This book is perfect for any athlete who wants to play basketball in college and their families and friends. Reading The Rebounders would prompt anyone going through the recruitment process to ask the important questions. I wish I would have had access to such a resource when I was a player. Ms. Ottoway relays this information through detailed stories of her own experiences as a D1 student-athlete in a way that is relatable and intriguing even to those of us past our playing age. I did not anticipate that I would find NCAA rules so important to understand or interesting to read about, but reading how violations of those rules impact players made me feel protective of Ms. Ottoway and her teammates and current players. Reading this wonderful book gave me as a fan much greater respect for the young women who play, I encourage everyone to read it.

This memoir of a young woman who was recruited by a mid-major Division I school was honest and written in a manner that fit the thoughts and lifestyle of a player that age.. However, it was not a book that held my interest as I found it hard to follow. I do wish to thank University of Nebraska Publishing for providing a copy of this book, but unfortunately I just found this topic and style of writing to be something I did not enjoy.

THE REBOUNDERS by Amanda Ottaway is a memoir about being a Division I women's basketball player. Being a excellent athlete, and yet somewhere around the middle of the talent pool within all of women's collegiate basketball, Ottaway's perspective gives a very relatable and working class feel to the book. From high school playing and recruiting, to accepting the new life as a scholarship college student, to setting an example for teammates and young women yearning to play basketball at a Division I level, THE REBOUNDERS carries Ottaway from aspiring youth to a grounded and level-headed adult ready to take on the world.
Ottaway doesn't shy away sharing how so many decisions she made she questioned, doubted, and still ponders many choices she made. It's a very heart-on-your-sleeve approach to a memoir, but therefore by sharing the self doubt and nervous indecision, the book is about as real as you can get. She connects many of her experiences to greater discussions, like stereotyping women athletes as less feminine that other women, to the realities of women's college athletes vs men's college athletes, (although she is quick to admit that women's basketball has it better than most women's sports), to balancing friendship and comradery with her teammates and yet competing with them at the same time. Ottaway points out challenges she had along the way, but is not afraid to confess that she created some of the those challenges by the choices she made.
Gritty, honest, and in your face, THE REBOUNDERS entertains with a recounting of a young athlete but also enlightens a reader to the good and bad of being a female in collegiate athletics.

The blurb for this memoir pulled me in. Overall, the book delivers what it promises as far as the narrative thread, but the writing got too in the weeds for me at times.