Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

The Princess Diarist by Carrie Fisher

22 reviews

rachel17's review

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dark lighthearted reflective fast-paced

3.75

This felt, quite literally, like reading Carrie Fisher’s diary. There are excerpts from her personal journals, of course, but the entire book was a series of ruminations about the blurry delineation between Carrie and Leia. It’s a curious melange of lighthearted reflections and painful self-criticism. 

Although it’s clearly not her intent, Harrison Ford comes out looking rather—um—concerning. 

I’m not entirely sure how to rate this book. It was illuminating, to be sure. She dives well into the complicated, off-putting nature of parasocial relationships. But more than anything else, it feels quite sad, especially now that she has passed.

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moreta1's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.0


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awildbrady's review against another edition

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thermocline's review

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emotional funny reflective fast-paced

4.0


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clairebau's review

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funny informative medium-paced

2.5

Like many Hollywood memoirs, the pacing is... weird. I found out after reading that Fisher has no less than three published memoirs, this being the last. I imagine the details I felt were missing from this book were covered in the other two, but I don't think a trilogy of memoirs is ever necessary. It seems like she knew she could count on the reveal of her affair with Harrison Ford to sell copies; most of the book was about him and somehow nothing substantial was revealed about his character or their relationship. I was disappointed by this.

Fisher is a good writer, a witty one, and has been for a while. This shone through in the diary entries that make up the middle third of this novel, plucked from the journals she'd kept during her time acting as Leia. These were a lot of fun, and usually gorgeously written, but at times felt pretentious and too boring to deserve the pedestal they were put on.

This book doesn't say much of anything, really, but what little was said was written well enough to keep me reading.

Also, this is the ugliest book cover I've ever seen in my life.

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readingduckling's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

4.5

I liked this book very much, some parts were really sad especially if you read between the lines. 

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hannahkirkby's review

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funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.5

First off, I love Carrie Fisher’s way of telling things like it is, without apology or embarrassment. I’ve always loved that about her, and hearing her read the audiobook in her own voice was fantastic. As a Star Wars fan from a young age, I loved the insights into the making of the film, and into her life as a young actress.

However, this book doesn’t actually have much to it - unless you love hearing about her affair with Harrison Ford, which feels as though it comprises 70% of the book (and makes me see the man even less positively than before). And that isn’t a bad thing either. I just had different expectations of the book. It was an entertaining read, but I just was hoping for more.

And to be honest, the diary entries from her 19-year-old self were so hard to get through that I skipped half of them. The majority were about the older, married man who was using her while she was in a vulnerable stage of her life. Yuck.

Definitely going to try her other book Wishful Drinking, as I feel that will have more to offer. Still, I had an enjoyable time and it was a very nostalgic read.

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ofclumsywords's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

3.0

The inside story of a 19 year old high school drop out who lived in her famous mothers shadow as a backup singer for her shows, who suddenly gets a part in an low budget sci-fi movie that will soon blow up the screens. The book is almost bittersweet, showing how Carrie got her big break but was also told she needs to lose weight in order to become Princess Leia and falls in unrequited love. A lot of this book is about shedding light on Carrie and Harrison's affair, something that a lot of people speculated on but never got definitive answers until now. The parts of their affair, while good, took up more of the book than I had wanted; but Carrie did include a lot of her personal writing and poems she wrote of their affair and trying to find out who she really was during the filming of the movie. It is almost heartwrenching to hear in her own words how naive she was at 19 and having to learn the lessons of fame, hollywood, and love while she was so young. But the writing in her personal journals was by far my favorite part. She was an excellent writer, and those poems and journal entries put so much emotion into the words that you feel like you can connect with Carrie in a way that you hadn't felt before. 

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sadie_g's review against another edition

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funny informative reflective fast-paced

3.75

Loved listening to the audiobook and hearing Carrie and Billie tell Carrie’s story, I would definitely recommend listening to it. It was fun and interesting to get more informative on Carrie, Princess Leia and Star Wars.

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mconroy9137's review

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emotional funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

3.75


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