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sarahhyatt 's review for:
The How & the Why
by Cynthia Hand
This was a disappointment and didn't really add anything new as an adoption story. It relied heavily on tired and overdone adoption tropes -- closed adoption because the adoptive parents were afraid the birth mother would "want her back" -- that's not how it works AT ALL, secrecy on the part of adoptive parents, adoptee decides to search for her birth mother but feels extreme guilt because of her parents, and except for a twist ending that doesn't get much follow up, the resolution is basically that the ~search was enough~ and she doesn't need to know. It's anticlimactic and unsatisfying. The plot is basically "adoption search!" but it lacks a lot of the emotion and complexity of similar YA books. Some other minor plot points that I hoped would be tied up or connected in some way weren't. I didn't feel like this book added anything new as far as adoption literature. Which isn't an official thing, maybe, except I just made it one.