Story line:
Navigating through youth and young adulthood isn't easy, and in Sorry Not Sorry, Naya Rivera shows us that we're not alone in the highs, lows, and in-betweens. Whether it's with love and dating, career and ambition, friends, or gossip, Naya inspires us to follow our own destiny and step over--or plod through--all the crap along the way. After her rise and fall from early childhood stardom, barely eking her way through high school, a brief stint as a Hooters waitress, going through thick and thin with her mom/manager, and resurrecting her acting career as Santana Lopez on Glee, Naya emerged from these experiences with some key life lessons:
Sorry:
- All those times I scrawled "I HATE MY MOM" in my journal. So many moms and teenage daughters don't get along--we just have to realize it's nothing personal on either side.
- At-home highlights and DIY hair extensions. Some things are best left to the experts, and hair dye is one of them.
- Falling in love with the idea of a person, instead of the actual person.
Not Sorry:
- That I don't always get along with everyone. Having people not like you is a risk you have to take to be real, and I'll take that over being fake any day.
- Laughing at the gossip instead of getting upset by it.
- Getting my financial disasters out of the way early--before I was married or had a family--so that the only credit score that I wrecked was my own.
Even with a successful career and a family that she loves more than anything else, Naya says, "There's still a thirteen-year-old girl inside of me making detailed lists of how I can improve, who's never sure of my own self-worth." Sorry Not Sorry is for that thirteen-year-old in all of us
Avid reader Chelsea Gouin gives this book
4 out of 5 stars.
Well, this was extra depressing given Naya's unfortunate and early passing.
I had put this on hold at the library the day before it was announced she was missing. When it finally was available I had to wait a few days before trying to pick it up but it was still as sad with her speaking about things she had planned for when she was an old lady or what she was going to do with future children... :'(
This was published in 2016, I believe...two years before she and her husband got a divorce and things had gotten crazy. I wish we'd gotten a follow-up tell all that she had promised us in this one.
However, this particular book wasn't too long and I was able to read the majority of it in one sitting. She really isn't too cruel about anything but she is honest about why her relationship with Big Sean disintegrated and why her and Lea Michele didn't get along on set of Glee...also she doesn't hold back about Mark Salling. Her tribute to Corey was super touching as well. <3
I like that Naya kept her integrity throughout this but was just so real. She opens up about her eating disorder, financial issues, abortion, hook-ups, and her struggles with racial identity being a mixed bag of white, black, and Latina. Once again, I thought the editing was a bit funky with some of her early life stories sandwiched in with the Glee years and some junior high things at the conclusion of the book in an otherwise linear progression of her life and career.
Overall, I enjoyed this and I think anyone a fan of this very talented actress should definitely pick it up. Taken from us too soon, some of her words on grief hit very close to home.