Britney Spears has been praised for her “raw and unfiltered” memoir depicting her experience of life in the spotlight and under a controversial conservatorship.
The much-anticipated book titled The Woman In Me was released on Tuesday to critical acclaim – with reviews commending the US pop star’s honesty in exploring her rise to fame and the exploitative nature of the industry.
The Telegraph’s music critic Neil McCormick described it as an “extremely powerful memoir”, awarding it four out of five stars.
He writes: “Ultimately, The Woman In Me is a story not about music so much as about the way that women are still routinely mistreated in the music business.
“That it hasn’t turned into a complete tragedy is a testament to Spears’s essential fortitude of spirit – something that burns off these pages.”
The Guardian’s deputy music editor Laura Snapes said the book is a “focused story” and deserves to be read as a “cautionary tale and an indictment, not a grab-bag of tabloid revelations”.
She writes: “After all Spears has lost, the sharpness of her perspective is a miracle… May her truth pose a legitimate threat to the system that exploited her.”
Adam White, features editor at The Independent in the UK, described the memoir as “raw, unfiltered and breathtaking in its rage” and a “final rebuke to the decades of rumours that have surrounded the star”, before awarding it four out of five stars.
“If Spears’s memoir leaves readers with anything, though, it’s the knowledge that she deserves some kind of peace,” he writes.
“Anyone who has followed Spears over the years – and, due to the sheer force of her cultural ubiquity, that’s probably all of us – will want the very best for her.
“There is nothing tidy about trauma and recovery, and I hope The Woman In Me has been cathartic for her. It’s certainly not the end of her pain, but it’d be nice if it’s the beginning of a new chapter.”
