The Woman in Me (Unabridged‪)‬

APPLE BOOKS REVIEW

It’s no exaggeration to say we’ve been waiting to hear Britney Spears tell her own story for decades. In The Woman in Me, the pop star finally pulls back the curtain, showing us the private realities behind her all-too-public life. That story begins tragically early—she began supporting her family as a child star in part because her alcoholic father Jamie Spears couldn’t hold down a job. As she walks us through her experiences with superstardom, her relationships with Justin Timberlake (who does not come off well) and dancer Kevin Federline, and her eventual imprisonment in a 13-year conservatorship by her father, it’s her family’s continual gaslighting and abuse that remain heartbreakingly constant, even beyond the shocking restraints of the conservatorship itself. (She literally ate chicken and canned vegetables every night for two years because Jamie controlled her meals.) Oscar nominee Michelle Williams interprets Spears’ playfulness, despair, and well-earned rage like she’s playing the singer in a feature film. This memoir is what #FreeBritney was all about, and it proves we were right to worry.