heatherinjapan's review against another edition
This book is about internationl adoption and it's giving off some red flags pointing to a white savior complex kind of storyline. I obviously don't know if it will go into some of the darker things that happen in adoption agencies and from adopting a child of a different race, religious background, etc. But there are some signs of the toxic ideas people have about adopting a child from a country dealing with a lot of poverty and child mortality. The idea of "saving" a child from that life just because you can't have a baby, as sad as that is, is a very "me"-centered way of thinking. You get to be a savior while also getting a child you want to make you feel more like a woman. It's such a complicated issue.
nglofile's review against another edition
2.0
Disappointing. The story manages to be both disjointed and sprawling. Also, the various messages (family, adoption, marriage, cross-culturalism, poverty and oppression, gender roles, and vocation) are heavy-handed.
audiobook note: Nankini's narration is rather flat, though that may be partly due to the prose itself.
audiobook note: Nankini's narration is rather flat, though that may be partly due to the prose itself.
laveena's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
dgignac's review
4.0
This one really stuck with me after I finished reading it. It was a very interesting read.
nidhi30's review
4.0
I thoroughly enjoyed this novel. I loved that Secret daughters sheds light on many controversial issues in India, such as sexism, poverty, corruption etc. Often these issues are over looked in popular media and Bollywood. I enjoyed the exploration of cultural themes and identity,especially in Asha's character who is conflicted at times about who she is, and throughout the novels discoverers a whole new part of her while spending time in India.
emilyusuallyreading's review
4.0
What I Liked
Broken and patchwork families are contrasted in this novel, which I love. There is the interracial/intercultural marriage between white American Somer and Indian Krishnan. There is their adoption story of bringing Asha to American from India when the child was one year old. There is the starkly different life of Jasu and Kavita, a married couple living in the rural area and eventually the slums of India. I loved that Gowda shone a light on the difficultly of marriage between two starkly different cultures - and that she showed the loss and grief that comes with the gain of adoption, particularly when a child's cultural identity is lost in the process.
Chapter-to-chapter, the story switches narrators, from Kavita to Somer to Asha and so on. This kept the novel fast-paced and an easy, active read.
What I Didn't Like
The ending was stitched together very neatly and perfectly. Almost everything worked out exactly as it should have.
I never did reconcile with Somer's character. My sister is dating an Indian guy, and even in their dating relationship, she values his culture enough to want to teach their child Gujarati or to meet his Indian parents or to at least cook and sometimes go out to eat Indian food occasionally. Somer seemed to try to drain her husband entirely of his culture and deprive their daughter of the same thing.
Asha's ignorance, as a budding journalist no less, of the tragedy of poverty seemed a little shocking to me.
Broken and patchwork families are contrasted in this novel, which I love. There is the interracial/intercultural marriage between white American Somer and Indian Krishnan. There is their adoption story of bringing Asha to American from India when the child was one year old. There is the starkly different life of Jasu and Kavita, a married couple living in the rural area and eventually the slums of India. I loved that Gowda shone a light on the difficultly of marriage between two starkly different cultures - and that she showed the loss and grief that comes with the gain of adoption, particularly when a child's cultural identity is lost in the process.
Chapter-to-chapter, the story switches narrators, from Kavita to Somer to Asha and so on. This kept the novel fast-paced and an easy, active read.
What I Didn't Like
The ending was stitched together very neatly and perfectly. Almost everything worked out exactly as it should have.
I never did reconcile with Somer's character. My sister is dating an Indian guy, and even in their dating relationship, she values his culture enough to want to teach their child Gujarati or to meet his Indian parents or to at least cook and sometimes go out to eat Indian food occasionally. Somer seemed to try to drain her husband entirely of his culture and deprive their daughter of the same thing.
Asha's ignorance, as a budding journalist no less, of the tragedy of poverty seemed a little shocking to me.
sop345's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder and Infertility
penandpage's review
5.0
Secret Daughter is one of those books that takes you by surprise. After reading the first couple of chapters, I expected to walk away from this book not liking it at all. The story centers around two mothers, Kavita and Sommer. Kavita lives in rural India while Sommer lives in California.
Kavita opens the novel by giving birth to a baby girl. The child is killed because the family can not afford a daughter. Kavita's second child is also a girl, but before Kavita's husband can take her tiny daughter, Kavita summons the courage and strength to travel two days to deliver the girl to an orphanage in Mumbai.
What follows is a sometimes heartbreaking sometimes spirit lifting story of motherhood and adoption. It is also a great look at India through several different viewpoints from the desperation of the slums to the beauty of the temples.
The shifting perspectives in the book don't make the story difficult to follow but there is a bit of choppiness in the transitions from section to section. The choppiness isn't enough to detract from the beauty of the story.
Kavita opens the novel by giving birth to a baby girl. The child is killed because the family can not afford a daughter. Kavita's second child is also a girl, but before Kavita's husband can take her tiny daughter, Kavita summons the courage and strength to travel two days to deliver the girl to an orphanage in Mumbai.
What follows is a sometimes heartbreaking sometimes spirit lifting story of motherhood and adoption. It is also a great look at India through several different viewpoints from the desperation of the slums to the beauty of the temples.
The shifting perspectives in the book don't make the story difficult to follow but there is a bit of choppiness in the transitions from section to section. The choppiness isn't enough to detract from the beauty of the story.