Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book fails miserably at all the things it claims to be. It perfectly fits my usual interests -- memoir! adoption! OPEN adoption! I was so excited to see a book that fit my odd little reading niche so nicely, especially for free. I dove into it, hoping it would be my first great read of the year. It was not. From the memoir perspective -- it's just not a good book. It's vague and too quick in places it shouldn't be, and long and rambling in others. It reads similarly to a teenage or early college essay, just a lot of information and correct grammar and syntax but no overarching point or skill to craft the narrative. The author basically shares her personal life, including a long list of ex-lovers but without the catchy songs of Taylor Swift. It's an odd reading experience because while nothing happens, it moves very... quickly. I felt like I could never really settle in and get to know the characters, the author included, in a way that would make me want to see what happened next. It was just reading the telling, telling, telling of a complete stranger. It didn't really cut it as a memoir. And that's without the adoption piece added. Add the adoption piece and... oh my. Here it becomes more of a dumpster fire. The author sort of describes the adoption process but not really -- the whole thing falls victim to the same badly-written and poorly-paced "memoir" of her previous lovers. We kind of hear about the training process, but not much. She makes some general, surface-level explanatory statements about adoption that are the equivalent of an adoption agency brochure or an awkward group presentation on "What is Adoption?" in a 100-level college course. She spends a stunningly narcissistic and self-indulgent amount of time on an internet argument, where she got (rightfully) attacked for asking to adopt someone's baby. And so it goes. The whole book strikes a tone that is somehow beyond the typical adoptive-parent-centric, adopter-as-savior tone into one where literally everyone surrounding the author is treated only as a prop. No one is developed as an actual person, and I would say they're only used to further the narrative except there isn't even much narrative. The depth and detail given is of the sort that would maybe be appropriate for an 800-word essay, and even then it just feels... off. It's just not a good book, from a reading perspective, and from an adoption perspective it's at best useless (adopting a kid doesn't mean you have an interesting story or one that needs told) and at most harmful (the author's attitude towards her kids' biological family is dismissive and self-centered). So much for my first read of the year being a lovely adoption memoir. Back to my weird British mysteries. If you are looking for an open adoption memoir, God and Jetfire was, in my opinion, a lovely one. I don't get any compensation for that. I just really liked it, found the writing to be beautiful and the book was very humanizing of all parties.