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Jeffrey Davies is a professional introvert and writer with imposter syndrome whose work spans the worlds of pop culture, books, music, feminism, and mental health. In addition to Book Riot, his writing has appeared on HuffPost, CBC Arts, Collider, Slant Magazine, PopMatters, and other places. Find him on his website and follow him on Instagram, Threads, or Bluesky.
View All posts by Jeffrey Davies
Jeffrey Davies is a professional introvert and writer with imposter syndrome whose work spans the worlds of pop culture, books, music, feminism, and mental health. In addition to Book Riot, his writing has appeared on HuffPost, CBC Arts, Collider, Slant Magazine, PopMatters, and other places. Find him on his website and follow him on Instagram, Threads, or Bluesky.
View All posts by Jeffrey Davies
At their best, memoirs can serve as portals to another world that’s inhabited by somebody else. Part of what makes them so compelling is that the world written about in these books is, in fact, the same one we’re all living in, but an author’s singular, unique experiences and the way they move about the world can transport us to a different dimension. At their worst, however, memoirs have been a lot of things: fabricated fiction, salacious and exaggerated gossip, or an inadvertent exposé on the ways a particular person views the world, which might not necessarily align with the general public. In official terms, we call this controversy, but we’re among friends here, so let’s just call it what it is: dramaaaa!
Not every book that’s controversial is actually problematic or no good. (See also: the legions of books currently being challenged in the United States.) When it comes to real-life stories like memoirs, usually it’s something that the author presented as fact that is being disputed as fiction, in whatever form that might take. We all reserve the right to some creative freedom in our storytelling, but just how far you take it from reality in a memoir can get sticky. On the other hand, a memoir can be controversial not because readers think the author isn’t telling the truth, but that the truth they are telling is a jaw-dropping bombshell.
But let’s be honest, especially when dealing with celebrity memoirs, there’s always going to be skeptics and some alleged insider coming out of the woodwork to claim it’s false. I’ll leave you to decide your own opinion on the following 11 controversial memoirs. It’s worth noting the partial lack of diversity in authors on this list since, unfortunately, white people tend to drum up louder controversy in a realm all their own.
*Content warning: a few of these books deal with different forms of abuse*
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
We might as well start with the most infamous “memoir” of all time. In fact, I even hesitated to include this on a list of memoirs, because most libraries and bookstores now shelve James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces under fiction. But when it was first published in 2003, it was sold and marketed as a memoir. Alleging to be Frey’s real-life narrative detailing his harrowing experiences with addiction, the largely popular “memoir” became a bestseller even before Oprah Winfrey chose it for her book club in 2005. While it was lauded by some, it immediately raised the eyebrows of others. One critic even wrote that the entire book could be summarized by one line from it: “I took money from my parents and I spent it on drugs.” By 2006, an exposé published by The Smoking Gun uncovered the holes in Frey’s narrative, making it virtually impossible for him to continue claiming all of it was true. Oprah even held him and his editor accountable live on her talk show that year. Frey ultimately admitted that parts of A Million Little Pieces were fabricated, making it one of the most controversial books of the early 21st century.
All access members continue below for more of the most controversial memoirs.
Mommie Dearest by Christina Crawford
Joan Crawford was one of the most beloved actresses of her generation and of the 20th century, a love I’m sure her adopted daughter Christina does not share. In 1978, Christina published Mommie Dearest, a scathing exposé of the brutally abusive childhood she suffered under Crawford’s roof. Christina alleged that Crawford frequently beat her and her three siblings, that she was required to refer to Crawford’s many boyfriends as “Uncle,” and that her mother’s abusive behavior increased at the same rate as her dependency on alcohol. The abuse was said to have continued into Christina’s adulthood, manifesting itself as a vicious jealousy Crawford harbored for her daughter. Initial reactions to Mommie Dearest were swift and intense. Several actors from the Golden Age of Hollywood stepped up to denounce the events in the book as mostly false, including but not limited to Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanwyck, and Van Johnson. Crawford’s first husband and her other children claimed that they did not suffer from the abuse Christina described in the book. Even Bette Davis, Crawford’s infamous rival, disputed the events in Mommie Dearest by saying she did not deserve “that detestable book written by her daughter. I’ve forgotten her name. Horrible.” Other actors who worked with Crawford did admit to her being too strict a parent. Whatever the case, something tells me Christina’s story would have been taken much more seriously had she published it some 40 years later.
