A review by panda_incognito
Forward Me Back to You, by Mitali Perkins
5.0
I have been interested in this book ever since it released, and I'm so glad that I finally made time for it. It's incredibly powerful, and even though I would rate it four stars based on my overall enjoyment, I am giving it five stars because of how incredibly unique it is. I've never read anything like this, in so many different ways.
This book involves heavy topics, which is part of why I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. The main female character is dealing with the aftermath of an assault, the main male character is dealing with emotional struggles related to his adoption, and the church service trip that they go on involves ministry to human trafficking survivors in India. The book is definitely heavy at times, but there is no graphic content related to abuse, and the author deals with all of these topics in an incredibly sensitive, realistic, and redemptive way.
I really appreciate this book's realistic, positive representation of people of faith, which is very rare in YA, and the story is incredibly powerful. I especially appreciated the plot line related to Ravi's adoption. This book honors his deep attachment to and love for his cross-cultural, cross-racial adoptive parents and his profound sense of loss and mystery related to his birth mother and first three years of life. Many stories about adoptees oversimplify people's experiences, making one of these realities cancel the other out, but this novel represents adoptee experiences in their true complexity. I've never read anything like this in a novel before, just in memoirs, and this is my favorite aspect of the book.
The novel has some pacing problems at times, in my opinion, and there are a couple of subplots that warrant less page time than they get, but I am very impressed with this book overall, and I would highly recommend it to people who enjoy books with international settings, are interested in social justice topics, or relate to the characters' life issues. This is also a wonderful book for readers who are looking for faith-driven novels. The characters' Christian beliefs and questions about faith are beautifully interwoven throughout the narrative without any of it being preachy, and while the faith content should not be a turn-off for secular readers, it will be very meaningful to people who share the author's belief background.
I would recommend this to both teens and adults. The only content concerns involve some occasional mild language, flashbacks to an assault, and the ongoing thematic issues related to human trafficking. The heavy topics could make this book inappropriate for some middle school kids, so I would primarily recommend this to people who are in high school or older, but this is very light on content and would be appropriate for some mature middle schoolers.
This book involves heavy topics, which is part of why I hadn't gotten around to reading it yet. The main female character is dealing with the aftermath of an assault, the main male character is dealing with emotional struggles related to his adoption, and the church service trip that they go on involves ministry to human trafficking survivors in India. The book is definitely heavy at times, but there is no graphic content related to abuse, and the author deals with all of these topics in an incredibly sensitive, realistic, and redemptive way.
I really appreciate this book's realistic, positive representation of people of faith, which is very rare in YA, and the story is incredibly powerful. I especially appreciated the plot line related to Ravi's adoption. This book honors his deep attachment to and love for his cross-cultural, cross-racial adoptive parents and his profound sense of loss and mystery related to his birth mother and first three years of life. Many stories about adoptees oversimplify people's experiences, making one of these realities cancel the other out, but this novel represents adoptee experiences in their true complexity. I've never read anything like this in a novel before, just in memoirs, and this is my favorite aspect of the book.
The novel has some pacing problems at times, in my opinion, and there are a couple of subplots that warrant less page time than they get, but I am very impressed with this book overall, and I would highly recommend it to people who enjoy books with international settings, are interested in social justice topics, or relate to the characters' life issues. This is also a wonderful book for readers who are looking for faith-driven novels. The characters' Christian beliefs and questions about faith are beautifully interwoven throughout the narrative without any of it being preachy, and while the faith content should not be a turn-off for secular readers, it will be very meaningful to people who share the author's belief background.
I would recommend this to both teens and adults. The only content concerns involve some occasional mild language, flashbacks to an assault, and the ongoing thematic issues related to human trafficking. The heavy topics could make this book inappropriate for some middle school kids, so I would primarily recommend this to people who are in high school or older, but this is very light on content and would be appropriate for some mature middle schoolers.