Take a photo of a barcode or cover
jennareadsthings 's review for:
Family Family
by Laurie Frankel
The novel was okay. I appreciate that the adoption wasn’t particularly traumatic, although I have a lot of questions about how she got to adopt two children so young and the children don’t read as believable. And like, I’ve taught 11-18 year olds for a number of years now. So I do have reference points.
I think that more interesting is reading the comments. Some praise the book as being revolutionary and others feel that it does a disservice to adoptions. I don’t love when people speak for me without my consent. Or perhaps misspeak on my behalf. And like. My adoption wasn’t huge trauma from which I need to recover. In that, I agree in many ways that family is family is family. I see the point about centering the adoptive parents over the adoptee or birth mother but I think that sort of reinforces the point—there is no one narrative that needs to be upheld. Representation matters, and good representation in addition to struggles.
I usually won’t write a long review for a book I rate as “good”, which is what 3 stars signifies to me. But. I dunno. As an adoptee, my stance is different from many of my peers. It didn’t speak to their experience, clearly. I’m not sure it spoke directly to mine. But I think that’s okay. I don’t think this novel did a disservice to adoptees. I do… think there was a conversation about whiteness—on the part of the child, the birth mother, and the adoptive parents that could have, and perhaps should have, been explored.
I think that more interesting is reading the comments. Some praise the book as being revolutionary and others feel that it does a disservice to adoptions. I don’t love when people speak for me without my consent. Or perhaps misspeak on my behalf. And like. My adoption wasn’t huge trauma from which I need to recover. In that, I agree in many ways that family is family is family. I see the point about centering the adoptive parents over the adoptee or birth mother but I think that sort of reinforces the point—there is no one narrative that needs to be upheld. Representation matters, and good representation in addition to struggles.
I usually won’t write a long review for a book I rate as “good”, which is what 3 stars signifies to me. But. I dunno. As an adoptee, my stance is different from many of my peers. It didn’t speak to their experience, clearly. I’m not sure it spoke directly to mine. But I think that’s okay. I don’t think this novel did a disservice to adoptees. I do… think there was a conversation about whiteness—on the part of the child, the birth mother, and the adoptive parents that could have, and perhaps should have, been explored.