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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
dark
emotional
sad
fast-paced
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Solid and well-written, part of me feels bad giving it 3-stars. But again, 3-stars is good! Solid and respectable. I found the straight forward tone and subject matter very appealing and this book/memoir is incredibly readable. At the same time, there seemed to be a distance in that tone, and it was hard for me to connect and feel as if I knew the author. Of course, the author doesn’t owe me that sort of intimacy — and I think trotting out our trauma in a way to please the audience is highly overrated.
Anyway. Interesting, full of love, compassion, and gentle firmness, I enjoyed the book.
Anyway. Interesting, full of love, compassion, and gentle firmness, I enjoyed the book.
I hate to do this, but life's too short. I had to DNF this one. And I'm really disappointed by it. As someone adopted by her father with an adopted sister from Russia, I thought we might relate to this book & I that I might send it to her. But that isn't the case here. Nicole Chung's written a VERY specific personal story about the way adoption has impacted her own life and choices but then infuses it with more arching statements like, "adopted children feel.." No, Nicole. SOME adopted children feel. The things she felt were so off from what my sister describes to me I actually felt offended on my sister's behalf. I couldn't keep reading it, and if you're not an adopted person who has had a very similar emotional experience to the author you're probably going to feel annoyed. Just check out the other 2 star reviews.
For anyone with similar feelings to the author's own views, you should go for it - same for anyone just looking to read AN experience of adoption. Just keep in mind it does not apply to everyone as implied in the book.
Honestly, this being only HER story would have been fine if not for those implications. And it bothers me more in retrospect now hearing every interview she gave responding to similar criticism saying she just wrote HER story. If that were the case, there wouldn't have been sections that sounded like she was speaking for all of us.
For anyone with similar feelings to the author's own views, you should go for it - same for anyone just looking to read AN experience of adoption. Just keep in mind it does not apply to everyone as implied in the book.
Honestly, this being only HER story would have been fine if not for those implications. And it bothers me more in retrospect now hearing every interview she gave responding to similar criticism saying she just wrote HER story. If that were the case, there wouldn't have been sections that sounded like she was speaking for all of us.
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Beautifully written. One of the few times I wished I’d read the memoir instead of listening to it though.