General Information:
Format Read — Audiobook
Synopsis — In his memoir, Prince Harry details his life in three main sections of importance — when he was a young boy who lost his mother, when he was a young man in the army and when he fell in love with the woman the press hated from the very beginning.
Review:
I have never really been a big fan of the Royal Family — I do not care either way for or against them — but I am always down to read a memoir with potential family drama in it. I also wanted to listen to it on audiobook as I am a sucker for a memoir read by the author. The only things I have really know about Prince Harry is what the media and press puts out about him. Because of his family’s past, I wanted to hear from his perspective of everything that has happened to him. But his memoir, while I like how it was divided into three parts, adds nothing new or interesting to this traditional genre and needed to be edited down as it began to drag in multiple places.
What I liked most about Harry’s book was that he decided to break up his pretty eventful life into three major eras. When you have a life like his and try to talk about as much of it as you can, breaking it up can help your reader. That was what kept me invested into his story; I always knew a new chapter of his life was coming up next. That is an interesting way to divide and conquer your story and that helped Harry with the story he wanted to tell. But I wish that along with breaking it up into different parts of his life that he did something like Jeanette McCurdy and speak from the perspective of him at those ages. Instead of having his current voice reflect back on his time as a child, if he approached this section by writing from a more child-like voice or style of writing, that would have made this a more interesting memoir. Without that, you just have someone doing the bare minimum for what is required for this type of novel.
It is interesting to hear about goes on on the opposite side of the tabloids. People take everything they see online as the true and only fact, but most of the time, there is so much more to the story. What I liked about Harry’s book was that he was not afraid to get personal about how some of the stories told by the media affect his life. I think that was the general premise for Harry writing this memoir — to get his voice out there. He is still pretty young and can accomplish a lot more in his life but now he felt was the time to release it. There have been enough false or dangerous statements made about him and his family, I would want to put out my truth as soon as I could too. But even if that is the case, that does not mean you need to add every small detail of your life. This was not a “Buckingham Palace Tell All” like some people may have wanted, but it was still too long. As intrigued as I was I got easily bored with all of the small details he felt like needed to be in there and that is when I checked out. Interesting stuff did pop up here and there, but it took a lot to get to those parts.
If you are a fan of the Royal Family or want to know some more details about Prince Harry’s life, this is the book for you. But as an average-knowledgeable person like myself, you will learn some interesting stories but they will be covered by pages of not needed details.
