I received this book from NetGalley and the publisher, in return for an honest review. This review is based entirely on my own thoughts and feelings.

I requested this book being a massive American Horror Story fan and knowing very little about her. I also loved Push by Sapphire which she was amazing in so I really wanted to learn more about her. For such a good renowned actor I was shocked she fell into the role having never acted before, because in Precious she is phenomenal! She also had a pretty shitty upbringing and a real hard time even in her adult years. The writing style was a bit too informal for me but it really showed her personality. The ARC was edited awfully, it jumped around and repeated whole passages and it really distracted me from what I was reading. Overall a good read and insight into her life.

A great memoir about Gabourey Sidibe's life. Funny and fascinating, I loved reading about the ups and downs of her life, I found it so relatable. A lovely read!

I'm not much of a nonfiction reader and I rarely read autobiographies but I loved Gabourey Sidibe's book - she is a loveable and relateable woman whom I greatly admire as an actress, so it was wonderful to read about her life in her own words. By the end of the book, I felt as though I was friends with Gabby, which is awesome!

Gabourey Sidibe is a real one and her memoir is no different. If you expected anything less than excellence from this book you're mad. Sidibe's writing is honest and true as well as funny because it is Gabourey Sidibe after all. She allowed us all to fall in love with her if we weren't already you will be after you read this book.

I found this memoir witty and engaging. It is filled with many stories about the author and gives the reader a real insight into how she has lived her life. There are some emotional and sad moments but also so much humour and warmth. Well worth the read.

Gabourey Side's moving memoir This Is Just My Face: Try Not To Stare is honest, inspiring and funny. Her writing has an upfront quality that deals with her struggles and success with equal frankness. Side is a natural storyteller.

I didn't know much about Gabourey Sidibe, the star of Precious and Empire, before I picked up her memoir, but I left this book completely charmed by her and it. She has a really strong voice throughout, really conversational and natural, so it feels a lot like you're having a chat with your funniest friend.

She's incredibly honest about everything from her struggles with depression to her work on a sex phone line, and the way her family treats her now that (they think) she has money to spend. She deals with everything with humour and grace, and a wisdom that's far beyond what you would expect from someone still at the start of their life and career.

She has a unique story, and I think even though I've listed a few of the topics that she covers, you won't know what to expect until you actually open the cover. The daughter of a subway singer mother and a polygamist father who married so he could stay in the States, she is frank about her family and her life.

This isn't the book you should read if you're looking to find out how to break into Hollywood; I expected there to be a lot more about the process of auditioning for and filming Precious but that's really just a small thread of Gabourey's story and really, it might even be the least interesting. There are plenty of Hollywood actors out there, and only one Gabourey Sidibe. You'll feel like you are her best friend by the end of the book (and you'd be a fool not to want to be her best friend because she is an absolute delight).

I loved this book! If you are familiar with Sidibe you know she’s a force to be reckoned with on twitter. Funny, smart and witty, her online presence has made her more known to me than her varied portfolio of work. When I got a chance to request this ARC I was buzzing because I knew it was going to be great and I was not disappointed. She is a natural storyteller. I fell head first into this and I regret nothing. Firstly, she has lead an extremely varied and interesting life. Her anecdotes range from laugh out loud funny (working as a phone sex operator) to bittersweet and touching (her single moms struggle to raise two children). Secondly, she has opened herself up to the world in an extremely empowering and moving way by discussing her struggles with mental health issues, including her eating disorder, how she was treated by Hollywood and her decision to undergo weight-loss surgery. Her writing is powerful when required to be but she can snap right back to humour in an instant, without it feeling forced. I feel I know so much about her now yet I’ve only had a snapshot of her life. Sidibe has some important stories to tell and I am excited to see what comes next. Honestly, I think she should consider fiction writing next, I could really see her making waves in that community. If you’re looking for a memoir that is equal parts jokes and heart, equal parts celeb memoir and social commentary, do yourself a favour and check this out!

This book is out now in the U.K. from @penguinrhuk. Thank you to them and @netgalley for the review copy.

