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laura_corsi's review against another edition
4.0
An amazing coming of age story. I loved it. I started out rooting for the adoptive parents since that is the side I identified with most closely. However, by the end I was in love with all of Ms. Chung’s journey: her adoptive family, her birth family, and her own created family. This is how life and love is—complicated and messy, hard and wonderful. Maybe none of us are ever completely whole, but we need to start enjoying the good pieces!!
agmaynard's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.0
Well constructed and smoothly written memoir that tugs the reader through Nicole's early life and her search for the origins of her transracial adoption and birth family, with occasional looks at sister Cindy's experiences.
Not too far from the end: "I finally understood what my birth parents did not: my adoption was hard, and complicated, but it was not a tragedy. It was not my fault, and it wasn't theirs, either. It was the easiest way to solve just one of too many problems."
Not too far from the end: "I finally understood what my birth parents did not: my adoption was hard, and complicated, but it was not a tragedy. It was not my fault, and it wasn't theirs, either. It was the easiest way to solve just one of too many problems."
bookph1le's review against another edition
3.0
Honestly, the three stars are because I'm just not a huge fan of memoirs. But I wanted to read this one because it does pose some important questions about trans-racial adoptions.
All in all, it is well written and the author provides a lot of honest dialog about her feelings of lacking an identity. She also writes affectingly about her fears and ambivalence about reconnecting with her birth family.
This book really did give me a lot to think about.
All in all, it is well written and the author provides a lot of honest dialog about her feelings of lacking an identity. She also writes affectingly about her fears and ambivalence about reconnecting with her birth family.
This book really did give me a lot to think about.
jenny_higgins's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.25
An excellent and incredibly informative foray into international/inter-racial adoption. I was grateful to have read her story.
lediamond4's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.5
3.5 rounded up to 4 because I think the importance of Nicole Chung’s story outweighs the structural issues I had while reading it. The writing is so-so and even though it’s just over 200 pages, it actually felt long/redundant to me at times. I’d say it could have been an essay but at the same time I think that an essay would have left me wanting more.