Any Other Family

Any Other Family

by Eleanor Brown

G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2022. 354 pages. Fiction

When three different families adopt biological siblings, they commit to keeping the siblings as connected as possible. This means family dinners on Sundays, weekly playdates, spending holidays together, and a two week family vacation in Aspen. But not everything is smooth sailing. Each family has their own boundaries, personalities, and struggles, and learning to meld into a single family unit isn't easy. When the group receives word that the birth mother is pregnant again and looking for another adoptive family, the delicate bonds these families are forming threaten to collapse.

Any Other Family is a character-driven story that I found I could relate to even though I don't know anything about the world of adoption. Told in alternating chapters from the perspectives of the three main female characters, each woman's personality and inner struggles melds and blends with the driving plot point to deepen the premise into something more. While Brown isn't quite as successful in fleshing out the men and the birth mother, I still found this story to be heartwarming, sad, happy, frustrated, confused, and hopeful all at once. Brown separates the novel into sections by interspersing the files of the new baby's prospective adoptive families throughout; a touch I especially liked. This is an engaging tale of the creation of an atypical family.

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