A review by liralen
The How & the Why, by Cynthia Hand
3.0
Two things stand out to me here, neither of which is really the point of the book, soooo if you're looking for a proper review, please go somewhere else:
1) Hand's books have so much variation in topic and style—[b:angels|7488244|Unearthly (Unearthly, #1)|Cynthia Hand|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1324782984l/7488244._SY75_.jpg|9621771] and [b:snarky Janes|22840421|My Lady Jane (The Lady Janies, #1)|Cynthia Hand|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1444923765l/22840421._SY75_.jpg|42397220] and also contemporary? Huh. I've enjoyed all of them, more or less, but each for very different reasons.
2) I read this in part because I recently read [b:What I Carry|45697191|What I Carry|Jennifer Longo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561531383l/45697191._SY75_.jpg|48857622], another YA book with an adoption theme (my reading does tend to get thematic...), and in both cases the books are by authors with personal connections to adoption (or—What I Carry is more about foster care than about adoption, but there's some overlap). It's really interesting to me that both books go for lower-key material—in Longo's case, she talks explicitly about wanting to write a story that got away from stereotypes of abuse, etc.—and yet both stories tend towards a sort of idealised ending. This isn't specific to adoption stories (though it's very very very common in YA in general), but I guess it's interesting to me that the book's ending is so different from the way Hand describes her own experience with birth parent searches. Makes me wish (as ever) that YA as a whole were less inclined to go for the happy endings all tied up with bows and more inclined to leave some room for grey area.
3) Three things! Not two! (Still not the point of the book, though.) This is the [b:second book|17340625|A Promise Is for Keeping|Felicity Hayle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1360300531l/17340625._SY75_.jpg|24076610] I've read recently in which a relatively uncommon blood type (AB...negative? I think?) is cited as a complicating factor in blood transfusions (other book) or transplants (this book)—and hey, consequently I learned something! I knew that AB individuals could receive not only AB blood but also A/B/O blood (as long as Rh-null individuals don't get Rh-pos blood, but I didn't know non-exact matches were also possible for transplants, or that the success rates were different. What a complicating factor, no? What do you do if you have (e.g.) two patients, one AB+ and one A-, and the AB+ patient is in more critical need of the lone (A-) lung currently available...but the A- patient has a better chance of success with that lung (and wouldn't be able to receive anything other than an A- lung, while the AB+ patient could theoretically receive a lung from any blood type)? Oh, I'm sure there are complicated formulae and so on, but it does feel like there's really no possibility of a 'right' answer.
1) Hand's books have so much variation in topic and style—[b:angels|7488244|Unearthly (Unearthly, #1)|Cynthia Hand|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1324782984l/7488244._SY75_.jpg|9621771] and [b:snarky Janes|22840421|My Lady Jane (The Lady Janies, #1)|Cynthia Hand|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1444923765l/22840421._SY75_.jpg|42397220] and also contemporary? Huh. I've enjoyed all of them, more or less, but each for very different reasons.
2) I read this in part because I recently read [b:What I Carry|45697191|What I Carry|Jennifer Longo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1561531383l/45697191._SY75_.jpg|48857622], another YA book with an adoption theme (my reading does tend to get thematic...), and in both cases the books are by authors with personal connections to adoption (or—What I Carry is more about foster care than about adoption, but there's some overlap). It's really interesting to me that both books go for lower-key material—in Longo's case, she talks explicitly about wanting to write a story that got away from stereotypes of abuse, etc.—and yet both stories tend towards a sort of idealised ending. This isn't specific to adoption stories (though it's very very very common in YA in general), but I guess it's interesting to me that the book's ending is so different from the way Hand describes her own experience with birth parent searches. Makes me wish (as ever) that YA as a whole were less inclined to go for the happy endings all tied up with bows and more inclined to leave some room for grey area.
3) Three things! Not two! (Still not the point of the book, though.) This is the [b:second book|17340625|A Promise Is for Keeping|Felicity Hayle|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1360300531l/17340625._SY75_.jpg|24076610] I've read recently in which a relatively uncommon blood type (AB...negative? I think?) is cited as a complicating factor in blood transfusions (other book) or transplants (this book)—and hey, consequently I learned something! I knew that AB individuals could receive not only AB blood but also A/B/O blood (as long as Rh-null individuals don't get Rh-pos blood, but I didn't know non-exact matches were also possible for transplants, or that the success rates were different. What a complicating factor, no? What do you do if you have (e.g.) two patients, one AB+ and one A-, and the AB+ patient is in more critical need of the lone (A-) lung currently available...but the A- patient has a better chance of success with that lung (and wouldn't be able to receive anything other than an A- lung, while the AB+ patient could theoretically receive a lung from any blood type)? Oh, I'm sure there are complicated formulae and so on, but it does feel like there's really no possibility of a 'right' answer.