This is Just My Face by Gabourey Sidibe

Gabourey Sidibe's autobiography is fearless, funny and a staggeringly great read

Book Review by Heather McDaid | 04 Jun 2018
Book title: This is Just My Face
Author: Gabourey Sidibe

Gabourey Sidibe is the bomb. So says Barack Obama, and it only takes a few pages of This Is Just My Face to wholeheartedly agree, if it was ever in doubt. Best known for portraying Precious in the movie of the same name, and Becky Williams in Empire, readers are taken back through her childhood, her life and daring to dream.

Gabourey writes like she’s talking to a friend – you feel welcome. She invites everyone into her life with humour and warmth, not shirking the difficult moments. Readers glimpse insight into her unique childhood, portraying her disruptive family dichotomy both with the experience of living it, and sparkling retrospective humour; we hear pro-tips from her job as a phone sex talker, hear how psychics told her she’d be famous, just like Oprah. She displays how warm and loving she is, reflects relatable insecurities through relationships and family, and those unique to her – magazine editors excited to put her on the cover, unaware she could hear the unsavoury descriptors being used. Frank and honest through depression, issues around race and body image, celebrity and more – it's a staggeringly great read.

Owning the world and her stardom, and crystal clear at her most vulnerable, this is a book that charms. This Is Just My Face is fearless and funny, much like Gabourey. She dared to dream big, and getting to know her, through the good and bad, is quite a joy. [Heather McDaid]


Vintage, 7 Jun, £7.99

http://www.penguin.co.uk/books/1115212/this-is-just-my-face