The Woman in Me

Reviews

'There are anecdotes and namedrops, sure, and the writing is casual, conversational as though she’s spilling it all in a classic Britney Instagram caption, but to see it as simply a famous person’s memoir is underselling it: this is a text that dissects the notion of the “mad woman”, that unpicks the nature of celebrity and highlights some huge failings in the American legal system. The power of this book is the fact that it exists at all.' 'Britney Spears holds nothing back in her short, bittersweet and extremely powerful memoir.' 'What we are left with, not for the first time, is a cautionary tale about fame and the corrupting influence of money. And, just maybe, a glimmer of hope for a woman whose adult life has been dictated by others.' ‘Powerful in its vividness ... much has been made of the “bombshell” revelations from this memoir ... but vastly more interesting are the quiet revelations about herself ... Spears has always been funny and so unequivocally herself, even when recounting her mistreatment by most of the men in her life ... You can sense Spears gaining her power back, inch by inch. The Woman in Me is a worthy act of self-resurrection.’ ‘Emerging radiant through the chaos ... in Britney Spears’s memoir, she’s stronger than ever ... [It's] presented so cleanly and candidly that The Woman in Me seems designed to be read in one sitting. It’s nearly impossible to come out of it without empathy for and real outrage on behalf of Spears, whose admitted bitterness over the dire circumstances of the last decade-plus of her life ... is tempered by an enduring, insistent optimism.’ ‘Anyone looking for starry anecdotes or studio vignettes won’t find them here. Instead, The Woman in Me tells a focused story that makes inarguable the ties between patriarchy and exploitation, and deserves to be read as a cautionary tale and an indictment, not a grab-bag of tabloid revelations. After all Spears has lost, the sharpness of her perspective is a miracle. She repeatedly questions why – whether as a teenager in a crop top “corrupting” the youth, or a 25-year-old getting drunk at the club – she was perceived as “dangerous”. May her truth pose a legitimate threat to the system that exploited her.’ ‘Moving.’ 'The book’s title comes from the lyrics of "I'm Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman", and is a remarkable capsule of the contradictions that build a human – something that Spears, who was a product and a symbol before she was old enough to vote – was never allowed to be. For years the world and Spears were told she was unfit, unwell, and unsafe. The voice that spills out of The Woman in Me is anything but. This is a book of how much a woman can bend – and be bent – before she breaks. But it’s also a testament to how she repairs herself, and heads towards survival, to whatever version of normality is possible for her, and to freedom.' 'Poignant.' 'A cautionary tale about coercion, misogyny, control, exploitation, and the insidious grip of the patriarchy … Spears shares this story ... with astonishing clarity.' Expand reviews