This Will Only Hurt a Little was another great read, although very emotional and raw at times. Busy Philips was entirely honest and exposed a lot about herself and her lifestyle in this memoir. I listened to the audiobook of this, which was relatively short at just over 7 hours and I believe that only enhanced the experience as Busy personally narrated the book and it made it easier to connect with her and her story.

I enjoyed the honesty and the emotion that went into Busy's story immensely. This didn't mean it was easy to read as she touched on a lot of traumatic and sensitive topics: rape, abortion, sexual relations, relationships, grief, body image, depression, anxiety and a plethora of other topics.

This memoir was refreshing because she exposed the problems in the movie industry. She spoke about being cast as the "overweight friend" when she was a size 8. As I discussed with a fellow instagram follower, this is problematic for two reasons. Why should a characters personality be reduced to their weight as a supposed "trait" and how can a size 8 ever be deemed overweight? This just shows the ridiculous standards and pressures placed on actors and actresses which presents such a bad image to the impressionable minds of the younger generation. Not only was she cast as the "overweight friend" but she was also dropped from a role after the network decided after having her baby her initial weight was too high, although she would likely lose lots of it throughout the filming and this could fit with her character arc.

However, the memoir I did think was problematic in places as Busy spoke about "not yet having a nanny" and having to go back to work a mere few days after having her daughter because she needed the money. This was because she was paying the mortgage on two houses after spending more than her means. For all of Busy's care and concerns with women's rights and highlighting the problems in the movie industry. She seemed a little too ignorant to the fact that she was both lucky to have the means to employ a nanny and have two homes. This sense of entitlement to having a nanny, which is entirely understandable given her career path and choices, just felt a little alienating as this feels like an extreme privilege given the cost of childcare.

Having said that Busy's brief discussions about grief as she spoke about her best friend losing her first love at a young age, which was entirely unexpected. She spoke about the heartache and the unfairness of losing a loved one when they were so young. She then spoke about her friendship with Michelle Williams and Heath Ledger, as she is goddaughter to their child. She spoke about the pain of finding out Heath was dead and the grief she experienced for her friend, but also for Michelle and her goddaughter. Having experienced my own loss last year, I found her discussion and emotive, yet brief, touch on grief very touching and something I could connect with. I think people have the tendency to brush over grief and hide our emotions, and this was the one aspect I can applaud Busy Philips on. She never shied away from her discussions about emotion.

Her narrative style for the audio was very good, she was very high-energy when she spoke about her teenage years which I think reflected the energy and vibrancy of youth. The emotion was thick in her voice when she spoke about her pain and traumas. She brought the style to life and at first I thought it was slightly irritating, I actually grew to really like it.

Overall an enjoyable listen and I'm definitely curious to see where Busy Philips goes in her career.