Family Family

​"Not all stories of adoption are stories of pain and regret. Not even most of them. Why don't we ever get that movie?"

India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward sixteen-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero.

Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life though. She wants everyone to know there's more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do -- she tells a journalist the truth: it's a bad movie.

Soon she's at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi, from protesters on the right and advocates on the left. Her twin ten-year-olds know they need help - and who better to call than family? But that's where it gets really messy because India's not just an adoptive mother...

The one thing she knows for sure is what makes a family isn't blood. And it isn't love. No matter how they're formed, the truth about family is this: it's complicated.

Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Published: 01/23/2024
Pages: 400
Weight: 1lbs
Size: 9.25h x 6.12w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9781250236807


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 08/01/2023 pg. 13
Booklist 10/15/2023 pg. 22
Kirkus Reviews 11/01/2023
Library Journal 11/01/2023 pg. 54
Publishers Weekly 11/06/2023