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A review by readingwitherin
Somewhere Sisters: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family by Erika Hayasaki
5.0
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an e-arc in exchange for my honest review.
somewhere sisters tells the story of Isabella, Olivia, and Ha, three young women who were adopted. Olivia and Isabella were adopted by Americans and lived in the Chicago area. While Ha was raised in Vietnam by her aunt. Isabella and Ha are twins separated at a few weeks old, and they didn’t know the other one existed until they were older kids. They ended up meeting eventually with the work of Isabella and Olivia’s adopted mom Keely searching for Ha for years. Once she found her in Vietnam she worked on reconnecting the girls as well as finding Olivia’s birth family as well to try and give them a balance of both worlds. Throughout this, we are also learning some of the history of Vietnam and why so many children are put up for adoption. Somewhere Sisters goes into how finding out who your birth family is can be hard, and a lot to take in, and for some, it works, but for others, they don’t want that. The author Erika does such a good job of not only telling the three young women’s stories but also teaching about international adoptions and the twin theories we’ve all heard about. Erika followed the three women for four years as they graduated high school, traveled to Vietnam to visit birth families, and starting college. On top of that, all of the research and work that Erika put in is very well done and at the end of the book, she gives notes, a bibliography, and recommended reading for anyone wanting to learn more.
Overall I enjoyed reading this story. Learning about each of the girls, and a little about what they were feeling was interesting. Seeing how adoption affects everyone differently and why each of the girls was feeling that way was done so well by Erika. Each of the women got to have their own voice and to say what they wanted to about the situations that were happening.
I hope they are all able to do what they love in the future and continue to stay close with one another no matter where they all end up in this world for their jobs.
somewhere sisters tells the story of Isabella, Olivia, and Ha, three young women who were adopted. Olivia and Isabella were adopted by Americans and lived in the Chicago area. While Ha was raised in Vietnam by her aunt. Isabella and Ha are twins separated at a few weeks old, and they didn’t know the other one existed until they were older kids. They ended up meeting eventually with the work of Isabella and Olivia’s adopted mom Keely searching for Ha for years. Once she found her in Vietnam she worked on reconnecting the girls as well as finding Olivia’s birth family as well to try and give them a balance of both worlds. Throughout this, we are also learning some of the history of Vietnam and why so many children are put up for adoption. Somewhere Sisters goes into how finding out who your birth family is can be hard, and a lot to take in, and for some, it works, but for others, they don’t want that. The author Erika does such a good job of not only telling the three young women’s stories but also teaching about international adoptions and the twin theories we’ve all heard about. Erika followed the three women for four years as they graduated high school, traveled to Vietnam to visit birth families, and starting college. On top of that, all of the research and work that Erika put in is very well done and at the end of the book, she gives notes, a bibliography, and recommended reading for anyone wanting to learn more.
Overall I enjoyed reading this story. Learning about each of the girls, and a little about what they were feeling was interesting. Seeing how adoption affects everyone differently and why each of the girls was feeling that way was done so well by Erika. Each of the women got to have their own voice and to say what they wanted to about the situations that were happening.
I hope they are all able to do what they love in the future and continue to stay close with one another no matter where they all end up in this world for their jobs.