Coreyography by Corey Feldman
Child stars: they’re just like us! Well, mostly, until they’re not. The world of pressure and confusion that child actors come of age in is no secret, but Corey Feldman took it to a whole other level when he published Coreyography in 2010. The memoir is best remembered now for Feldman’s revelation of the sexual abuse he suffered in Hollywood while still a child, an industry fact that some will agree exists. However, Feldman’s allegations went beyond the declaration that he was sexually abused as a child in Hollywood, claiming that his late friend Corey Haim was molested by a grown man on the set of the 1986 film Lucas. Although Feldman never revealed the identity of Haim’s rapist in Coreyography, the former child star would continue his attempt to expose the dark side of Hollywood in his 2020 documentary film My Truth: The Rape of 2 Coreys, in which he alleged that Haim’s rapist was Charlie Sheen. (Sheen has always vehemently denied the accusation, and Haim’s mother and sister assert that Sheen never abused him.) Another case of an abused person attempting to bring their story to light, all Coreyography accomplished was getting people to speculate about whether what he initially wrote in the book is true, rather than open up a genuine conversation about the systemic abuse that plagues young actors in Hollywood.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy
Jennette McCurdy, who had spent some time out of the spotlight before she published her memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died in 2022, singlehandedly managed to publish one of the highest-selling books of the 2020s so far, with a reported three million copies having been sold as of this year. Perhaps people bought based on the compelling case the title makes alone—why would someone be glad their mom is dead?—not to mention the legion of fans McCurdy had accrued as one of the co-stars on the massively popular 2010s teen sitcom iCarly and its spin-off Sam & Cat. Her memoir, however, reveals a very different story from the one she presented during her time as a child star. McCurdy details how she was manipulated and forced into an acting career from a young age by her mother, how she placed fame and money above her daughter’s own safety and well-being, and how her mother would have done anything a certain nameless Nickelodeon executive referred to as “The Creator” asked of them. As a result, McCurdy spent most of her life being gaslit and controlled by her mother to various extremes, continuing to suffer from eating disorders and mental health issues for years after she died in 2013. What was detailed in I’m Glad My Mom Died, which received generally positive reviews from readers and critics, was largely taken as fact, but with a title that celebrates someone’s mother dying, you’re bound to drum up some controversy, nonetheless.
The Meaning of Mariah Carey by Mariah Carey
I purchased and read this particular celebrity memoir as soon as it came out, not because I’m a fan of Mariah Carey or anything, but because it was pandemic time and I was bored and looking for drama. As someone who once received death threats from her fanbase on the app formerly known as Twitter, I always tread lightly while discussing Carey, even though a rudimentary reader can deduce from The Meaning of Mariah Carey that this particular author thinks very highly of herself. In the memoir, Carey describes her older sister Alison in a notably unflattering light, describing instances where her sister would “barter” her body for drugs and money, that she threw a cup of boiling-hot tea on Carey and caused her third-degree burns, and how she offered her cocaine from a young age and allegedly drugged her with Valium. Four months after the publication of The Meaning of Mariah Carey, Alison sued Carey for $1.25 million in damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress. According to The Guardian, Alison was representing herself in the lawsuit and accused Carey of “heartless, vicious, vindictive, despicable and totally unnecessary public humiliation” by way of her memoir, with the lawsuit adding that Alison had been “severely depressed and uncharacteristically tearful since the publication of defendant’s book and now struggles, after a long time clean, with alcohol abuse.” Soon thereafter, Carey was also sued by her brother, Morgan, whom she described as a drug dealer, for defamation in the memoir. His case was partially dismissed by a judge in 2022. Alison sadly passed away in 2024, and Morgan’s case against Carey is still ongoing. If there isn’t enough drama for you in The Meaning of Mariah Carey, there is definitely enough caused by it.
My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem by Debbie Nelson
Famed rapper Eminem and his mother Debbie Nelson have always shared something of a fraught relationship, especially in the spotlight. Early in his career, Eminem generated controversy when, in his song “My Name Is,” he referred to his mother as “doing more dope” than he does, and that he would “make a record about doin’ drugs and name it after her.” Nelson responded by suing her son the following year for $10 million in defamation, with a judge awarding her $25,000 — she would only end up keeping $1,600 after legal fees. As Eminem continued to refer to his mother as an unstable drug addict in interviews and other song lyrics, Nelson retaliated again by publishing My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem in 2007, where she essentially decided that if Eminem was going to go low, she was going to go lower. In the book, she alleges that all of the stories of his early life that Eminem had told in interviews were fabricated in an effort to boost his image as a rapper and celebrity. She claimed that the real reason behind suing her son for damages was to prevent foreclosure on her house. Despite all of the viciousness in the book, Nelson maintained that she wasn’t angry at her son but rather wanted to present her own side of the story. My Son Marshall, My Son Eminem was repeatedly dismissed by Eminem’s fanbase.
Not That Kind of Girl by Lena Dunham
Full disclosure: I love this book and have read it more than once, simply because Dunham’s perspective on growing up and young adulthood was something I really needed to hear when I first read it as a young college student. That does not mean I support the more controversial passages that drove Not That Kind of Girl to infamy in the 2010s. In 2014, two months after the book’s publication, Dunham was the subject of controversy and criticism over a particular instance in Not That Kind of Girl where she describes inspecting her younger sibling Cyrus’ genitals as a child, merely out of a natural sense of curiosity that kids tend to have. Furthermore, Dunham also wrote in the book that she would bribe Cyrus with candy for kisses and would masturbate while in bed with them, which has been interpreted by some as sexual abuse. The controversy was mostly drummed up by conservative commentators who were looking to pick apart Dunham’s image as a millennial feminist. Both she and Cyrus denied the notion that Dunham ever abused them, as did psychologists and childhood abuse experts like Sharon Lamb, who described the passages in the book as “within the norms of childhood sexual behavior” and not “sex offender wrong,” but still inappropriate. In short, Dunham could have probably kept some of that to herself and out of Not That Kind of Girl.
