Sally's Reviews > The Woman in Me

** spoiler alert ** First of all, I would like to say that, being a 90s kid, I loved Britney Spears growing up. That being said, I am not an undying Britney stan who will ignore all the problematic behaviors she exhibits, simply because of who she is. If her IG wasn't proof enough of her instability, this book does her absolutely no favors. The writing comes off as disjointed, almost manic at times--the naïve, childlike, angry ramblings of someone with no insight into her behavior. It does very little to counter the claims of her mental instability and inability to govern herself.

For example, she admits to using Adderall and OTC caffeine/energy supplements, and with the way she rambles in her own writing, it doesn't take much to believe that she did indeed abuse them, which is what she says her doctors and her father was accusing her of multiple times in the book. Her own thought process in the book just makes her come across as a speed freak in denial. It's also very clear that she has the mentality of a child. There's a part in the book where she says she went through a battery of cognitive testing and was told by her father that she failed, and I don't doubt that was true and not just something that her father said to her. With the way she presents her thoughts in this book and the level of naïveté that comes across, you end up wondering if there is some sort of intellectual deficiency going on, or if it's just an extreme failure in her education, due to working in the entertainment business since she was a child and likely nobody prioritizing that for her. Either way, it's very clear that she doesn't possess the thought processes one would expect of someone her age.

To be clear, I believe that assertion that she makes in this book that the conservatorship was about money and control by her family. That fact is very clear. There were egregious abuses committed against her by the people involved. That being said, it is also very clear that she is extremely mentally ill, and I can very easily see how she could've been kept in that situation for so long because she displays no insight into her own problematic behaviors, and she does not present the way a sane 40 year old adult should.

I honestly think she is permanently broken, and I'm sad for her and especially for her kids. I don't think she's particularly interested in getting help, because I don't think she thinks there's anything wrong with her; which, is her prerogative now, I guess. At the very least, I hope she finds some semblance of peace and happiness.

At the end of the day, this book wasn't worth the read. While I wasn't expecting award-winning writing, I find it hard to believe that she wrote this book by herself, and I have no idea why the ghost writers, the editors, and her lawyers didn't do a better job cleaning up this book and at least helping her to present her side of the story in a way that doesn't end up making you wonder if the conservatorship was justified and is, in someways, maybe still needed--albeit, without her family's involvement.