I just finished reading The Name She Gave Me and I am so full of emotions right now. I haven’t read a lot of contemporary this year, but my first two novels are also contemporary so it’s a genre I always adore.
The Name She Gave Me by Betty Culley is a story told in verse of a girl named Scheherazade who was adopted and never knew her birth mother. Her adopted parents renamed her Rynn. She craves answers about her past, her roots, and begins to search for her little sister. The book is full of complex family relationships: Rynn’s adopted mother is causally cruel and dismissive of her, her father is a steady rock but passive, and she has mixed feelings about the birth mother who gave her up. Like, ahh my heart aches for Rynn. She’s also the sweetest, most selfless beautiful soul, and I loved her voice.
Also the friendships!! The love I have for Rynn’s besties June and Terence (I also adore their chaotic mother), plus I loved Alexander who is so factual yet sweet. The tender softness in the scenes of Rynn babysitting toddler Douglas had my heart so soft. All the characters just felt so real to me.
The writing is also masterful, it’s poetic and powerful, and it completely captures characters and deep emotions in only a few lines.
Such a tender, aching read, full of complex relationships and found family and heartache. It is about love too; the love you can find and the love you deserve.
Thank you @mtmctours and @bettyculley for the copy!! It’s out now in hardcover and paperback from HarperTeen. Also check out more of the tour at #TheNameSheGaveMeMTMC!!
“Defect and perfect are so close, only two letters apart. If you say them fast, defect perfect defect perfect, they almost sound the same.”
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