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ellie_rowo's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment
Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, and Violence
Minor: Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, and Alcohol
alyssamakesart's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Addiction and Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Pedophilia, and Sexism
Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent
issyd23's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria
linda_elaine's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
greyt_things's review against another edition
2.0
But holy problematic wowsers. This book is just one long red flag and made for a deeply uncomfortable reading experience.
What Priscilla recounts as a great love story is straight up toxic grooming, manipulation and control, emotional and sometimes physical abuse, with a massive power and age imbalance thrown in for good measure.
I mean, you know from the get-go this is going to be a hot mess at best when their relationship begins when she was a 14 year old school girl, and he a 24 year old global music and movie superstar, #smdh
I started highlighting each dodgy/repugnant/straight up WTactualF moment but gave up when it was basically every damn anecdote.
The book was published in 1986 and I wonder if, with the benefit of our more enlightened times (thank God for the #metoo discourse), if she still sees it this way?
As I read Priscilla's words, I keep thinking about this quote from My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell:
"I can’t lose the thing I’ve held onto for so long, you know?” My face twists up from the pain of pushing it out. “I just really need it to be a love story, you know? I really, really need it to be that.”
“I know,” she says.
“Because if it isn’t a love story, then what is it”? I look to her glassy eyes, her face of wide open empathy. “It’s my life,” I say. “This has been my whole life."
Priscilla ends her memoir on their relationship with this in her epilogue:
"So much has been said and written about Elvis from those who knew him well to those who did not and said they did. I hoped to give a better perception of what he was as a man. Other books have painted a picture rather less than flattering, harboring on weaknesses, eccentricities, violent temper tantrums, perversions, and drug abuse. I wanted to write about love and precious, wonderful moments and ones filled with grief and disappointments, about a man’s triumphs and defeats, much of it with a child-woman at his side, feeling and experiencing his pain and joys as if they were one."
Again, with the benefit of time passed, I'm not sure she achieved what she set out to, though that reference she was a child-woman is at least a start to acknowledge the toxic truth of the situation.
I'm off to take a long shower to clean the ick from this book off me.
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Body shaming
05_haggler_prouder's review against another edition
4.25
I feel like she's sincere about the praise, but she's also terrified of the retribution she might face from the fans.
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Misogyny, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Infidelity, Rape, and Grief
roxfoxreads89's review against another edition
3.5
However, I’m continually shocked at how many famous men are child predators.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Misogyny, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
skelleybean's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Grief, and Pregnancy
emmablue's review against another edition
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Rape, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Body shaming, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
honeybeewitched87's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Minor: Body shaming and Child death