Far from the Tree by Robin Benway
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Title: Far from the Tree
Author: Robin Benway
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Published October 3rd 2017 by HarperTeen
ISBN: 0062330624 (ISBN13: 9780062330628)
Synopsis
A contemporary novel about three adopted siblings who find each other at just the right moment.
Being the middle child has its ups and downs.
But for Grace, an only child who was adopted at birth, discovering that she is a middle child is a different ride altogether. After putting her own baby up for adoption, she goes looking for her biological family, including—
Maya, her loudmouthed younger bio sister, who has a lot to say about their newfound family ties. Having grown up the snarky brunette in a house full of chipper redheads, she’s quick to search for traces of herself among these not-quite-strangers. And when her adopted family’s long-buried problems begin to explode to the surface, Maya can’t help but wonder where exactly it is that she belongs.
And Joaquin, their stoic older bio brother, who has no interest in bonding over their shared biological mother. After seventeen years in the foster care system, he’s learned that there are no heroes, and secrets and fears are best kept close to the vest, where they can’t hurt anyone but him.
When I went back on reading the Contemporary genre, I started first on this book before I read The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord. And this is technically the main reason why my insights of a Contemporary genre changed a lot.
Far From the Tree gave me one of the most important things in life, wherever you came from, a family is one of the treasures that God gave to us, whether they are your biological family or from an adopted family.
That's what parents do. They catch you before you fall. That's what family is.
Far from the Tree conveys a lot of messages. It has 3 POV’s, Grace, Maya, and Joaquin. Grace being a teenage mom, Maya handling her anxiety and fears on belonging to her adopted family, and Joaquin who also fears on being accepted to his new adopted family because of his tragic past of moving back and forth to foster care.
These characters definitely portray real life problems that people at a young age experience.
Sometimes people broke too hard and you could never put them back together the same way.
I liked the fact that Robin Benway made them real in my mind. The issues that they are dealing with are very hard to deal with of course, but through her writing, through every chapter, they are slowly building up themselves and learns to accept who they are and what they can overcome.
You see, Far From the Tree surprised me genuinely. At one point I reach the top when I felt everything falls into the right place and then the next crashed me down. Like it will definitely make you feel sad. Most of my reading time is my empathy with them. Hiding and facing problems is also one of my topmost issues to be honest. That is why Grace, Maya, and Joaquin made a huge step on being close to my bookish heart.
But let’s get to the main point here, Far From the Tree has a lot of topics that readers can definitely break in through. Teenage pregnancy, anxiety, foster care and adoption. These topics made the book way more beautiful than I expected to be. Stories like these needed a lot of spotlights and I am really happy and proud that Robin Benway made the characters steady as a rock throughout this kind of journey.
And sometimes, family hurt each other. But after that's done you bandage each other up, and you move on.
Far From the Tree shifts the readers to the sensitive parts of belonging to a family. This book widened me up on what it means in accepting who we are and the reason why having a family is not just something that you see or feel in a biological way. A family is all about the people who will always be there for you. They cry with you, care for you and most especially unconditionally love you.
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