It always astounded me that society felt other people were better to raise single mother's children. That they were some how all rich and perfect. I had seen enough as a none adopted child to realize the idiocy and arrogance behind that. So many young women robbed of their offspring and those poor babies and children snatched away from loving mothers. There has been nothing lost with those the ending of those snobby humans. This is another book of proof of that vindictive, nasty world so many of us grew up in. I'm glad birth moms are reconnecting with their children. And all the older folks owe these women and children eternal apologies for lives disrupted and chaos created. Shame on all of them!

This is an interesting memoir which tells a personal story while also offering some analysis of what it means to be adopted and how it shapes the lives of all involved. I found the writing style a bit slow for my taste but that is perhaps a matter of preference.

TW: Alcohol abuse, domestic violence, sexual assault of a minor

I was so pleased for the opportunity to read Marylee MacDonald's memoir. It is a story of adoption and what shapes us as we grow up. MacDonald was adopted herself, and as a 15-year-old in 1961, she because pregnant and surrendered her son for adoption. In the decades since, she has learned about her birth family and been reunited with her son.

I enjoyed the honesty of her story and the deep sharing of its particulars. In that vein, I found the excerpts of her own diaries especially fascinating. She reflects on her teenage emotions and where her memory now doesn't match what she wrote at the time. The chronology and pacing of the book were excellent. I found it difficult to put down, as I was deeply immersed in her narrative. Parts were heart wrenching.

However, I wish the synopsis had been more forthcoming about the trigger warnings I mentioned above. By weaving in the psychology of adoption for both birth mothers and adopted children, MacDonald tries to tell a universal tale of adoption and accompanying pain and trauma. That generalization didn't ring true for me, especially given the specifics of her story. I enjoy memoirs best for their rich individuality and would have preferred this stay in the realm of her history. That's where it excelled.

I am glad I read Surrender. It added texture to my knowledge of the history of contraception and the limited options girls faced in the 1960s. As she wrote, MacDonald would now say she didn't have agency to make choices, but that wasn't a concept she knew as an adolescent.

Raw. Riveting. Sad. Triumph. Marylee MacDonald’s memoir, Surrender, is a memoir that I will not forget. In her past, Marylee was adopted in 1945 by a childless couple, Her adoptive mom was grade school teacher, and her father had serious problems that led to a divorce. In 1961, Marylee was a sophomore in high school and she found herself pregnant.

Marylee vividly describes what it was like to be sent to a home for unwed mothers. I am a few years younger that Marylee and girls who got pregnant were not allowed to stay in school when they showed. Students were told that the girl was going to an out-of-town relative’s for a few months to help take care of someone who was sick.

This is an amazing story of survival. She does end up reconnecting with her first-born many years later after having married her child’s father who was killed in a car accident In Germany while Marylee was pregnant with her fifth child.

Marylee’s resilience is a testament to the human soul. I appreciate all of the pictures of her life that are in this remarkable book. My thanks to Grand Canyon Press and NetGalley for an ARC. This is my honest review.

This is a well written memoir focusing on a mother’s experience of having to give up her oldest child for adoption. I really enjoyed the parts that were about the author’s own experiences both in her childhood and her pregnancy. It was a different time and it was interesting (and horrifying) to read about how difficult it was before easy access birth control options. It was sad to think that it was not just teenagers in the home for unwed mothers - the term was literal and there were women of all ages forced to hide away their pregnancy. I didn’t love as much the author’s descriptions of how adoption greatly negatively impacts a child at a biological level. I know this is not the only opinion and the presentation of it as fact irked me. I also struggled with the author’s devotion to her boyfriend, but that struggle was good as it forced to me to step away from my perspective and step into her shoes. A good book challenges your perspective and this book did that. It also highlighted how far women’s rights and reproduction rights have come and only cemented how important those are.

I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I think I am torn between two opinions with this book. I really liked the memoir part with Marylee relating her childhood and what it was like to grow up in the family she did. It was interesting to learn about how teen pregnancies were like back so long ago with all the stigma and what the girls had to go through (Marylee went secretly to a home for unwed mothers to deliver her baby and then give him up for adoption). Those parts were all fascinating. The parts I did not care for were that the author described adoption as just a bad thing for the children involved, how it displaced them and made them feel like they had no place. I do not think all adopted kids feel that way and I wish she could have balanced her opinions with other views so that the reader could compare and decide for themselves.

I did enjoy reading this book and it would be a great memoir except for the only negative comments about the adoption process.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this book in exchange for an honest review.
What an amazing story of adoption. This book mostly focuses on giving her firstborn child up for adoption and the emotions of also being adopted. The chapters about the home for unwed mothers was very interesting.