The Girl I Am, Was, and Never Will Be

I love exploring the idea of how life might be completely different if… if I had made different choices, if my parents had made different choices, if something seemingly inconsequential had or hadn’t happened.

Shannon’s book took me on a fantastical journey into her own imaginings of the alternate lives she could have had as an adoptee, and by extension, it made me think about the possibilities for my own life differently. As adoptees, sometimes we don’t allow ourselves the luxury of even imagining these possibilities; Shannon’s book offered a safe space to do just that.

Written for the high-end of the YA market, this book goes well beyond memoir as a genre.

Conversations about the interplay of race and adoption are often fraught, and at their worst, some will invoke adoption as big-hearted rescue. “But for the adoption,” they will ask, “what do you think that child’s life would have been like?”

Gibney’s text (recommended to me on social media) answers this terrible question with profound, knee-buckling speculation, turning a simple memoir into the story of multiple possibilities, and highlighting the sharp, searing turning points that make us who we are – and that mark… show more.

I have to spotlight a 2023 release that completely blew me away when I read an advanced reader’s copy. Shannon Gibney’s part memoir, part speculative fiction novel about growing up as a mixed-raced Black transracial adoptee is stunning and should be on everyone’s radar. Interwoven are letters, family photos, adoption documents, and the fictional story of Erin Powers—the name Shannon was given at birth. As a mixed Black & white person, I related so much to Shannon (and Erin’s) inner thoughts navigating mostly-white spaces. This book is a unique, genre-bending exploration of the complexities of the adoptee experience, and is… show more.