ŷ������

I have so many thoughts!

First, the most redeeming quality of this sad story is that Julia Roberts and Riley Keough narrate the audiobook. To me the narrative felt very thin, with little to no real depth of insight on Lisa Marie’s part. There is a lot of tell, not show, which makes the book seem more like an initial outline than the final version.

Lisa Marie was a wild child and had a horrible relationship with her own mother. Priscilla Presley is not presented here in a sympathetic light, and her various boyfriends took a terrible toll on Lisa Marie as a young girl. There is very little discussion of her father other than a few memories here and there that she was basically unsupervised while with him.

Riley Keough seems to have made peace with all of her relatives, including both her father’s and mother’s families. It is a miracle that Riley has established a successful career for herself, and seems to also have a very stable home life. Sadly her own mother did not provide that for her or her brother Ben. They moved around constantly, from Florida to be near the Church of Scientology, to Europe and to California. When Lisa Marie ultimately descended into depression and addiction, she could no longer care for her family and Riley had to step in.

It seems to me that Lisa Marie suffered from a lifetime of people telling her “yes�� to everything, including near the end of her life when she insisted on keeping the body of her son Ben in her house for two entire months. This is a poignant and bleak tale, with only Riley ultimately left to bear witness to her family’s tragedies. I’m glad she seems to have found some comfort in helping to complete her mother’s book.

“𝑇𝘩𝑎𝘯�� 𝑦𝘰𝑢 𝑓𝘰𝑟 𝑔𝘪𝑣𝘪𝑛𝘨 𝘮𝑒 𝑠𝘵𝑟𝘦𝑛𝘨𝑡𝘩, 𝑚𝘺 𝘩𝑒𝘢𝑟𝘵, 𝑚𝘺 𝘦𝑚𝘱𝑎𝘵ℎ��, 𝑚𝘺 𝘤𝑜𝘶𝑟𝘢𝑔𝘦, 𝑚𝘺 𝘴𝑒𝘯𝑠𝘦 𝘰𝑓 ℎ𝘶𝑚𝘰��, 𝘮𝑦 𝑚𝘢𝑛𝘯𝑒𝘳𝑠, 𝘮𝑦 𝑡𝘦𝑚𝘱𝑒𝘳, 𝑚𝘺 𝘸𝑖𝘭𝑑𝘯𝑒𝘴𝑠, 𝘮𝑦 𝑡𝘦𝑛𝘢𝑐𝘪𝑡𝘺. 𝐼’�� 𝑎 𝑝𝘳𝑜𝘥𝑢𝘤𝑡 𝑜𝘧 𝘺𝑜𝘶𝑟 ℎ𝘦𝑎𝘳��.��