Ghost Child: Uncovering Family Secrets from a Back Porch to the Yucatan

by Deborah Jennings

A young woman from a blue-collar background—aspiring and driven—spent over twenty years quietly wondering if the family who raised her was truly hers. At thirty-two, she confirmed the she is the biological daughter of another, entirely unknown family.

Her search unfolds like a page-turning mystery, leading to an astonishing discovery—her biological grandfather was a U.S. diplomat and author, photographed in the Oval Office with President Kennedy, greeting Charles Lindbergh on the tarmac, and meeting with Rosa Parks and international leaders. Her grandmother was a Cambridge-educated Mexican, who described to her an exotic heritage of haciendas and aristocracy in the Yucatan. Her birth mother, Katie, a Bohemian expatriate in Cuernavaca, Mexico, gave birth to her in secret and lived childless ever since.

Raised by loving parents who didn’t finish high school, she now must reconcile her upbringing with an extraordinary legacy. Ghost Child is a sweeping story of identity, belonging, and the strange, poignant bond between a daughter and the unforgettable birth mother she did not know.

238 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 14, 2025

Reviews

[Kuu [semi-ia for china reasons] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This book sounded much more interesting than it ended up being. It wasn't written very well, and while of course, this is a memoir and the content is more important than the style, if the style is just not engaging, then that will also reflect on how the reader feels about the content. This memoir was dry, somewhat lacking order, and did nothing to reach me emotionally.

I also found Jennings somewhat unsympathetic at times, and didn't enjoy the way she talked about certain things (such as her aristocratic heritage or her experiences in Mexico, where she feels it necessary to point out which people are probably Indigenous and which people are not, even when it does not at all matter). It's kind of difficult to enjoy a memoir when you do not really like the person writing it, so that also played a role in my experience with this book.

The story itself was interesting enough, but I ultimately don't feel like I gained anything from it.

[Patti · Rating 5 out of 5]

For people who are adopted, there’s no one-size-fits-all experience. For those of us who were adopted during the “baby scoop era,” it was generally a pregnant unwed mother who really didn’t have much of a choice. For Deborah Jennings, her story was quite unique.

Deborah recounts her life in this memoir. Her parents who raised her went to great lengths to hide from her that she was adopted, even concocting a story about their trip to the hospital on the day she was born. There were hints, though, that she picked up on. One of them was when studying genetics as a teen in school. Her parents had blue and green eyes and blonde hair. Deborah had dark hair and brown eyes. It made for an awkward question for her science teacher. It wasn’t until she was in her 30s, though, that she finally had the courage to ask a relative if she was adopted. She didn’t want to ask her parents due to possibly upsetting her father who had a heart condition.

This led to a search for her true background. Like me, hers was a private placement which meant there were people who knew more than they were supposed to tell. A lawyer herself, she backtracked the paperwork as much as she could. Her adoption file with social services was only given to her heavily redacted, but there were clues she could follow. What she found at the end of them was the woman who had given her up, now living in Mexico. Katie Muse had never told her parents she was pregnant, nor about the adoption until many years later. When Deborah made contact, Katie had been looking for her for a number of years already.

Learning about her biological family was a revelation for Deborah. Her parents, a former Marine in World War II who was now a police officer and his war bride from New Zealand were middle-class. Deborah didn’t really want for anything growing up, but she didn’t have the benefits that would have come with the family she was born into. Her mother’s family were wealthy Spaniards who settled in Mexico. Over the course of the book, the reader learns just how wealthy they were. Her maternal grandfather was in the diplomatic service and then published a newspaper in Virginia.

To read my complete review, please go to Ghost Child: Uncovering Family Secrets from a Back Porch to the Yucutan by Deborah Jennings – A Memoir of Discovery and Identity

[Nick Genua · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Ghost Child, Deborah Jennings has done something rare: she has turned a deeply personal true story into a beautifully written book that never lets the reader go. After a lifetime of reading across every imaginable genre, I can say without hesitation that Ghost Child satisfies every criterion for a terrific book: it immediately hooked me, and I found it impossible to put it down.

Deb was the only child of Jess, a former Marine turned police officer, and Eileen, her mother, a bank clerk. Raised first in a one-bedroom apartment and later in a modest home outside Washington, D.C., she grew up in a loving household. Yet for more than twenty years of her life, Deb questioned her origins. How could she have dominant brown eyes when both her parents’ were recessive blue and green? Why did her dark hair differ so markedly from the family’s? And why were there no photographs of her mother while pregnant?

