A good memoir has to have at least one of two elements: a strong story, or a strong voice. Beyoncé: Raising Genius has both. David Lee Brewer has produced a page-turner of a book detailing the rise of Destiny’s Child and Beyonce’ Knowles, including a description of all the grueling work that made their singing look effortless.

This book will leave you with nothing but admiration for the young women who were part of Destiny’s Child, who remained sweet, affectionate, and unspoiled, despite sacrificing most of their childhoods to a decade of unceasing labor. They stand in stark contrast to the often corrupt and frequently mean-spirited adults who exploited them for their own ends. Chief among these are Beyonce’s parents, Matthew and Celestine Knowles, who emerge as the two most vividly realized stage parents since Mama Rose.

As the group’s vocal coach, and as a live-in member of the Knowles household, David Lee Brewer was there to see it all. In telling Beyoncé’s story, he also tells his own. The result is a non-fiction book that reads as though it were a novel, with Brewer being an observer-participant in the manner of Nick Carraway telling the story of Jay Gatsby, or Nelly Dean giving us the dirt on the Linton and Earnshaw clans in Wuthering Heights.

Review text by Clayton Delery-Edwards
Prize Winning Author
Author of The Up Stairs Lounge Arson
Awarded Book of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities
Nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in Nonfiction

Beyoncé is one of the most recognizable names in the world. Why is it then, that unless you are an opera aficionado, you have never heard the name David Lee Brewer? Beyoncé: Raising Genius will rectify that!

David’s book takes a hard, critical, self-aware look at the shenanigans and machinations of everyone involved in the raising of this genius, including himself. Souls are sold and karmic debts mount up! Perhaps what is most astonishing are the lengths to which people will go just to play a small part in the story.

Ultimately, as a result of reading this page-turner of a book, I am left with a deep sense of understanding and compassion for all the casualties and collateral damage of this rise to superstardom, even for Mathew and Celestine Knowles.

If you are contemplating this life for yourself or your child, this may just be the most important cautionary tale you will ever read!

Review text by Aaron Edwards
Psychotherapist, M.Ed., LPC