A review by teatales
Top End Girl by Miranda Tapsell

fast-paced

2.0

Part of my rating is because I really need to stop reading memoirs/autobiographies because on the whole I find them booooring. But most of it was because this book kind of sucked. The first half was structurally all over the place - we got glimpses into Miranda's early life, but with not enough description/context of the time and place for it to be properly grounded. Chapters were messy and would start with her life and then would pivot into rants about the Aus media landscape. Conversation that is very much needed, yes, but would be much better suited for an essay, rather than being book-ended by random life events. Also, the division of the book was so strange to me. Half was dedicated to the majority of her life and career, then the second half was basically the entirety of making Top End Wedding (approx. 5 years). It was so uneven and it made the first half appear ridiculously rushed in comparison. Also, the interjections from her husband were cute the first few times but became quite grating after a while. It wasn't really suited to a written context. I was interested in how the film was made but this just wasn't worth it. I was also really interested to learn about Miranda's life/career since I enjoy so much of her work, but it just felt like she focused on the wrong things. The world of acting and film etc. is the stuff average people want to hear about but it wasn't covered at all in depth. TLDR: skip the book, but definitely watch Top End Wedding. It's so great.