Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Spare by Prince Harry

10 reviews

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0


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abi_lowe's review against another edition

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3.5


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dmswack3's review against another edition

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4.5

I usually avoid memoirs and biographies due to their voyeuristic feel, but something about 2023 has made me want to listen to a few, and Spare was undoubtedly one of them. 

I highly enjoyed the narration Prince Harry gave, and the story itself was fun to listen to. His ghost writers was phenomenal in my opinion. I'm very glad I listened to it instead of reading it, however, because I think I would have found myself bored by some of the longer chapters had it not been read to me. 

Something else for readers to be weary of besides long chapters and perhaps boring text, should you choose to read this rather than listen- this story bares all... Like ALL. You will hear a LOT about the Prince's... Todger, as he calls it. Like a LOT. Where it's been, who's seen it, how it's been injured so uh. Fair warning there. 

Beyond the todger, this book really doesn't pull punches. I saw shocked at points, angered at others, cried at some. But I also felt myself thinking: is it all true? God I hope not. It's that bad. 

Give it a listen. 

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issyd23's review against another edition

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3.0

You know his life is fucked when he’d enter a war zone to escape the paps. Vive la république! 3🎳

NB This was actually quite boring as I’ve read 3 Royal bios & knew everything already. The Palace Papers is 100x better! Kate Middleton’s chapter is tantalising. However, this did make me want to go to Botswana. 

Other thoughts:
  • I cannot believe I now know that Prince Harry is circumcised 
  • Find it hilarious that according to Haz Charles is in his ‘Camilla era’ - Taylor take note! ✍️
  • On a serious note his hatred of the media (especially Murdoch) is palpable - I wonder if he’ll pursue them in court
  • On a personal note I don’t love that Harry is convinced we (US + allies) were the ‘good guys’ in Afghanistan - and his refusal to think critically about the wider implications and complexities of the war/occupation. 

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heytherebriana's review against another edition

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informative reflective medium-paced

4.0


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miggyfool's review against another edition

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3.75


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venetiana's review against another edition

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3.75

This was interesting, even though I'm very anti-monarchy. I picked it up to hear more about the failures of its system, and of course to hear how Meghan and him got out. 

It's in three parts: roughly, those are 1. Harry's childhood, 2. his time in the army, 3. his time with Meghan.
The childhood/yourh part is of course emotional and sad, but also interesting. The army part absolutely made me cringe, the way he talks about war and killing people etc. (also slightly racist, though I guess trying not to be). The third part was shocking in terms of the violent and racist press, the aggressions within the family/firm etc., but of course also romantic and hopeful. Harry reading the book himself certainly adds to that, and makes it much more personal.

Given how the author has spent his whole life "inside", certain views didn't surprise me, though I was kind of disappointed that he hadn't yet found the time to "adjust" them to a world less enabled by privilege. But I definitely respect how he shared all his traumata (and stories), and how he's working on them. I respect that Meghan and him left, it's a big step, and I think it was important to share and explain what led there.

That being said, one small thing, I felt the book ended quite abruptly.

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mandaraffe's review against another edition

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mads_reads_books's review against another edition

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I wish Harry had taken more ownership of the impacts of his actions. Particularly when talking about the time he wore a Nazi uniform to a party. He simply says he feels great shame and that he spoke with a rabbi to learn more about the Holocaust. In this time of antisemitism and hate crimes I think it was dismissive of Harry not to speak further to denounce and condemn antisemitism within this work or even to apologize for and condemn the other young men in particular who likely felt emboldened and supported by him due to this costume to act on and publicly share their own antisemitic beliefs 

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queerloras's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

this book was a bit of a car-crash - it was like a horrible road accident I couldn't look away from.

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