melodyonline 's review for:

All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung

5.0

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If not something I felt, not precisely, not yet, love was something I aspired to.

This book blessed me. It is profoundly beautiful, honest, and vulnerable. And yes, I cried.

The greatness of this book lies in Nicole Chung's excellent craft. It is expert level. It is precision. Her story itself is amazing, but the way she tells it? It is so moving and so fantastic, I was highlighting multiple sentences in the first couple of pages. Chung deftly introduces the reader to this highly specific life experience that is truly incomparable to any other life experience. And I walked away feeling enlightened. The way she puts her feelings and her experiences into words is just so damn good. It's so GOOD, y'all.

Many reviewers have noted that there aren't many stories out there about adoption told from the perspective of the adult adoptee, especially when the kids and the parents are of different races or cultures. Part of me went into this wanting knowledge. I recently became interested in learning more about adoption and this was so much more than educational. To call it educational feels like an understatement or like I'm oversimplifying.

It's a story about the complexities of family and the intricacies of love. We're going on a transformative journey with Chung. So while we're getting these very personal scenes, they read as if anyone can relate. It opened the doors to a world I knew very little about and made me ask questions about myself and my family history and my future family that I wouldn't have asked otherwise. Overall, it ended up being ten times more relatable than I ever thought it would be going into it.

If you have a family, of any kind - not just the adopted kind - you will be all about this book, you will love it, you will cry just like me. 10/10 recommend !