I Read Prince Harry’s Book So You Don’t Have To

By now, many people around the world have heard the commotion surrounding Prince Harry’s controversial memoir, Spare. With 1.43 million copies sold in the United States on January 10, 2023, the book had the largest first-day sales for any nonfiction book ever published by Penguin Random House, the largest publisher in the world. It has also become one of the best-selling hardcover books in recent memory. In addition to this, out-of-context clips from the audiobook, read aloud by Prince Harry himself, have gone viral on TikTok. They feature the Prince sharing a number of questionable details about his life and have caused outcry across multiple social media platforms.

Image Courtesy: Instagram

The title of the memoir refers to Harry’s role as the spare to the heir to the throne.  While taking the reader through the highly publicized events of his life from his own perspective, the memoir details Prince Harry’s life growing up in the Royal Family, the death of his mother, Princess Diana, fighting in Afghanistan, his struggles with anxiety and addiction, and his journey to find love. 

Image Courtesy: Instagram

I had multiple issues with this book. In the introduction,  Harry provides readers with context as to why he wrote it in order to explain why he chose to leave royalty behind. However, his narrative changes multiple times, meaning the reader never gets a clear answer as to why Harry made his decision. The holes present in Harry’s story and the added details to distract from them are glaringly obvious. Many of the complaints about being royal made by him come off as ignorant and privileged, such as complaining about having a smaller bedroom in comparison to William in their mansion. However, my main issue is with Harry’s hypocrisy when it comes to his relationship with privacy and his lack of it. 

Harry attributes most of why he left the royal family to his lack of privacy due to the press and his trauma as a result of their actions. There is no denying the genuine issues Harry had when it came to the press. They played a major role in the death of Princess Diana and used his drug and alcohol addictions to make money. However, I question whether writing a book such as this was the right way for Harry to combat this lack of privacy. Not only does the book and the multiple talk shows both Harry and Meghan have been featured on draw more attention to the couple, they also spill personal details about other people close to Harry, which is the very thing the Prince is berating the press for.

Image Courtesy: Instagram

As someone who has read all 419 pages of the book, I can tell you that yes, reading the questionable lines that have gone viral on TikTok for myself was as uncomfortable knowing the context behind them as it was without. These personal details (you know the ones) had no important effect on Harry’s life and do nothing for the book apart from give it a childish undertone. In fact, Harry goes into immense detail about multiple unimportant events in his life and skims over ones that are. For example, Harry mentions his memory loss due to trauma multiple times throughout the book and yet describes small details such as the appearance of rooms with suspicious clarity. 

While I do think people should read the book before forming their own opinions about it, I also believe it is one that can be skipped. I deemed no important takeaways from it and the questions I had going into it were left unanswered. While I gained nothing from reading it, the book may help others who are struggling with loss or addiction, but there are also better books out there that can help people heal without the added petty allegations and ignorant complaints. In conclusion, if not already obvious from my review, I do not recommend this book.

Strike Out,

Writer: Maya Kayyal

Editors: Madison Sloan and Ainsley McCullen 

Saint Augustine