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christie_esau's review
4.0
Another important, beautiful and heartbreaking memoir from a transracial adoptee (a Korean woman growing up in a white Canadian family).
smalltownbookmom's review against another edition
4.0
Born in South Korea, Jenny Heijun Wills was adopted by a white Canadian couple as a baby and grew up in Southern Ontario. This is a really touching, nonlinear retelling of her transracial experience growing up in Canada and her return journey to Korea when she was in her 30s to find and reconnect with her birth family and culture. She was lucky that records still existed and was able to find both parents (she was the result of an affair between her mother and her married father, and it is through her that they themselves reconnect for the first time after 30 years) and some siblings. She ends up developing a strong bond with one sister, who follows her back to Canada. Told in a series of disjointed vingettes, the story at times is hard to follow but her writings about the bonds of family, the struggle to fit in growing up and her experiences with racism are deeply moving. I definitely recommend this memoir and especially loved reading about Jenny’s own journey to motherhood and the deep and abiding bonds of love that form between mother and child.
TW: rape, domestic abuse and microagressions.
TW: rape, domestic abuse and microagressions.
pussnb00ks's review
5.0
incredible just incredible, the writing and lyricism was brilliant and the content was so intimate and touching and made me think and feel so deeply. genius work.
megannwray's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
4.0
listened as audiobook
coversofceilidh's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.5
valodniece's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
3.75
A heartwrenching story of international adoption and its ripple effects. I just wish she hadn't been so cavalier about descriptions and occurrences of sexual assault .
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Bullying, Racial slurs, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Eating disorder
brogan7's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.5
This is a very intense read. It's not a redemption story, although why on earth it should be, I don't know, I mean that was my expectation and not for any good reason.
Jenny Heijun Wills was adopted as a baby by Canadian parents. She was born in Korea to a father who had another wife, and a mother who wasn't given the opportunity to keep her.
In her late twenties, she tracked down her birth parents and went to Korea to meet them.
They're a mess, she's a mess, and the story continues to unfold from there over a period of years ... what does it mean to be a family? What does it mean to be a grown woman but looking for a parent as a baby looks for a parent? What does it mean to try to communicate across language barriers that exist specifically because the child was plucked from her country, her culture and her mother?
Jenny Heijun Wills was adopted as a baby by Canadian parents. She was born in Korea to a father who had another wife, and a mother who wasn't given the opportunity to keep her.
In her late twenties, she tracked down her birth parents and went to Korea to meet them.
They're a mess, she's a mess, and the story continues to unfold from there over a period of years ... what does it mean to be a family? What does it mean to be a grown woman but looking for a parent as a baby looks for a parent? What does it mean to try to communicate across language barriers that exist specifically because the child was plucked from her country, her culture and her mother?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny, Eating disorder, Racism, and Rape
Minor: Terminal illness and Infertility
TW: adoption