A review by bookedbymadeline
The Disappeared by Rebecca Sanford

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Thank you Netgalley and Blackstone publishing for the eARC!

I was pulled in right away! Emotional, moving story of family, justice, and the trauma, and occasional corruption, tied to adoption especially when it comes to adoptees searching for their identity.

I really related to the infertility depictions and thought they were beautifully handled. Although it does drive home the point that adoption isn’t some plan C if you can’t get pregnant because it’s full of harm and trauma and the mother very clearly needed therapy, not someone else’s child!

Shows the dark and corrupt side of the adoption industry and how parents like Jonathan adopt for the wrong reasons (to fill a void and wish they could have a “clean, history free” child). I fucking hated Jonathan 😳😂

The characters are well written, even the one I didn’t like, with so much depth and care added! The writing was beautiful, I can’t believe this is a debut and look forward to more from Sanford!! 

Overall this was a moving story about a piece of history I hadn’t known about! I flew through this book and loved getting to know the characters. I’d highly recommend if you enjoy stories about family secrets, finding your identity, and strong resilient women with seeds of hope planted throughout the pages 🤍

TW/CW: kidnapping, forced imprisonment, torture, grief, death, adoption trauma, infertility, miscarriage, suicide (brief mention), police brutality, medical trauma, blood, murder, death of parent
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