Half a World Away in Around the World in 80 Books

Jan 10, 2015 Kirsten Barber rated it did not like it

Shelves: genre-fiction, mood-disturbing, level-middle-grade, representation-asian, genre-realistic-fiction, topic-adoption, setting-central-asia, setting-kazakhstan

I think the problem with this book is that I hated all of the characters. Jaden's adoptive mom is a huge pushover, his dad is passive, and Jaden himself is a little brat. Yes, he had a terrible first eight years of his life, being abandoned and shuffled from group home to group home, and I understand that those kinds of experiences would most definitely scar a child, but I still didn't like him. Sorry. I hated being inside his head for the entire book. I wanted my life back.

On top of disliking a I think the problem with this book is that I hated all of the characters. Jaden's adoptive mom is a huge pushover, his dad is passive, and Jaden himself is a little brat. Yes, he had a terrible first eight years of his life, being abandoned and shuffled from group home to group home, and I understand that those kinds of experiences would most definitely scar a child, but I still didn't like him. Sorry. I hated being inside his head for the entire book. I wanted my life back.

On top of disliking all of the main characters, this book completely turned me off to the idea of international adoption. I have great admiration for the people who do it, but I can't imagine going through getting an eight-year-old adoptee who I had been told was a preschooler, being told my agency was going out of business the week before I left for a foreign country for my second adoption but no worries (yeah right), showing up in said foreign country to find out the baby I was promised was nowhere to be found, being forced to choose a new baby in five minutes without a doctor examining him/her, having to choose said baby from a group of five or six that all seem to have special needs ("very healthy?" sure...), or going through with the adoption after all this had happened. Maybe that makes me a cruel-hearted person, but I would have walked away at that point if I had arrived in the country and the baby I was supposed to adopt was gone. That just gives me a bad vibe. If they're sketchy about that, what else are they lying about? Not to say that adopting a special needs child is unthinkable, but for a family that was not mentally, emotionally, and possibly financially prepared for that level of commitment, maybe not the smartest idea. Reading other reviews of this book is even more frightening, because some reviewers say that this book echoes what they have experienced through their own international adoptions!?!?!?! Yikes.

I can't say that the writing was really that great. Jaden's fixation on electricity was very strange, and I felt like Kadohata even got tired of talking about it halfway through. When Jaden got to see the eagle hunting for prey, I felt like that part could have been the start of a change in Jaden, and while it was the turning point in the story, I don't know if Kadohata made it clear enough how that experienced actually changed Jaden. The book just felt so unfinished. I can't see any kid reading this one and enjoying it. Yes, it's targeted at the middle grade age range, but the story and the way Kadohata tells it feels more like a book for adults. Adults that hate their lives.

Honestly, after finishing this book, I can't imagine a scenario where Jaden and his family will ever be happy after all of this. I felt utterly hopeless for all of the characters, including the adoptive baby and the toddler with whom Jaden bonds - and I have a pretty high tolerance for depressing books.

I'm going to go read something happy now. ...more

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