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Inside Out by Demi Moore is a 2019 Harper publication.

A compelling and revealing memoir

I waffled back and forth on this one. Initially, I talked myself out of reading it, then changed my mind when I saw it had generated a little buzz and I noticed most of the reviews were positive.

Curiosity got the better of me and so I borrowed it from the library. However, the audio version was available on Scribd and I ended up listening to the book instead.

I’ve never been a fan of movie, or TV stars, in the same way I am with musicians or authors. I liked many of the movies Demi starred in- Ghost being my very favorite of all her roles. I think she is a good actress, but I wouldn’t call myself a fan, necessarily.

Naturally, I was aware she was controversial at times, that she had married and divorced Bruce Willis, and then married Ashton Kutcher- a relationship that came under a great deal of scrutiny in the tabloids. In other words, I knew the simple basics and that's about it.

Much of the information regarding her childhood and upbringing was news to me. I didn’t even know she had once had a role on a popular soap opera early in her career. Before long, Demi had captured my rapt attention as I digested all this information.

Her narration is top- notch. Occasionally, in the beginning of the book she did speak a little too rapidly, as though she were in a hurry to finish the task. However, as the book progressed, she found a rhythm and her inflections were sincere and very believable.

When it comes to celebrity memoirs I feel a little more justified in expressing my personal opinion about the author, since after all, this is not a biography, written by a third party or without authorization.

Some of my impressions are:


I’m not a psychologist, but I did see patterns in Demi’s life. I don’t know what the official word might be, but she did seem to have a predisposition towards addiction. Alcohol, drugs, food, shopping- she seemed to replace one addiction with another.

Like most of us, Demi has made some questionable choices, personally and professionally. She has been the object of criticism from all sides on occasion. While this book is her opportunity to tell her side of the story, I thought she held her resentments in check for the most part.

While some celebrities mentioned in the book felt compelled to set the record straight- on mostly minor things- and some may have felt compelled to defend themselves- but ultimately took the high road- I thought Demi did a good job in telling her life story. She was hard on some people, sometimes understandably, sometimes not, but she was also forgiving. She didn’t sugarcoat her foibles and owned her own s**t.



Overall, this memoir is very well-done. Demi has pulled herself up out of some dark places more than once and appears to be in a good place right now. Often times, a memoir will lesson my opinion of someone, but in this case the opposite was true.



4 stars