Rebel Rising, by Rebel Wilson

 Hey guys, this is Abi here, 

And I'm here with a surprise review! 

If you've seen the title, you might be wondering why I would read such a book, much less write a review for it. 

The reason being, maybe I want to convince people that this autobiography isn't as bad as the majority of people seem to think it is. Maybe I just have a lot of thoughts on it, good or bad. 

I'll let you decide. 

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy it. 

Title: Rebel Rising

Author: Rebel Wilson

Genre: Autobiography

Status: Standalone

Release date: 25/4/2024

Pages: N/A

Blurb: "For decades, Rebel Wilson has single-mindedly focused on her career, making a name for herself through her iconic roles in Pitch Perfect, Bridesmaids, and Isn't it Romantic. Now, she's ready to chronicle the emotional and physical lessons she learned, as well as her most embarassing experiences. A malaria enduced hallucination? An all-style martial arts fighting tournament? Junior handling at god shows? And this was all BEFORE she moved to Hollywood!

Rebel Rising follows Rebel Wilson's incredible journey of 'making it', constantly questioning, 'Am I good enough? Will I ever find love? Will I ever change and become healthy?' Rebel writes for the first time about the most personal and important moments in her life- from fertility issues, weight gain and loss, sexuality, overcoming shyness, rejections, and well... okay, there's at least one story thrown in about Brad Pitt! It's all here. This memoir shows us how to love ourselves while making us laugh uncontrollably." 

My Thoughts

Trigger warnings: Child abuse, emotional abuse, fatphobia, sexism, loss of a parent, addiction. 

Actually not as bad as people think. Honestly, not the most ground breaking, emotional autobiography I've listened to in my life, but it was definitely one of the most honest and to-the-point autobiographies I've read. I enjoyed it more than I was expecting to. 

Honestly, I went from thinking 'do I pay money to listen to something else' to 'okay I don't want to read anything else until I finish this' (it was the type of book where you don't realise how quickly you're making progress until you're halfway). 

In fact, the whole novel really does show you that Rebel Wilson is, wholeheartedly, like a regular person. She doesn't hold back on the personal stuff: the struggle with unhealthy habits with her eating; with her struggle to connect with anybody, let alone entertain the possibility of finding the person she wants to spend the rest of her life with; parental issues, which, lets face it, most adults struggle with something to do with their upbringing. And that's not even the half of it. 

Genuinely, her highs, her lows, and everything in between, you're there with her. 

There are no cover-ups in this novel. None. 

And all of it is done with that classic Rebel humour that we've all come to know and love. 

The novel jumps back to certain experiences within a chapter, but the transition it seamless. I was never confused as to where I was within each side story, within a chapter, so that worked. 

Also, surprise surprise, Rebel Rising makes me want to go back and watch Bridesmaids and Pitch Perfect again, as well as everything else she's been in.

Basically, when I watched her in Bridesmaids and the Pitch Perfect movies, I assumed that she had been in more big time movies before, but that they just hadn't crossed my radar. Now, having read her autobiography, and now I know those were her big breaks, I want to go back and not only re-watch those movies, but be able to appreciate her earlier tv shows, to see her progression. 

Still not decided yet on Cats though. 

The only negative point I will make is, there's always the feeling that whatever hardships you're reading at any given point in this book, there's always the feeling that things will always work out in the end. At no point in this book did I start to think that maybe Rebel wouldn't lose the weight, find the person she was meant to be with, or deal with what she was going through at the time. 

But part of the reason why I fully believed that, was the incredible work ethic she had throughout. 

If you didn't know, Rebel Wilson is a fully qualified lawyer. It may have taken her double the time it would normally take, as she was juggling rent and working as an actor throughout, but she has the smarts and the work ethic to react that status. And becoming a qualified lawyer is mind-numbingly hard by itself, let alone with other problems thrown into the mix. 

So in the end, although I never questioned that she would, eventually, get everything she had been working towards, the reason why is a positive. 

So I guess, what I've been leading up to with, well, all of the above, is that this novel has given me new found respect for Rebel, all she's had to go through, how's she dealt with things, got on with it, and come out the other side. 

Also, did I mention how normal she is? She loves dogs, her family ran a dog accessory business, selling them, going to Dog shows, she went to an all girls school, wasn't thrown into show business like a lot of celebrities' parents, actually worked for it herself, and became as well-known as she was, through her own merit. 

Not to mention, having to fight twice as hard to be taken seriously as an actor, because of how much people saw her as nothing more than the fat, funny friend. 

I hope I've at least convinced some people to give this book a try- granted, I doubt just my word will be enough, but maybe I've helped some people to at least download the audiobook, for the next time they don't have any books in mind. 

I really do recommend the audiobook, by the way. It's recorded by RW herself- it's quite the listen. 

Okay! Those are all my thoughts on Rebel Rising- not going to lie, I feel like I'll come up with more, the minute I post this- been feeling a bit distracted tonight- but I'll add more soon if I do. 

I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on this, honest, funny, and fulfilling autobiography- I have a feeling this may start a trend. 

That will be all tonight, though. I hope you have a wonderful evening, and I'll see you all soon! 

Byeeee!

-Abi xxxxx