“My father shoved aside my bowl of receipts, setting up his things on the bar. “I just want to let you know,” he said, “I call the shots. You sit right there in that chair and I’ll tell you what goes on.”
I looked at him with a growing sense of horror.
“I’m Britney Spears now,” he said.” – 5/5 stars!

Attention! This book contains: abortion, pop stars, dancing, greedy parents, shaved heads, mental institutions, divorces, paparazzi and spotlights.

The Woman in Me is a brave and astonishingly moving story about freedom, fame, motherhood, survival, faith, and hope.

In June 2021, the whole world was listening as Britney Spears spoke in open court. The impact of sharing her voice—her truth—was undeniable, and it changed the course of her life and the lives of countless others. The Woman in Me reveals for the first time her incredible journey—and the strength at the core of one of the greatest performers in pop music history.

Written with remarkable candor and humor, Spears’s groundbreaking book illuminates the enduring power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.

Oops I did it again!

I can’t even begin to tell you how excited I was to get my hands on this memoir. I only knew about it a few days before the actual publishing day, but I knew I needed it ASAP because my curiosity was killing me – not my loneliness… get it? Needless to say, when I finally got it, I devoured it!

So let me get you some background first on what I knew about her: I was a Britney fan when I was younger and I remember thinking how pretty she was and how she could dance and sing like a pro! I first saw her first music video “Baby One More Time” on MTV (1999) and it was a huge hit worldwide. I still remember to this day how mesmerized I was by her – and I was only 5! I confess I’m not super familiar with her work that came after the “Blackout” album, but I know one or two singles that came afterwards. I also knew she was in a legal battle with her father regarding her conservatorship and how messy it was, but other than that I didn’t know a lot about her.

If you’re going into this thinking she wrote her own book, I’m just going to say it: I’m 99,99% sure her ghost writer wrote the entire thing. I really don’t think she has the capacity right now to write her own book – and I think that was a good call because the book is very well written. I really doubt she wrote a single word there – like a lot of celebrities, I might add – and that’s fine.

I was surprised this was only a 5 hour and half book. Usually memoirs can go up to 12h or 13h (some even more – let’s not talk about Michelle Obama’s book length…), so I was surprised how short the book was. As the book goes on, you start to understand why.

In this memoir, Britney shares her story describing her life from a young child, to an ascending pop star, to her struggles in life. And oh man… she struggled a lot! She touches on how her family turned on her, her relationship with Justin, the abortion, the paparazzi, the legal battle for her kids, the conservatorship… The list is long!

The conservatorship chapters were tough to read. Oh my God… I can’t believe she went through all that for so many years. The amount of medication she took, the months and months of her life wasted in institutions, the endless tours that only filled her dad’s pockets… It’s almost incredible how she endured all that for so long.

I can’t even imagine how hard it was for her not having her family’s support. Her sister turning her back on her, her mother doing a book tour and bashing her, her father stealing her money and putting her in institutions for months to control her… With a family like that, who needs enemies?

It was heartbreaking to see how much she has suffered along the years. My heart goes to her. She sure is a very strong woman, and I wish her all the best in life and I hope she recovers and gets her life back fully.

It was a very easy and fast audiobook to listen to, since it was only about 5 hours like I mentioned before, and I ended up loving it. It’s definitely a heartbreaking memoir, but worth it! If you are or were a fan of hers at any point of your life, I definitely recommend checking it out.

Trigger warnings for: suicide, abortion, substance abuse, abuse of power.