In this fascinating biography of the late great Carrie Fisher, Jeff Ryan uses the public record to construct a fascinating picture of her life before, during and after Princess Leia and Star Wars became a massive cultural phenomenon. Exploring the highs and lows of her career and of life in Hollywood, this book draws on Fisher’s own memoirs and other texts to construct the behind-the-scenes of the Star Wars films and the creation of Princess Leia through Fisher’s performance and George Lucas’s vision to shed light on Fisher’s life, career, successes, and struggles. With a clear narrative pattern supplemented by quotes from Fisher and others in her life, this book is informative, engaging, funny, and tragic as the mood shifts and changes. Ryan is a capable author with vivid descriptions and a knack for managing the emotional rollercoaster of the book and Fisher’s life. Not sanitizing or erasing Fisher’s struggles with substance abuse and mental health, this book is a powerful biography of a brilliant woman whose honesty and transparency made her stronger and more impressive. An incredible companion to Fisher’s memoirs, fans of Star Wars should definitely read this book for its insights into the franchise as experienced by Carrie Fisher.

This is a decent and compelling book about Carrie Fisher, divided into sections that a tributes to how she had first won the hearts of the audiences: as Leia. It is well-researched and detailed, and is a nice unofficial companion (This is my way of seeing it, it is personal) to Fisher’s own books.
Had it been differently edited and designed, I would have loved it. I appreciate the hard work that went into this book, though.
3.5 stars rounded up because of its dedication to Fisher’s artistry.

Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Riverdale Avenue Books, and author Jeff Ryan for the advanced reader copy of this book. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

In the epilogue, author Jeff Ryan admits he talked to no one to write this book. That's both good and bad. Carrie Fisher wrote enough about her life that there was already plenty of material to cull from. Some of this also might have to do with the privacy Carrie's daughter Billie has sought following her mother's death, and the fact that she disowned some of her family for writing tell-all books once she had passed on. However, that also means most of this information is out there already.

Your Worshipfulness, Princess Leia promised to "tell the story of how a teenage Carrie Fisher created Star Wars's greatest character, Princess Leia" on the promotional description I read prior to choosing the book. What I thought was going to be a book centered on Leia and how Carrie Fisher helped develop and portray the character turned out to be another biography of Carrie Fisher, with no real new information.

Ryan seems to be making the argument that Leia was Carrie and Carrie was Leia as much as she tried to distance herself from her. Carrie felt protective of this character, and she imbued her with a steely confidence that Carrie just didn't have. In some ways, Leia was who Carrie wished she could be. Later in life, Carrie became what is known as a "script doctor" and worked with many different people improving scripts for movies and television with little to no credit. She did work with George Lucas on the three prequels, which is probably why Padme Amidala had some great lines.

The book doesn't just cover Carrie's work around the Star Wars universe, though. It's a biography that delves into her family life, mental illness, drug addiction, and relationships. Ryan does a decent job assembling information Carrie wrote herself in her books, and aligning what was autobiographical with the events in her life. Carrie was always an open book to the world, which helped begin a public dialogue about mental illness where it had been a source of shame.

Your Worshipfulness, Princess Leia is a good book, especially if you haven't read all of Carrie Fisher's own works. It builds on that to create a comprehensive biography of the star and her very unique Hollywood family. It's not uplifting, as Carrie struggled most of her life, but I found I understood her a little more at the end of it, as well as appreciating all she put into creating the character of Leia Organa.

We all know how Carrie’s story ended, but we might not know the journey. This book shows us how Carrie got the role that made her a household name, how the role changed her life, and the aftermath. It’s an interesting look into Carrie’s day to day life and struggles with addiction, mental illness and fame.

This is a different look at Carrie Fisher. We have long known about her complicated life and the roles that she has played, the most well-known of course is Princess Leia. Carrie was thrust into the public eye when was young. She has famous parents, and was in one of the most beloved movie franchises of all time. As Princess Leia, we saw her laid bare on the screen, little did we know how much she was showing us. This book delves into the hidden things that became public and how she coped (not well for most of it), and came out the other side.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for this eARC.

It is a must read for any fan of Carrie Fisher/Princese Leia.

Author Jeff Ryan has created an satisfying and compulsively readable biography about the multi-talented Carrie Fisher. We see Carrie Fisher at different points in her life, describing:
-her privileged life as a daughter of famous Hollywood parents actor and singer Eddie Fisher and the multi-talented Debbie Fisher
-her sometimes difficult relationship with her mother
-the beginning of her mental health struggles, many years denial of them leading to repeated attempts to self-medicate, and
-of course, her cherished place in genre movies and culture, as the indomitable Princess Leia.

Ryan uses only printed articles, interviews and books as his sources, to create a nuanced and sensitive picture of a woman who was:
-the life of the party
-a deeply caring friend and mother
-a talented performer despite her lack of confidence when she got the role of Leia
-a skilful writer, not only of thinly-veiled autobiographies, but also someone adept at not only rescuing movie scripts but also enhancing them
-a person with a wickedly sharp and self-deprecating sense of humour, and
-a woman plagued for most of her life with debilitating mental health issues and addiction.

Of course I read this book because Princess Leia was my hero when my child brain was blown by Star Wars, the original trilogy, and though the major points covered by Ryan were already mostly familiar to me from other writings, I still enjoyed this fairly comprehensive biography of a troubled, incredibly popular and complicated woman whose irreverence and big heart won her friends and acclaim, and a permanent place of honour in the Star Wars canon and fandom.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Riverdale Avenue Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Offers great insight into Carrie Fisher, the actress and person. I always admired her work and knew a lot about her struggles with mental illness, but this intriguing book reveals much more about her challenging life and accomplishments. A must-read for fans of the inimitable Carrie/Princess Leia!

This is a must-read for any Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia fan. While I was already familiar with a lot of the content, I felt certain emotions all over again while reading because of how imperfect, how human Carrie was. This author portrayed her well in this book.

This was great. The author doesn't play make believe it turn a blind eye to the fact that Carrie Fisher was human. She was not perfect and he made sure to show both the good and bad

This book is an incredible deep dive into Carrie Fisher- her life, death, and the constantly struggle to separate herself from Princess Leia. It does an amazing job of capturing Carrie as a person- flawed, beautiful, honest to a fault.

This book doesn't try to convince you that Fisher was a good person- in fact, it does quite the opposite. She struggled with drugs, mental illness, and motherhood- but did so in a way that let others know they weren't alone. She was not perfect, but she was genuine and wonderful and just so Carrie.

The details in this book paint a complex picture of a woman we all felt we knew, and a character we all grew up wanting to be more life.

I will read any book about Carrie Fisher and/or Princess Leia so I enjoyed this quick read, although a lot of the ground covered was already familiar to me. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC!

I always found Carrie Fisher such an interesting figure so I really enjoyed getting a deeper insight into her life and person. I first became interested in her when I learned about how Harrison Ford took advantage of her and I realized how tragic she really was compared to the image I had previously had of her because of her fame. A very interesting person and this book is a great insight into her