Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was initially excited to read this book but that quickly turned into absolute disappointment, there are several items that I cannot get past and even disagree with the author on certain subjects. I can also admit that it does have a few good points but they are all overshadowed by the author’s condescending tone and disparaging remarks about being an adoptive parent. The author is incredibly discouraging toward the adoption process in general. The book is incredibly biased, jaded and one sided. Perhaps it is slanted that way because of the author’s own troubled experiences with her adopted child, however her personal opinions are treated as facts throughout the book, and this is another concern for me personally. Several of the author’s statements that are not true or verifiable as the book seems unbalanced and speaks in near absolutes. Her conclusions throughout the book are unsupported yet absolute, her supporting ‘evidence’ for her arguments are either her personal experiences, biased observations, or selected anecdotes. Reading the book makes the adoptive parent feel as though they are not and will never be able to provide enough of a supportive and loving family environment for a child and I can only imagine that it makes an adoptee feel as though they are a victim of adoption with a horrible wound that will never heal, this revelation somehow does not seem at all therapeutic to me at all. Throughout the book she states with certainty that any child born via a surrogate mother will have a primal wound, as well as a child who was in the NICU, or an adopted child, and she starts to hint that she believes that children whose mothers work full time are going to have primal wounds as well. Again, I feel like the book did have a few good points, but If you are going to read a book on this topic, perhaps there is another similar book that is more well-rounded, unbiased and encouraging that would benefit the adoptive parents understanding of the subject, the adoptive child, and the birth mother/birth family. I personally found “The Connected Child” to be a much more uplifting and inspirational read that addresses the adoption of a child who’s experienced early loss of a birth parent through a more hopeful and adoption-positive light with the emphasis that adoptive parents can help bring hope and healing to a child. I do not ever really feel compelled to write reviews on anything but this is one book that I feel I must caution others about reading. The only reason that this book gets a one-star review from me is due to the simple fact that I cannot select a 0 star rating or less.