At thirty-two, she finally confirmed the truth: she was the biological daughter of another unknown family.

Through years of determined detective work, she finally tracked her birth family down and discovered something astonishing. Her biological grandfather had been a career diplomat who served John F. Kennedy among other world leaders. Her grandmother, from deep Mexican aristocratic heritage and a Cambridge graduate in the 1920s, had been the perfect complement as the wife of a diplomat.

But what of Deb’s birth mother, Katie, a free-spirited Bohemian expatriate whose life could scarcely have been more different? To be perfectly honest, Katie lived the carefree life of someone who did exactly what she pleased whenever she pleased, like giving up a child without much fanfare. The book speaks of her several times, always in a generous fashion, yet she remains just out of reach — a ghost who leaves something forever adrift.

Ghost Child’s greatest beauty lies in the loving way Deb tells her story: free of any bitterness or resentment, though either would have been entirely understandable. It was a privilege to travel with her as she uncovers her origins and so gracefully weaves together her adoptive life and her birth truth.

[kylie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's fine. It's written well enough, interesting — if not occasionally repetitive — but I struggle to rate it higher because Jennings just rubs me the wrong way.

She insists that she loves her parents, and they were the best, but throughout the book she continuously gives off a vibe that she always felt she was superior to them somehow. Like yes, they were lovely and loving, but they weren't smart enough, affluent, or well-traveled. She meets her bio family after using her lawyer skills to sleuth through old docs, saying the adoption was private and info was heavily protected. (She later says it was an open adoption 🤨.) Luckily, they do want to meet her, but I couldn't help but feel annoyed at how entitled she felt to infringe on their privacy. As a grown-ass woman and a LAWYER, she really let her emotions take over here. She wants to know where her ambition comes from, her dark eyes, her intelligence (again, rude), etc, only briefly mentioning that medical history could be helpful too I guess.

Anywaaaaaay, she finds out she was supposed to be rich and then spends decades going to Mexico multiple times per year to spend time with her new extended family without apparently ever bothering to learn Spanish.

**I received my copy from Netgalley.

[Andrea Law · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book. In some ways it is a Cinderella Story. But not in reality. I was interested anyway because I have a friend who was adopted, another who let her son be adopted, my parents looked into adopting a child, but did not because the little girl they fell in love with had a sister and they did not think they should go to different homes. They were not babies, And my parents did not think they could provide for three kids, they already had me. My mother could not have more children.

Anyway this book held my attention without difficulty I really wanted to know how the search turned out. I always thought parents should tell their kids if they are adopted, But I can really understand the reasons her parents did not!

She was clearly lucky in that she was adopted by people who wanted her and loved her snd cared about her. Wow! Her ancestry and her biological family are both pretty cool. I liked the ending very much. The search was worth it for her! And her parents who raised her did a great job. Her birth Mother made the right decision. And, because Ms Jennings found her Mother and treated her well, she was able to find another family, an extended family to which she also belongs.
To be honest, I was sick in bed them I read this and really liked it. It is well written. I was not annoyed, as with other books, with misspelled words and poor grammar. I just kept turning the pages and enjoying this book immensely. I love a book that tugs at my emotions and this one did.

Overall, I found it enlightening, intriguing and thought provoking. In my twenties I also lived in an area of Maryland pretty close to where her parents lived, called Chevy Chase, Maryland, between D.C, and Bethesda, My husband was from Alexandria, Virginia where I live now. Knowing the area and the towns she talked about made the story even more real for me,

[Mary Schmidt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ghost Child by Deborah Jennings is a well-written, quick read that tells the story of a young woman who discovers later in life that she was adopted. As she uncovers the truth and learns about her biological family, many unanswered questions from her childhood begin to make sense—why she didn’t resemble her adoptive parents and why her academic interests felt so different from theirs. Thoughtful and engaging, this memoir offers insight into identity, belonging, and the lasting impact of family secrets.

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing account of someone’s search for identity and the ups and downs they experience along the way. The story hooks you from the very first sentence and keeps you wanting more, ultimately bringing the journey full circle. Chapter 15 stands out on its own, beautifully capturing the author’s experience of adopting her own children — a powerful and heartfelt moment that ties the story together.

[WeeBee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and publisher. I enjoyed this book as an adoptees mother. It was an interest memoir.

[Gabriela · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved it!

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great quick and easy read about relationships and family. Love the authors self discovery throughout the book.