I was excited to read Becoming Spectacular by Jennifer Jones, intrigued by the story of the first African American Rockette and her groundbreaking journey. While her story is undeniably inspiring, I found myself struggling to stay engaged and ultimately couldn’t finish the book.

One of the challenges for me was that the memoir often veered into self-help territory, with frequent “if I can do it, you can too” messages about hard work and determination. While these sentiments are uplifting, they became repetitive and detracted from the storytelling for me.

Additionally, the level of detail in the book felt overwhelming at times. While I can appreciate the effort to provide a thorough account, it often slowed the narrative and made it difficult to maintain my interest.

Despite these challenges, Jennifer Jones’ story is an important and courageous one, and I admire her strength and perseverance in breaking barriers. Readers who enjoy deeply detailed memoirs and motivational narratives may find more to appreciate here than I did.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Amistad Publishing for sharing this copy with me.

I enjoyed getting to read this memoir and learning about what was happening with Jennifer Jones. It was a great peek in the Rockette world and thought the stories were really well done. It kept me reading and was glad I got to read this.