Your Worshipfulness, Princess Leia: Starring Carrie Fisher

by Jeff Ryan

Your Worshipfulness is the story of how a teenage Carrie Fisher created Star Wars's greatest character, Princess Leia. Leia began as little more than a damsel in distress, albeit one with cinema's most iconic hairstyle. Over three films, Carrie made her a complicated character, beloved the world over. Then Darth Vader died, the Ewoks danced, the credits rolled, and that was that. Carrie now had the rest of her life to live, stuck in Leia's shadow. What do you after the whole world has seen you duct-taped into a metal bikini? Worse, what can you do when the secrets you've tried to hide about your inner life won't stay hidden? When you can't control the thoughts in your head? Your Worshipfulness has money, sex, love, power, and romance. It's a story of addiction and mental illness, of recovery and fame, of friendship and motherhood, trying to be your best when you can only remember the worst.

Genres: Star Wars, Audiobook, Nonfiction

Audible Audio

Published June 18, 2024

About the author

Jeff Ryan is the author of FATHER AND SON ISSUES: THE SECRET HISTORY OF SPIDER-MAN, YOUR WORSHIPFULESS (about Carrie Fisher and Princess Leia), A MOUSE DIVIDED (about Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, and Mickey Mouse), and SUPER MARIO (about Nintendo and its spokerplumber Mario).

He has been published in Salon, Slate, Fast Company, Wired.com, Kotaku, and All Things Considered; and has been featured on NPR’s Marketplace, Time, Forbes, The New York Times, The Economist, The Independent, and Star Talk With Neil DeGrasse Tyson. He lives in Bloomfield, NJ, with his family.

If you don't put all money in the bag right now, he will write a book about Sharknado.

Reviews

[Lata · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Your Worshipfulness is about Princess Leia and how Carrie Fisher became the face of Star Wars. This book is written like an autobiography using interviews and stories. He shared how from the first movie we see Leia as someone who has hope. This is the thing that keeps us holding on when bad luck hits us. The book revealed her first audition for the role and how George Lucas had an act of making people feel like they didn’t get the part. He struggled with choosing who would play Leia he couldn’t get an image in his head. He didn’t know who he was looking for. George’s friend, Fred Roos kept trying to direct him towards picking Carrie who he met at a soiree. She ended up getting the role eventually. In the book, he walks readers through the different scenes and films she was in. The book also discussed her mother, Debbie Reynolds and how she was successful woman and grew her career. The book looked at Carrie’s dark secrets with drugs and mental illness. It touched on how she passed away and the legacy she left behind.


This book was an excellent read about her life story and how she became the actress that we all know and love. I would recommend this awesome book to anyone who is a fan of Star Wars and they enjoy watching Carrie on the big screen. It gave a behind the scenes look at her life that people may not be familiar with. It provided information that I haven’t read before about her life and background. Readers will get a taste of who she was as a person.

[Patti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Riverdale Avenue Books, and author Jeff Ryan for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. 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.

To read my full review please go to Your Worshipfulness, Princess Leia by Jeff Ryan – Insights into Carrie Fisher’s Life and Work as Princess Leia

[Lily · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

Thanks to NetGalley, Riverdale Avenue Books, and Pop for the advance copy.

[Brittany Lewis · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

[Literary Redhead · Rating 5 out of 5]

Offers great insight into Carrie Fisher, the actress and the 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!

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned a lot that I didn’t know.

[Rose Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a must read for any fan of Carrie Fisher/Princess Leia. And offers great insight into Carrie Fisher, the actress and person.

[Michelle "Champ" · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

Thanks toNetGalley for letting me get this one.