The Half of It: A Memoir

Product Information

I'm not sure if she'll ever read this, but I really hope that this entire writing process served as some kind of healing for her and I pray that she is in a much better place right now. At many moments I found myself stunned by the similarities in our childhood experience, and the more I read the clearer it became that this trauma and these coping methods are commonplace for women of all backgrounds. I appreciate her awareness that there are more heartbreaking stories out there, especially when it comes to the intersectionality of privilege involved, but when a woman who “has it all” is still not immune to the devastating and let’s be honest LIFE THREATENING affects of misogyny we should acknowledge that as a huge alarm ball and really consider what it means for women far less privileged than her living under the same system she describes.

And that's fine, she can talk about whatever she wants, it's her book and she didn't even have to open up as much as she did here, but she did it anyway and I commend her for it. The film received the top award at the 2020 Tribeca Film Festival, the Founders Award for Best Narrative Feature. As someone with BPD, it was so refreshing to see someone who has it, talk so candidly about it and how it affects the people who have it and those around us too.

The things that she has had to deal with, the leaked photos and bullying she had to endure from such a young age are so heartbreaking and something she should have never had to deal with. After going viral at just twelve years old, Madison Beer publicly navigated the transition from childhood star to global entertainer, undergoing a record-breaking run as an independent artist before signing with Epic Records and releasing her long-awaited debut album, Life Support, in 2021. In the book, the Good In Goodbye songstress gives a raw account of the past decade of her life spent in the spotlight. Madison is close with her fans, both online and in person - but her memoir highlights that no matter how close the internet may make us feel to people, we truly don’t know the half of it.

Discovered at twelve years old, Madison Beer was one of the first artists to have her entire life documented online. Aster is dating Trig, a boy from a wealthy family, and Ellie begins a heartfelt correspondence with her through letters and text messages. It's not the happy story we were sold via the trailer, and it feels like more promises that only halfway delivered. In a short video clip shared on social media, she's seen writing on a whiteboard which has the title of all the songs written out, with letters missing. It made me feel like i was spilling all of my thoughts to someone who could relate to me on a very intimate level.It made me angry at the music industry for the way it chews up and spits out children with no regard for their health. Trig proposes to Aster at a church service, but Ellie and Paul publicly interrupt the moment by sharing the true meaning of "love" using Ellie's wording from a previous letter. The more I paid attention to her songs, the more I wanted to know her story; finding out she wrote a memoir was the perfect way to do it without relying on gossip sites or social media and letting them dictate what I learned about her. The imprint also publishes the bestselling historical fiction of Bernard Cornwell, exciting work from Lauren Beukes and Rosie Thomas, and thriller successes Sam Bourne and Simon Toyne.