Spare

This book took me six entire months to read, solely because the middle section is just. so. boring. that I struggled to motivate myself to pick it back up. Part I, The Royal Childhood, is somewhat interesting, and Part Three, The Meghan Stuff, has some of the royal drama I was hoping for. But my God, is Part Two, The Military Stuff, dull. If I had to read one more chapter about like, shooting at the enemy or whatever, I was going to scream. I do not give a single shit about a military helicopter. Stop with that nonsense. I almost DNFed multiple times but I held on for my girl Meghan.

I honestly don't remember much about the beginning because it's been so long; I only remember that I bought the audiobook, couldn't stand Harry's narration for some reason, and promptly switched to the physical book. The Meghan stuff is mildly interesting; a lot of it I already knew from the Oprah interview, but I will say, the book is at its most enjoyable when the two of them are happy together.

The writing style is, to put it mildly, melodramatic. When Harry sees a photo of Meghan for the first time, for example, he starts reflecting on the nature of beauty? Calm down, Drama Prince. At another point, during the famous (and absolutely cringe) section about his frostbitten penis, a doctor tells him "time heals" and Harry is all "that's not my experience." Like, we get it, dude, you never properly grieved your mother. While discussing your frozen member is probably not the time to bring that up. Conclusion? Harry's ghostwriter is a bit pretentious.

Oh, also, if you're thinking of reading this, maybe just reflect for a little while on Why the British Press Is Bad. That's...pretty much what the whole thing is about, and you can save yourself some time by just thinking, like, "paps bad" a few hundred times.

Overall, I did not enjoy reading this book and would not recommend it to others. Books about fictional royals are way more fun; the real royals are all miserable and we should do away with the entire institution.

CONCLUSION: Abolish the monarchy.

I never previously intentionally consumed media about the Royal Family. I just didn't have an interest in reading about them.

Then Prince Harry left and I was somewhat intrigued, but still not enough to follow the journey.

Then I saw this book and I read the synopsis and thought, oh his story sounds like it could be relatable. Not being astronomically rich but being the scapegoat, the black-sheep. Reading how he was really treated as a backup plan sounded incredibly intriguing given the context of his upbringing.

But I haven't even gotten through the first part of the book yet and it's unbearably boring. There are glimmers of this book where I feel empathy and compassion, but really the way this book is written overall was boring.

In between those glimpses of compassion I have for him, the book is a pain to read. So I'm officially putting this book down so I can move onto something that doesn't feel like a drag.

I really truely wanted to finish this book and I had hoped for an emotional book about growing up in such a home as his, but in reality it seemed like a hazy and shallow (perhaps due to memory as he stated himself) recount of some events in his life that may or may not have substance.