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Reviews
Relinquished: The Politics of Adoption and the Privilege of American Motherhood by Gretchen Sisson
booksawyer's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
slow-paced
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Abortion, Mental illness, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Abandonment, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, and Rape
Minor: Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse
lowkeymarie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Drug use, and Abortion
elizabethmcspencer's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75
mpatterson610's review against another edition
4.5
A really interesting read that touches on abortion access, pro-life/choice and religion, and emphasizes how much of the domestic adoption industry was built on Christianity and white supremacy. Also emphasizes how much even a very meager universal basic income would change so many lives.
jpgouda's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
5.0
hayley_vm's review
5.0
Absolutely breathtaking. A must-read for anyone interested in bodily autonomy and reproductive justice. This is a deeply researched book about mothers who have relinquished infants for adoption, uplifting voices that have been erased from the discourse around adoption and abortion for far too long. As Dr. Sisson explains through these women's stories, people of all political leanings have uncritically embraced adoption as this perfect solution for many social issues surrounding parenting - but that's not the reality for so many birth/first parents. Many have been coerced by private adoption agencies or felt they were left with no other choice but to relinquish when they preferred parenting or abortion but didn't have access to the resources they needed. And that says nothing of the larger structural issues of the adoption industrial complex and what makes a "good" family, another topic that Sisson covers in-depth. This book is heartbreaking in so many ways, but SO needed. It helps fill an enormous gap in social sciences research on reproductive autonomy. Will definitely be a common citation in my own work!
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC.
Thank you to St. Martin's Press for the ARC.