I listened to this on audiobook. I sort of had reservations about reading (or “reading”) this, but it was available on Libby, so what the heck. (NYT rundown of takeaways from the book.) I do concur that Michelle Williams does an excellent job of reading “Britney.” Britney herself reads aloud the beginning of the book, but you soon forget that someone else is reading it because Michelle feels very Britney. (And the “fo shiz, fo shiz” moment is definitely standout.) As to whoever ghostwrote this book–excellent job. I admit part of why I had reservations about reading it was I’ve seen Britney’s Instagram writing style, but this book gets downright poetic in a lot of points, and her voice is very clear and very forthright.
You really feel for Britney. She has a shitty family–indeed, the book starts out with ugly family history–and how these people abused and tortured her is near constant. She went from enjoying stardom early on and being madly in love with Justin to getting weirder and uglier treatment in the media. Justin cheats a ton of times and nobody cares, Britney makes out with one dude and here come the nasty songs. And yet Justin wrote her a long letter and gave it to her, framed, after the breakup saying he can’t breathe without her. THEN WHY DID YOU BREAK UP WITH HER, THEN?!? I yelled in my car. She still has the letter under her bed, she says.
Her awful father, and the rest of the family happily going along with everything he dishes out, is fucking disgusting. I really, really, really hope karma gets these people someday. Insisting that Britney’s an addict and sending her to rehab (or frankly, rehab jail) multiple times when she gets caught with energy supplements? Tracking her every move down to when she’s allowed to pee? Being punished for weeks or months for taking off a mask outside or wanting to change a dance move? Putting her through HOURS of cognitive testing and then telling her she utterly failed? (By comparison, I asked for an appointment with a neurologist to check and see if I was losing my mind during Mental Breakdown Induced By Work Time and that was about oh, two minutes and he said I was fine.) HOURS?!?! To “fail?” I hope to god these “medical professionals” get sued for malpractice.
She’s surprised she didn’t try to kill herself, I’m surprised she didn’t either. She repeatedly wonders why her family considers her “dangerous” when she isn’t. Other than making sure the gravy train doesn’t end, I suppose. I suspect if these people could have gotten away with physically abusing her (beyond starvation for years), chaining her to a bed, lobotomization, they would have tried it. Really, they just want a BuffyBritneyBot to perform her songs like a robot with no changes every night. Kill her soul, turn her into a mindless automaton.It triggered some shit for me for her to say that they told her all the time she was bad and she believed them, because she was surrounded, trapped and abused. Please, karma, come get these people.
And finally, she calls 911 to report her dad of conservatorship abuse, and it ends, on a happy note (albeit now that's a little awkward hearing the "happy with my husband bits" now, sigh).
Go Britney.
Four stars. I'm glad you survived, girl.
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