The Search for Us by Susan Azim Boyer Book Review
If you like stories about families reuniting, then I think you’ll enjoy this book. The Search for Us by Susan Azim Boyer is a story about family, forgiveness, and stepping out of your comfort zone.
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The Search for Us
Author: Susan Azim Boyer
Pub. Date: Oct. 24, 2023
Genre: YA Contemporary Fiction
Pages: 304
Rating: 4 stars
Spice: none
Content Warnings: mentions death, swearing, racism, Islamophobia, imprisonment, alcoholism, drunk driving, PTSD, & addiction
Synopsis:
Samira Murphy will do anything to keep her fractured family from falling apart, including caring for her widowed grandmother and getting her older brother into recovery for alcohol addiction. With attendance at her dream college on the line, she takes a long shot DNA test to find the support she so desperately needs from a father she hasn’t seen since she was a baby.
Henry Owen is torn between his well-meaning but unreliable bio-mom and his overly strict aunt and uncle, who stepped in to raise him but don’t seem to see him for who he is. Looking to forge a stronger connection to his own identity, he takes a DNA test to find the one person who might love him for exactly who he is–the biological father he never knew.
Instead of a DNA match with their father, Samira and Henry are matched with each other. They begin to search for their father together and slowly unravel the difficult truth of their shared past, forming a connection that only siblings can have and recovering precious parts of their past that have been lost.
Spoiler-Free Book Review
Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for this ARC. All opinions are my own.
I’m not sure why, but I’ve always loved hearing stories about people looking for their birth parents and vice versa. One of my favorite shows is TLC’s Long Lost Family where family members try to find other biological family members. When I read the synopsis for this book, I knew it would be something that I would enjoy.
What I Liked
- It’s such a beautiful and heartbreaking (at times) story about searching for family (and finding it in unexpected places). I loved the resilience of the characters, and how much they grew through this experience.
What I Didn’t Like
- The most frustrating part of this story was how the adults acted towards their children. They failed them in so many ways, which made it hard to read at times.
Final Thoughts
If you like stories about family such as Far from the Tree by Robin Benway, then I definitely think you should give this book a chance.
Where to Purchase
You can purchase a copy of this book at the following retailers:
Bookshop.org (supports independent book stores) [affiliate]
Amazon [affiliate]
Books a Million (BAM) [affiliate]
Have you read The Search for Us or any other books by Susan Azim Boyer?
I would love to hear your thoughts! Comment down below.