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A review by awesomebrandi
Open Book by Jessica Simpson
2.0
I was never a Jessica Simpson 'fan', but I do realize how badly the young women in the spotlight of the late 90s/early 00s were treated, and I am trying to hear more of their side of the story. I do appreciate the things Jessica shared here, that were from the heart, but this just wasn't for me.
It started off strong, Jessica talking about one of her hardest moments dealing with alcoholism, and feeling like she was never enough. I can relate to those things. But, while she talked a lot about being open and genuine, I don't personally feel like a lot of the book felt that way. For one, 75% of this book, or more, is about her various relationships with men she dated. And, about sex. About her whole virginity thing, which is fine, but then she swung to the other side, and was constantly just talking about how great sex with her husband was. It got tiresome for me. Part of it just made me feel this was some kind of revenge thing, where she talked about how terrible every man before her husband was.
She also drops brand names continuously, my Fendi this, my whatever expensive brand this. She came from a fairly humble background, and she would talk about wanting to be relatable, but then two sentences later, talk about designer goods with no real purpose to the content of what was going on. Then, she would talk about the legitimate issues around the fat shaming she received, while later talking positively about needing to go on Weight Watchers as soon as her kid was born. A lot of mixed messages there.
I truly do wish the best for her, and I am sorry for the hard things she went through. It sounds like she has a lot more therapy to do to unpack some of the stuff programmed into her, but this just really didn't endear me to her like some other autobiographies have for their authors. It really wasn't an engaging, or terribly well written, book, for my tastes.
It started off strong, Jessica talking about one of her hardest moments dealing with alcoholism, and feeling like she was never enough. I can relate to those things. But, while she talked a lot about being open and genuine, I don't personally feel like a lot of the book felt that way. For one, 75% of this book, or more, is about her various relationships with men she dated. And, about sex. About her whole virginity thing, which is fine, but then she swung to the other side, and was constantly just talking about how great sex with her husband was. It got tiresome for me. Part of it just made me feel this was some kind of revenge thing, where she talked about how terrible every man before her husband was.
She also drops brand names continuously, my Fendi this, my whatever expensive brand this. She came from a fairly humble background, and she would talk about wanting to be relatable, but then two sentences later, talk about designer goods with no real purpose to the content of what was going on. Then, she would talk about the legitimate issues around the fat shaming she received, while later talking positively about needing to go on Weight Watchers as soon as her kid was born. A lot of mixed messages there.
I truly do wish the best for her, and I am sorry for the hard things she went through. It sounds like she has a lot more therapy to do to unpack some of the stuff programmed into her, but this just really didn't endear me to her like some other autobiographies have for their authors. It really wasn't an engaging, or terribly well written, book, for my tastes.