The Woman in Me by Britney Spears
Britney Spears had already made her way into the hearts of millions long before she published her highly, highly anticipated memoir The Woman in Me in 2023. Spears had spent the better part of the previous five years back in the spotlight as fans attempted to expose the inhumane living conditions that the pop singer was forced to live with under the terms of a conservatorship she was placed in over a decade earlier in 2008, amid a period of erratic public behavior. The #FreeBritney movement caught wind as Spears was finally able to hire her own lawyer, and, in 2021, she was finally released from the conservatorship. In The Woman in Me, Spears candidly recalls growing up a child star with big talent and ambitions that were quickly weaponized by the adults in her life, both when she was young and later when she began to suffer from mental health concerns in the public eye. But aside from calling out her family for how horribly they’ve let her be treated in recent years, The Woman in Me was most controversial for its depiction of Spears’ relationship with Justin Timberlake. For the first time, she revealed that Timberlake impregnated her in the early 2000s and forced her to get a painful at-home abortion while he played guitar for her to distract her from the pain. Similar to I’m Glad My Mom Died, we’ve reached a cultural standpoint of believing women’s descriptions of their abuse, but such details are too scandalous not to become controversial.
Behind the Shoulder Pads by Joan Collins
Joan Collins is still rightfully remembered as the iconic ‘80s diva she will always be, thanks to her role as Alexis Colby on the primetime soap opera Dynasty, although her film and television credits before that could fill an entire book on their own. In 2023, she published her eleventh memoir (yes, you read that correctly), Behind the Shoulder Pads. All of Collins’ books, whether they be memoirs or lifestyle books, have always veered more towards revealing outrageous secrets, but her latest memoir took it one step further. Much like some of her previous memoirs, Behind the Shoulder Pads features diaries that Collins had kept throughout various points in her career, describing her thoughts and feelings on other big names of the moment. The bombshell she dropped in this memoir, however, is that she became pregnant with Warren Beatty’s child in her mid-20s and decided to get an abortion. She alleged that Beatty took no responsibility in the situation and that she had a “thriving career” and “a baby would change all of that.” She wrote, “I would have to stop working. Fox would cancel my contract. I might lose my figure. I might be a lousy mother. He and I were not suited to each other in the long run.” Behind the Shoulder Pads was published primarily in the UK and is currently hard to locate in North America, which is a surprise given everything Collins laid bare this time.
Spare by Prince Harry
The highly publicized and anticipated memoir of Prince Harry, son of Lady Diana and Prince Charles, brother to Prince William, and husband of Meghan Markle, started breaking records when it first hit shelves at the beginning of 2023. Guinness World Records quickly named it the “fastest-selling book of all time” on its first day of release. Needless to say, the world was eager to get its hands on a book about the royal family that was actually written by a member of the family for a change. Prince Harry discusses his childhood, the strict and often cold atmosphere eh experienced growing up in the monarchy, and goes into significant detail regarding his mother’s death during his childhood. Spare almost immediately generated mixed reactions from the public. Readers took issue with its length and excessive personal narrative, claiming it could have benefited from a tighter edit. Literary critics gave mostly mixed to positive reviews. Members of the royal family claimed that many events in the memoir were untrue or fabricated, most of which can be blamed on one family member’s memory of an event over another. In response to controversy, Prince Harry stated, “Whatever the cause, my memory is my memory, it does what it does, gathers and curates as it sees fit, and there’s just as much truth in what I remember and how I remember it as there is in so-called objective facts.”
The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls
As I was researching books for this list, Jeannette Walls’ The Glass Castle kept coming up repeatedly, and I stupidly assumed it was a result of the author’s tone in the book. Several readers in various circles I have dabbled in over the years have accused Walls of sensationalizing and romanticizing child abuse. When I read The Glass Castle a good decade after it was first popular, I disliked it for that very reason. But no, that is not the reason this particular memoir continues to make the rounds as controversial in 2025. Turns out, The Glass Castle has found itself as a book that has been repeatedly banned or challenged throughout American school districts, both before and after the surge in book bans in the United States in the 2020s. The American Library Association (ALA) named The Glass Castle as the ninth most banned or challenged book in 2012, and the seventeenth in both 2010 and 2019. The reason school districts have found themselves concerned about Jeannette Walls’ account of her dysfunctional childhood is for its depictions of teen sexuality, violence, and child molestation. In many cases, The Glass Castle was deemed acceptable for high school English classes and returned to library shelves. I still think that this memoir should be more controversial for how Walls portrays her family life growing up. She doesn’t fully address the abuse and neglect she suffered at the hands of her parents, but apparently, I don’t decide what gets called controversial and what doesn’t. Can I speak to someone in charge?
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