TO BE RELEASED: FEB. 4, 2025
Twice the Family
A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Sisterhood
By Julie Ryan McGue
RELEASE DATE: Feb. 4, 2025
Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
From the award-winning author of Twice a Daughter comes the much- anticipated prequel. In this coming-of-age memoir–set in Chicago’s western suburbs between the 1960s and 80s–adopted twins, Julie and Jenny, provide their parents with an instant family. The twins’ sisterly bond holds tight as the two strive for independence, individuality, and belonging. But as Julie’s parents continue adding children to their family, several painful and tragic experiences test family values, parental relationships, and sibling bonds.
Faced with these hurdles, Julie questions everything—who she is, how she fits in, and even her adoption circumstances. She understands her adoptive family is held together by love, faith, support, and her parents’ commitment to each other and their children.
And yet, the life her parents have constructed is not one Julie wants for herself. As she matures, she chooses her own unique path. In the process, she realizes how the experiences that formed her have provide a road map for the person and mother she wants to be.
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Julie Ryan McGue is an American writer, a domestic adoptee, and an identical twin. Her first memoir, Twice a Daughter: A Search for Identity, Family, and Belonging, released in May 2021, won multiple awards. Her work has appeared in the Story Circle Network Journal, Brevity Nonfiction Blog, Imprint News, Adoption.com, Lifetime Adoption Adoptive Families Blog, Adoption & Beyond, and Severance Magazine. Her personal essays have appeared in several anthologies, including Real Women Write: Seeing Through Her Eyes (Story Circle Network) and Art in the Time of Unbearable Crisis (She Writes Press). Her collection of essays, Belonging Matters: Conversations on Adoption, Family, and Kinship (Muse Literary) was released in November 2023. She writes a weekly blog and monthly column (The Beacher Newspapers), in which she explores the topics of finding out who you are, where you belong and making sense of it. Julie splits her time between northwest Indiana and Sarasota, Florida.
Reviews
Forward Reviews gave “Twice the Family” 4 out of 5 Stars
“Twice the Family is a memoir about faith, family, and doing right by others.”
“The psychology of being a child given up for adoption is explored in ways both cathartic and devastating … These worries are balanced by moments that are joyful and light, upholding the book’s themes of perseverance”
“A family album of sorts that preserves moments both big and small, the book lingers over cherished memories … Its testaments to the bonds between twins are fervent, too”
And here is the link to the full review: https://www.forewordreviews.com/reviews/twice-the-family/
