Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Elvis and Me: The True Story of the Love Between Priscilla Presley and the King of Rock N' Roll by Priscilla Presley

17 reviews

holliesarah's review against another edition

dark informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Suicide, Physical abuse, and Drug use

morgonwashere's review against another edition

Didn’t like how in the book Priscilla was still speaking highly of Elvis even though through the short chapters I read Elvis was being a bit controlling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

emilyjmasters's review against another edition

4.0

Riveting, sad, and a little confusing because Priscilla didn’t give much in the way of timelines. It seems like she knows that she was manipulated and taken advantage of, but that she loved him as well as she could given her limited experience. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Suicide attempt

smileyjayna's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use

Moderate: Drug abuse

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

itsalilbitalexis's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

 
"Blinded by love, I saw none of his faults or weaknesses. He was to become the passion of my life. He taught me everything: how to dress, how to walk, how to apply makeup and wear my hair, how to behave, how to return love-his way. Over the years he became my father, husband, and very nearly God."

I'm coming to realize that I should read more memoirs of people I don't really know anything about, because it's so special to hear a story for the first time. I feel that way about Priscilla & Elvis's story... I never knew anything about them, besides Elvis's fame and knowing they had a beautiful love story. So listening to Priscilla talk about their love story, with no prior knowledge, was exceptionally intriguing!

I loved the personality she brought to her narration - her giggles, the way she explains things bluntly and to the point, while still maintaining an air of beauty around her story. It was fantastic! Obviously, there are aspects to their story that are controversial, and a little dark - but I don't want my review to highlight those, as I think Priscilla deserves credit where so much credit is due for sharing her story.

This was a quick and enjoyable memoir, and as normal - I LOVED listening to it as narrated by the author herself. I would definitely recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Stalking

kelseyr713's review against another edition

emotional reflective fast-paced

5.0

I read this after watching the excellent Priscilla because I wanted to read the source material. I was surprised that there were many scenes in the movie that were adapted exactly, down to the conversation. This is a poignant memoir that showcases the deep and complicated love that Priscilla had for Elvis. It is difficult to read at points because she is only fourteen when their story starts while he is a grown man, so please keep that in mind before you read. 

Something that's included here but was removed from the film adaptation is the period of time when Priscilla, Elvis, and everyone in their circle gets really obsessed with horses, which I found very funny.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Drug abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, and Alcohol

Moderate: Physical abuse and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

skelleybean's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Addiction, and Alcohol

Minor: Grief, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Physical abuse, and Body shaming

honeybeewitched87's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Addiction, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Grief, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

Minor: Child death and Body shaming

randimcphee's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-paced

3.75

The writing itself isn’t anything mind blowing, but the story is absolutely fascinating. Reading a first hand experience of Elvis’ life, troubles, addictions, and attitude had me questioning a lot about what I thought I knew about him. This story is their love story, but also how he transformed from a sweet, generous, Southern boy with too much money, to a controlling, manipulative, borderline monster.

I think the lowest point of this book is that the author, his only wife, Priscilla, never seems to understand just how deeply terrible Elvis’ actions were. It was just so heartbreaking and scary, and I found throughout the book that I wasn’t rooting for the love story.

Even after their divorce, she said they were friendly, held hands, kissed, and acted like a family when they were together. It seems like she was never truly able to get out of his grip, even after everything and divorcing him. It was an interesting story, but also felt like whiplash. A good story, but disappointing to know the truth and see Priscilla be taken advantage of way too much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexism, Pedophilia, Drug use, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Infidelity, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Sexual assault

nerdinthelibrary's review against another edition

i genuinely don't think i can rate this. it's pretty well written, fast-moving and compelling. the entire story is fascinating, particularly because there's basically no point at which priscilla seems to ever realise that what's happening is bad. she was groomed and abused from age fourteen and there's never any point, even with the hindsight of her writing this in her forties, where she criticises elvis. there are a few times when she offhandedly says that something was bad but she always follows that with a justification. makes me so curious about the framing of the sofia coppola movie considering the fact that priscilla was involved and seems happy with it. not to make priscilla sound stupid because i don't think she is, but i really do wonder if the coppola movie does frame the film as being about an abused woman and priscilla didn't realise, because this book literally describes elvis throwing things at her and flying into rages and taking pictures of her naked as a teenager and convincing her to take pills and not allowing her to get a job and isolating her from any sort of support system she could have had, and she never seems to find any problem with it. anyway, fascinating book, would recommend, incredibly disturbing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Drug use, Addiction, and Physical abuse