This is less a “memoir” and more a bringing-you-right-up-to-speed on the life so far of Oscar-nominated actor Gabourey (not Gabby) Sidibe. If you don’t know her from the intensely brilliant 2009 film Precious, then you’ll probably know Gabourey’s blonde locks from the hit TV series Empire. The book covers her pre-fame days, growing up in Harlem with an iconic subway singing mother and secretly polygamist father, and then moving on to become a phone sex worker before accidentally becoming a huge star.

Gabourey writes in a really likeable conversational manner, tripping over all manner of subjects on her way to getting the point and interjecting with the frequent amusing side note. It’s all too easy to say something about this book like ‘Gabourey is so strong and so sassy – she tells it like it is’, which is totally true but also feels (as an industry-shaking plus-size black female actor) incredibly glib. There’s much more to this book than that. I was especially interested in how she talks about trying to fit into her father’s life and trying to fit him into hers; how weirdly her mother turned down the role in Precious long before the film was ever made; and how she pulls no punches when it comes to her relationship with Lee Daniels and fame. Also, as soon as she mentioned that her name is pronounced like Cabaret (my favourite musical) I couldn’t stop purring her name over and over throughout the book. I am now officially a massive fan of Ms Sidibe after reading this.

A warm, witty and fun memoir that really leaves you feeling like you know Gabourey Sidibe a little better than you did before, and like her more than you ever expected. Her family background is somewhat unusual, her father married her mother for a green card, and later married another wife in his native Senegal. Her childhood was often difficult , money was scarce and tempers were often frayed, and despite starting college Gabourey was forced to leave to deal with mental health issues, As we all know she later found huge success and critical acclaim for her portrayal of Precious in the film of the same name, but her description of how she wound up getting the part is fascinating. Throughout the book, she maintains a warm and often humorous tone, but is never afraid to tackle the darker moments in her life , and while her confidence is infectious it never veers over into cockiness. Overall I really enjoyed the book, and would definitely recommend it.

I never realized just how funny Gabourey Sidibe is until I read this book. The woman deserves her own talk show. She has a rather cutting sense of wit that might not be to everyone's taste though. I picked up this book after having seen Precious and watching Empire and thought why not. I would never have guessed that the book is as interesting as it is right from her background story of how her parents married so that her dad could get a passport right through to the coincidences that led to Sidibe's rise to fame. I'm not going to give it away here but instead, encourage you to read the book.

It's a testament to how great this book is that I stuck with it, despite serious formatting issues that make it hard to read.

Sidibe is funny, intelligent and brutally honest in this compelling autobiography. She needs to write more - her style is wonderfully engaging and entertaining as she reflects on a tough and fascinating life that is far too random not to be true.

If you enjoy Hollywood autobiographies, this is one of the best. Her personality shines through.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

Absolutely brilliant and hilarious. Gabourey is so very down to earth and and likeable. Her personality shines through in her writing and this book is an amazing read.

I loved this book. Gabourey Sidibe is hilarious and so honest it hurts – about her childhood, her mental health, her career and pretty much anything else she feels like being honest about.

Reading this has just reinforced the admiration I already had for her from watching American Horror Story, she’s built her successful career with her confidence, charisma and sarcastic sense of humour as well as some very lucky twists of fate (we’ve all had them, sometimes the stars have to align for you to achieve your dreams). More than that though, she’s still coming to terms with being an adult and having financial success, she hasn’t just *ping* turned into a well-adjusted grownup. This just highlights the fact that SHE’S A HUMAN BEING, which apparently people forget from time to time, and also makes me hopeful that there’ll be another book from her when she reaches the next chapter of her life.

This book is all about Gabourey’s personal life rather than her career, so be aware of that if you’re looking for juicy tidbits about her life on set (there aren’t any, I checked!) but you do get to read about all the casual (and…. Formal?) racism she has to deal with as well as unnecessary opinions about her weight that everyone feels the need to share with her.

My favourite of chapters are the ones about her hair (it reminded me of my own hair disasters) and working for a phone sex line to pay the bills.

So, pick this book up if you’re looking for something funny, entertaining and ‘real’ to keep you company.

Unfortunately I was unable to finish this due to the pages being repeated on the Kindle making it impossible to read.
It may be excellent but not for me.

