A Real Gem: Book Review of The Last Legacy

 

The Last Legacy by Adrienne Young

Gratitude

Thank you to St. Martin’s press and GoodReads Giveaways for the review copy of The Last Legacy by Adrienne Young.

Description

When I received three books from Goodreads for the same drawing, Fable, Namesake, and The Last Legacy, I assumed they were all from the same series. However, once I started The Last Legacy I quickly realized that Bryn Roth was the star of the show, and she has very little in common with Fable, the main character of the first two books. The Last Legacy is set in the same world as Fable’s stories, and the Roth family plays a role in Namesake, including Bryn’s love interest, Ezra. Bryn’s background is extremely different from Fable’s. Fable was raised on a ship while Bryn was raised by her great aunt to be a debutante. Fable becomes a crew member on a boat while Bryn is forced to join the ruthless Roths in their homestead in the city.

The Roths, lead by Henrik Roth, will do whatever it takes to get ahead. And now that Henrik has his sights set on a merchant’s ring, he will require his family to go to any lengths to get there--and for Bryn, that includes marriage. Bryn realizes that if she wants to avoid the possibility of being given away in a trade deal, she will have to make herself indispensable in other ways.

Meanwhile, she finds herself sparking against Ezra, who apprenticed with the Roths and now is just as much a part of the family as any other member. He is also talented, and his skills will play a big role in the Roths' bid for a merchant’s ring.

I find Bryn’s crush on Ezra troubling, as he has learned to show no emotion as a result of Henrik’s strict rule. He seems to be guarded at all times and follows the instructions of Henrik without question. Indeed, he gives Bryn barely any encouragement. And yet, Bryn pines for him. Even when it is against his own best interests, she makes moves--even when he asks her to stop and tells her it is a bad idea. I am all for a lady making the moves and getting what she wants--but Ezra is a bad idea. He cannot talk to her, even if he wanted to, because Henrik's strict control, so all that Bryn really knows is that Henrik won Ezra as his apprentice in a game of dice. The Last Legacy would have been a better book without the romance. Or, at least with enough to go on to make Bryn's pursuing Ezra simply rash and not utterly dangerous. For all we or Bryn knows, he is actually a brute and a womanizer. 

Would I Teach This Book?

Would I teach The Last Legacy? The Last Legacy was an interesting read. Bryn is a strong character who is determined to find her own path. She refuses to crumble under the harsh will of her uncle or to give up hope that she will have some independence. Henrik is a good villain--impossibly controlling and seems impossible to beat. Plenty of page turning in the plot. Bryn, though, while I did root for her, is not as loveable as Fable. It is unlikely that I would teach The Last Legacy, because although I did enjoy the story, as both the world and character building were not as strong as in Fable and Namesake, which would be better choices to teach.


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Celebrity Memoir Bonanza: I'm Glad My Mom Died and The Woman in Me Reviews

 

I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy

Gratitude

Thank you to Montgomery County Public Libraries for making The Woman in Me by Britney Spears ready available to the public at no charge and thank you to my book club for having me and for choosing I'm Glad My Mom Died as our March read.

Description

Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died tells the story of McCurdy’s childhood in performing and her rise to fame, all under the tight wing of her mother’s control. Her mother was a master manipulator, using bullying, guilt trips, and sweet talk (but only when necessary) to get those around her to do as she wanted.

Being a cancer survivor was more fodder for her machinations, and every week, her mother sat her family down to watch a video featuring her cancer. McCurdy opens the book with the memory of using her birthday wish to ask for her mother’s continued survival.
The first part of the book is very much about living in her mother’s dream for her and working hard to earn her mother’s approval. The second part is McCurdy struggling to find her way after her mother died.

There are lots of shocking and terrible things McCurdy’s mother did to her, including encouraging her to be anorexic, as well as details of McCurdy’s relationships and addiction. She writes about her traumas as though they are fresh and the truth of their deep pain has only recently been discovered, which may well be true.

