Heartbreak Is the National Anthem

I went into this book absolutely loving it. As a musician in my real life, a Swiftie, and a booklover, this book was right up my alley!

I loved the deep dive into Taylor's musical history, and the tidbits into her process when releasing music. I loved learning about all the people Taylor's had supporting her, and how she's supported so many others throughout her career. Overall, I did like the book.

However, things did start to go downhill for me. After a few chapters it seemed like it changed from a book about Taylor Swift, her career, and how she impacted the music industry (especially for young, female pop artists), into a book about the author, and his “relationship” with Taylor. After the third time of hearing “when I first heard (insert album here), I was sitting in her apartment”, it felt more like bragging than an actual interesting fact. There's also a line about there being a song about alien abduction, but no elaboration, that made me very confused.

Rob Sheffield, the author, writes a lot about the female experience, which is great, but it's difficult to fully portray what it means to be a woman in the music industry, without actually being a woman in the music industry.

Like I said, I did like this book, but I wish it was a little more Taylor-centric.

Thank you to Harlequin Aus for my copy of this book. All thoughts are my own!