I loved the book Precious, and so I requested to review Gabourey's memoir to find out about the person who played the character Precious in the film of that book, as I thought Gabourey played the role brilliantly. She talks about that in her book, and feeling like a contest winner as she stood between Paula Patton, and Mariah Carey on the red carpet, and describes her illjudged wardrobe choices, which I found so relatable, as was when she writes, 'I couldn't tell her that I couldn't stop crying and that I hated everything about myself,'



Before she starred in Precious Gabourey was depressed, working in a call centre, and hadn't had the desire to be a actress. Her childhood is written about, but that's a whole story in itself, and I will leave that for you to look forward to if you pick up a copy of this book.

 
Fame is frankly written about: false rumours about her death, and money. Gabourey is down to earth, funny, and her book is one of those you don't realise where you are, what's going on around you, or even that you're reading, because This is Just my Face is so entertaining.

 
My only problem was, I'm not disputing the events of the book, this is nonfiction, but I felt because some people had predicted Gabourey would be famous in the future, that she was almost flippant about getting the role of Precious, as she has such little acting experience; she is a two time college dropout, and she then finds her purpose in life in acting. It read like a fairytale. I felt disappointed by the end of the book, but this is an enjoyable read, and gives you into insight into fame, and family.

I came to this fun, fierce and fabulous memoir knowing nothing about the author other than some vague memories of her being an unknown actor hitting the big time in a critically acclaimed film. And that she was a large lady of colour. So I was intrigued enough to want to read about her childhood and early days of fame as well as her negotiation of Hollywood being a fat, black woman.
It's a great read. Gabourey has a strong personality that is evident in her attitude towards the difficulties she has encountered in her life and the abuse she has had to endure because her body challenges notions of what a Hollywood actor's body should look like. Her childhood and journey to becoming a film star was genuinely interesting, at times moving, at others funny, but always engaging and authentic. She writes in a very youthful informal style, but in truth her insights, self-knowledge and wisdom are those of someone much older. The formatting was a little off but I didn't let it distract me from what Gabourey had to say. I found her inspiring in her positivity and confidence. My only very minor niggle was that I was left confused by her relationship to the internet/Twitter - she says she needs the validation of Instagram likes but that comments have no power over her. I feel that perhaps this is an area of her life that she is still at odds with herself.
Recommended.

I failed to read all of this because the format was out of sync. What I did manage to read was very enjoyable.

Gabby has a strong voice, and her personality shines out on every page frequently causing me to literally laugh out loud. The book was maybe a little unstructured but recommended if you want a snarky, no fucks given trip through Gabby's life.

It’s been quite a long time since I have read a memoir, mostly because there hasn’t been anyone that has written one that I have been hugely eager to read about. I’d be lying if I said I was sitting around waiting for Gabourey Sidibe to write one (complete discolosure, I didn’t know who she was by name, only face) but I am pleased I gave this one a go.

Turns out, girl can write! She uses this book as an outlet for sharing her stories; both happy and not so happy and I couldn’t help but be drawn into each and every one. Her writing style captures her personality so well, there were times it made me feel like we were sat down and having a chat, rather than her relaying her lives tales through words on a page (or an iPad in my case).

Gabourey has led what seems like such a full life for someone only a few years older than myself. I don’t want to give too much away for anyone that hasn’t already read but the whole Tola situation and the foster care?! What?! Really?! That said, Gabourey tells these personal and sometimes really serious stories with such dry humour, you can’t help but laugh. She’s been through some pretty tough stuff and I admire her for sharing it all with the world whilst being able to make us laugh, yet not making any of it distasteful.

I have ONE gripe about this read; and it has nothing to do with Gabourey. The version of the book that was sent to me from the publisher is awful and made reading so very difficult. The formatting of the book is horrendous! Whole paragraphs and sometimes pages are repeated straight after each other and there are parts where odd sentences from one paragraph are just thrown into another. I very nearly gave up at the start just because it was such hard work, but I decided to persist and I’m glad that I did.

I’m giving this book a well deserved 4 stars. It was brilliantly written (which I have found isn’t common in a memoir) and I feel appreciative to have learned more about a person I probably wouldn’t have done if it wasn’t for picking up this book. I appreciate how successful Gabourey Sidibe has become and I’m sure the world will be seeing plenty more from her in the future!