In what may be a relief to the Trump campaign a month out from the US election, the former first lady Melania Trump’s newly minted memoir has been given a lukewarm reception, filled with scant details and written like she asked ChatGPT for help.

Anyone hoping for her reaction to Donald Trump’s court case with porn star Stormy Daniels, their life together in New York and Palm Beach, how they parent their only child Barron, her views on his meetings with Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un, or insights into the January 6 insurrection, is out of luck.

Importantly, she does reveal her support for abortion rights.

Described by those who ordered a copy online (her publishers reportedly asked reviewers for a non-disclosure agreement and $US250,000 if they wanted to interview Melania), her self-titled book, Melania, is “truly bad”, “a stilted chronological recounting” and “slim” on detail.

“Despite revelations about the speech lifted from Michelle Obama, insight into the Netanyahus and her own apparent obsession with limousines, the former first lady’s book is interminably dull,” writes Vanity Fair’s book reviewer, Keziah Weir, who said she read the 256-page book in a few hours.

There’s ‘‘wobbly depictions of the 2020 election’’ – she points a finger at “the media, big tech, and the deep state,” and perpetuates unfounded claims of “suspicious voting activity”.

Weir says Melania dedicates “much ink” to the people who pay her compliments, while her origin story “brims with childhood anecdotes designed to refute the ‘bleak and inaccurate picture of my upbringing’ in her native Slovenia [including] … her father’s ‘exquisite vehicles’”.

She jumps from anecdote to story, often without context, suggesting to Weir the book felt like a first draft without a professional ghostwriter (think Prince Harry who got journalist J. R. Moehringer to pen Spare).

“Rather than offering illuminating interiority or glimpses into private moments – family discussions about Donald’s decision to run for office, for instance – there are instead interminable tick-tocks of public events, as though she asked Chat GPT for stage directions to her husband’s presidency.

“Amid the glitter, the book is bad.”

The New York Times said it was a “brazen whitewash of a presidency … slim and full of obfuscations”.

“Melania Trump’s new memoir offers a few new glimpses into a life she has carefully walled off from the public, but readers hoping to understand one of the most mysterious first ladies in modern history will not make it past the gilded front gate,” writes White House correspondent, Katie Rogers.

“Her grievances – with the news media, with ‘the opposition’ and with aides she believes failed her and her husband – sound a lot like her husband’s, only dressed up in couture.’’

The Independent says she doesn’t mention a single friend by name, it’s without illuminating anecdotes, and is “frankly, weird”.

Her husband Donald Trump, on the other hand, was full of praise.

He was “very proud”, Trump told social media.

“Her book is out Nationally, and for sale EVERYWHERE. It is really great! She was a fantastic First Lady, and shares that experience, and much more. She’s also a really good writer … perfect for Christmas.”

Here’s a few takeaways:

Support for abortion rights

“Individual freedom is a fundamental principle that I safeguard without a doubt,” she said in a video posted on X to promote the memoir.

“What does my body, my choice really mean?”

The phrase “my body, my choice” is used by advocates to defend the right to abortion, which was struck down in the US by a Supreme Court decision in 2022.

Melania writes only 12 paragraphs towards the end of the book.

Trump has previously taken credit for appointing three justices who helped to overturn the abortion rights case Roe v Wade.

The issue could swing voters towards Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris but Trump has appeared to shift his position during his campaign, distancing himself from radical activists advocating a ban on abortion even in extreme cases of rape and incest.

The 2020 US election result

The New York Times review states that even the parts of her book “that are meant to showcase her legacy are clouded by post-election unrest, largely prompted by her husband”.

“You can’t continue to count votes for days, which is what they did,” Melania wrote.

“It was a mess. Many Americans still have doubts about the election to this day. I am not the only person who questions the results.”

Barron and her ‘Be Best’ campaign

After Trump won the 2016 election, comedian Rosie O’Donnell suggested Barron, now 18, was autistic.

The NYT’s Katie Rogers says Melania wrote that Barron does not have autism, and that the episode inspired her to initiate the Be Best campaign on issues of childhood welfare and online bullying.

“Barron’s experience of being bullied both online and in real life following the incident is a clear indication of the irreparable damage caused,” Melania wrote.

“No apology can undo the harm inflicted upon him.”

The ‘I really don’t care jacket’

As for the jacket she wore in 2018 to a Mexico border trip?

She blames the media and her unnamed press secretary

The Independent says Melania wrote that the jacket was “a message for the media to let them know I was unconcerned with their opinions of me”, claiming the press secretary wouldn’t let her explain and instead told a reporter that the jacket had been “a fashion choice with no underlying message”.

“I want to clarify that I never instructed her to provide misinformation.

“I believe it is crucial for accurate information to be relayed to the media in order to maintain transparency and credibility.”