WHERE THE LIGHT SHINES IN

While her adoptive home in Seattle is full of love, she can’t ignore the strange looks she sometimes gets from strangers, since she looks so different from her mom. Gloria has pale skin and “stick-straight, white-blonde hair” that contrast with her mom’s olive complexion and curly black hair. She even plays the Birth Mother Game with her Japanese American best friend, Lottie, where they try to spot women who look like they could be Gloria’s birth mother. One morning, while enjoying her Saturday morning routine with her father, she’s shocked to see an obituary in the newspaper for an Amanda May Everett, a woman who looks exactly like her. She wants to learn more and is dismayed when her parents refuse to allow her to attend Amanda’s memorial service (they do offer to help her search for more information, but little was known when they adopted her). Undeterred, Gloria finds a way to contact Amanda’s sister, becoming entangled in a complicated web of lies as she desperately searches for the truth. Debut author Mattern thoughtfully explores family dynamics in this story that builds up speed as it progresses, pulling readers in. She beautifully and tactfully portrays the complicated nature of loving your adoptive parents while still being curious about your birth parents.