When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology - Edited by Shannon Gibney & Nicole Chung - ★★★.½

EDITORS: Shannon Gibney & Nicole Chung

GENRE: YA Anthology.

RATING: 3.6 stars.

In a Nutshell: An #OwnVoices anthology focussed on transracial adoptive experiences, written by adoptee YA authors. Love the themes and the intent. The stories were a mixed bag for me, but that’s partly because I am not a big YA fan.

This is an anthology of fifteen stories, each written by an adoptee author. In fact, not just adoptee, but a transracial adoptee. The central character in each story is also a transracial adoptee, thereby giving the author a chance to imbue their protagonists with authenticity. The stories come from varied genres such as drama, sci-fi, and fantasy. The adoptees are also cross-cultural, coming from backgrounds as varied as Black, South Asian, East Asian, Mexican, and Indigenous American.

I am not at all a fan of YA writing, but I couldn’t resist this collection for various reasons. The title, the cover, the theme, the authors and their OwnVoices credentials – all ensured that I grabbed this as soon as I saw it, keeping my apprehensions about the YA factor aside. Thankfully, the writing in more than half of the stories was not typical YA in style.

Most of my friends know my passion for author's notes in anthologies. I love knowing the theme and the approach through the writers’ perspectives. In this book, I was spoilt for choice. There's a foreword by Rebecca Carroll (a transracial adoptee and a writer/producer), an introduction by the two editors (which would have been marvellous to read but was missing from my ARC 🙁), an afterword by Dr. JaeRan Kim (a transracial adoptee and an associate professor at the University of Washington), and an author's note as well. There is also a further reading list.

As the central theme is transracial adoption, every single story features a protagonist who is dealing with conflicted emotions not just related to being adopted but also about not fitting in with their family in terms of looks/skin colour. A couple of the stories also have the protagonists struggling with gender or sexual identity issues, thereby adding a third layer of inner turmoil to the plot. While all the protagonists are teens, their age-related behaviour is balanced with their honest feelings about their adoptive status.

Many of the stories do justice to the entire theme. A few seem to focus more either on the racial aspects or on the adoption aspects, but not on both. However, as race and adoption are equal parts of the theme and so relevant in today's world especially to youngsters, I appreciate both the approaches. In some stories, the race/adoption problem stays in the background while the central conflict of the story is something else altogether. These are my least favourite ones, as they do not stay true to the core intent.

While the writing is very much YA in essence (I can’t complain about this as it is meant to be a YA anthology), some of the stories show a depth much beyond what is common in this genre. These tales end up being thought-provoking, revealing to us how difficult it is to fit in when everything, including our own skin colour, tells us that we are misfits. The racial identity crisis comes across prominently through this anthology.

At the same time, I had expected a greater emotional impact considering the theme, but most left me feeling untouched. Could this be because of the YA factor? I am not sure. But one thing I appreciate was that most of the stories had an individuality to them. I never felt like there was a repetition in the content, despite the theme’s being so specific.

As always, I rated the stories individually. My rating factored in not just my enjoyment of the story but also how adequately the story did justice to the theme. Of the fifteen stories, five reached or crossed the four star mark. The rest were mostly clustered around the 3-star mark, with just a couple of duds.

These were my favourites from this set:

💐 Cora and Benji's Great Escape - Mariama J. Lockington: An interesting story about how a white parent goes out of the way to learn more about her adopted daughter’s Black origins, without understanding what her daughter actually wants. This was among the most heartfelt stories in the book, and that caused me to see many things with a new perspective. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

💐 Shawl Dance - Susan Harness: Loved the perspective of the Indigenous protagonist in this impactful tale. The information I learnt from this story was astounding, but it also felt somewhat like social commentary. Nevertheless, a great read overall. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

💐 Truffles (or Don't Worry, the Dog Will Be Fine) - Eric Smith: Using a disabled puppy to dig home the problem of being a misfit and feeling unwanted in your own home? Me likey. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟💫

💐 Catch - Nicole Chung: While the story was simple in plot and structure, I loved the way it was written. Rare for a short story to make me feel so connected to the characters. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

💐 Deadwood - Kelley Baker: The only story to have a grandparent rather than a parent in a key role. Liked the buildup and the ending in this one. - 🌟🌟🌟🌟

All in all, I’d still recommend this anthology. We need more inclusive OwnVoices works, and with such an authentic array of voices as in this story collection, it would be silly to miss out on some genuine experiences about being a transracial adoptee. I am sure YA readers will connect with these to an even greater extent.

3.6 stars, based on the average of my individual ratings for each story.

My thanks to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for the DRC of “When We Become Ours”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.