from a really heavy editor, and would have been more effective if it was cut down to half or a third.  But that seems to be par for the course for books I've read from people with celebrity status.

The takeaways from this are two-fold:  (1) the importance of speaking up to right wrongs, especially when you're an ally and not the target; and (2) knowing that speaking up may not change the offender's future actions but can gain you more allies or let other similarly situated people know they're not alone.

Lots of trigger warnings for this book.  I wouldn't necessarily say it's spilling the tea, but it does cover lots of death, feelings of abandonment and betrayal, and stalking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Car accident, Classism, Racial slurs, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Miscarriage