The Woman in Me by Britney Spears

At the same time I was reading I’m Glad My Mother Died I was also reading Britney Spears' The Woman in Me. Spears’ childhood also featured some questionable moments, such as her mother taking her out for drinks when she was a teen and being kept awake at night by her mother screaming at Spears' drunken father. However, it was more Spears’ adulthood than her childhood that was traumatic.

As an adult with two small children, Spears was put under a conservatorship controlled by her father—for over a decade. Her children were taken away as well as her right to make any major decision for herself—dating, eating, and even her setlist was carefully controlled by her father.

Meanwhile, her father squandered her money and her ex-husband was free to party and do as he pleased with their kids. The injustice and utter insanity of the situation seems unbelievable–how could this happen to one of the richest and most powerful women in the music industry? And yet, it did.

Celebrity and the Media 

I watched some iCarly episodes when they were on Nickelodeon, but was not as familiar with McCurdy’s story as Spears. I remember Spears' being stalked by the media and the seemingly endless photos of her young adulthood in the celebrity gossip magazines. As she describes in The Woman in Me, her every move was publicly examined, questioned, and judged. She was, in that moment, one of the most famous and beloved people in the world and at the same time derided for being sexy and depicted as being dumb. Even as her music and music videos were nearly omnipresent, the discussion was seldom about the music and almost always about Spears.

From reading these two memoirs, I learned a lot about Spears and McCurdy but also a considerable amount about myself. Both women describe how as performers, the public acts as if they are public property and the paparazzi act as if there are no boundaries to their accessibility. TBH, there are many times when I have discussed celebrity lives, including Spears’, as though they were figures who belonged to the collective and not actual people.

I remember inspecting beach pics of Spears and discussing whether or not she was pregnant. The fact that she was clearly unaware of the camera and therefore had not given consent to be photographed was not something that crossed my mind. I remember thinking and speaking of her as a silly, no-talent, dumb girl. She was by this point a multimillionaire who was writing and recording music, performing for enormous audiences, and having a hand in every detail of her performances, including choreography. She was also clearly an adult woman, and no longer a little girl. I went to a concert of hers and unfortunately don’t remember it so well—I was more focused on having fun with my friends. 

When Spears’ writes of the constant scrutiny, it reminds me of how I have previously dismissed such complaints from celebrities–I thought that it simply came with the territory of being a celebrity, along with the money and influence. I did not think of them as the same as the rest of us—I discussed them as though I knew what was going on with their lives and what was going through their heads—more like their lives were real-life soap operas to watch and enjoy. Reading McCurdy’s and especially Spears’ memoirs, it made their humanity clear, as well as the harm that my behavior, following the collective, has caused.

As individuals and a group, we choose what to consume from the media, and just as with food, we can make healthy and unhealthy choices. Going along with media that shines an unhealthy and gendered light on women only encourages this behavior, and while it is more visible on the celebrity level, it certainly trickles down to the average human, as well. If the focus is more on what female celebrities wear than the actual work they do, so will the focus be skewed for the rest of is.

Would I Teach These Books?

Would I teach The Woman in Me or I'm Glad My Mom Died? That is an interesting question. While I am waiting to see how the discussion of I’m Glad My Mother Died goes with my book club, the online buddy read of The Woman in Me (unfortunately, I was not able to participate during the actual discussions), was a lot about connecting with the book and reminiscing of those times, as well as some big fan moments.

I am not a big reader of celebrity memoirs, though I have read a few. As memoirs go, McCurdy’s is written better than Spears', though I would not say that either is particularly well-written or poorly-written. Their story is more important than the writing itself. For that reason, I would probably not choose either for a creative writing class. However, I would consider The Woman in Me for a gender studies course. Spears offers a snapshot of what it was like to be a young woman performer in the late nineties and early 2000s. She shows how she was depicted as a performer, woman, and mother. There is a lot to discuss and a lot to think about.

For McCurdy, I would consider it a good book club pick but would probably not teach it.

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