The Risk Of Us

By Rachel Howard

Nearly half a million children are in foster care. Most placements fail. Will seven-year-old Maresa's?

"It starts with a face in a binder. CHILDREN AVAILABLE, reads the cover." So begins Rachel Howard's intimate and heartbreaking novel about a couple hoping to adopt a child from foster care, then struggling to make it as a family. Seven-year-old Maresa arrives with an indomitable spirit, a history of five failed foster care "placements," and a susceptibility to angry panic attacks fueled by memories of abuse. Maresa's new foster mother, whose name the reader never learns, brings good intentions but also her own history of trauma, while her husband's heart condition threatens to explode. These three flawed but deeply human characters want more than anything to love each other--but how does a person get to unconditional love? Over the course of a year, as Maresa approaches the age at which children become nearly impossible to place, all three must discover if they can move from being three separate people to a true family—or whether, almost unthinkably, the adoption will fail.

Written in a spare and thought-provoking style evoking aspects of Jenny Offill and Rachel Cusk, The Risk of Us deftly explores the inevitable tests children bring to a marriage, the uncertainties of family life, and the ways true empathy obliterates our defenses.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins
• Release date: Apr 9, 2019
• ISBN: 9781328587619

Rachel Howard

RACHEL HOWARD earned her MFA in fiction from Warren Wilson College and is the author of a memoir, The Lost Night. She is the recipient of a MacDowell Colony fellowship, and her fiction, essays, and dance criticism have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Review of Books, Waxwing, and elsewhere. She lives in Nevada City, California.

Reviews for The Risk Of Us

[simplykelina · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I was not expecting much going into this story. I am a social worker and I am pretty critical when it comes to stories around Foster Care and the Foster Care system. This is not an easy read, but I do think it is an important read. This is a real and raw look into adoption and fostering children who have been effected by trauma. The author compares trauma and PTSD between a child in foster care and a soldier. It is a really eye opening statement. I can see why others will not like this, as it is a very taboo subject that we want to ignore. The reality is that our children are facing issues like Maresa everyday. Unfortunately, other children are not as lucky as Maresa to have patient and understanding adoptive parents to push through these chaotic, manic, and at times dangerous situations.The story focuses more on Maresa and her family than the foster care system itself. I really appreciated that! It does still mention gaps and needs within the system including turnover and policy restrictions though. There were some positive and negative aspects when it came to the system itself. I was not a huge fan of the ending. This is such a short read with only being less than 200 pages. I would have liked to see more of Maresa after adoption. The one thing I wish the author would have left out was the political piece. It was a very small section of the story, but it was not needed. I wanted to recommend this book to our foster/adoptive parents, but won’t be able too since this small page of details was added. I am not saying the author does not have a right to her political opinion, I just wish it would not have been added to the story. Overall, I still loved this and am going to recommend it to my fellow social worker friends.