The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

 

THE WOMAN IN ME basically sailed up the best-seller charts when it came out and I'm not surprised. Her conservatorship was big news, and so was her eventual release for it. After all the drama about her family and relationships-- some baldly revealed, some hinted at-- a lot of people were curious about what the Queen of Pop's life was really like. And as it turns out... pretty fucking awful.

I don't want to spoil this memoir for anyone who hasn't read it yet (I'm suuuuuuper late to the party), but it's not a particularly happy one. Her relationship with Justin Timberlake was awful (when she had an at-home abortion at his suggestion that left her feeling like she might die, his solution was to LIE ON THE FLOOR and play his guitar instead of taking her to the hospital). Her relationship with K-Fed was awful (surprise! he comes across as a super manipulative user of a person who used her kids against her to get what he wanted). And her family and the way they allegedly abused her conservatorship to give themselves big salaries and use all of her money at their leisure, while sending her to mental institutions when she fought back? WOW.  

I'm glad she seems to be having a happier life now, but man, this was a brutal read. It was nice to hear that Paris Hilton was actually a genuinely good friend to her, and that she found a man who cared about her beyond what she could bring to the table fiscally. But overall, the message in this book seems to be that fame can be a gilded prison where no one can hear you screaming behind the bars.

4 out of 5 stars