Wonderland: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption

by Patricia Knight Meyer

Handed over along a Texas hospital curb in 1970—no judge, no paperwork, no questions asked—Patricia grew up celebrating a made-up birthday, haunted by nightmares of "The Dark Man." Her parents, blackmailed by the attorney they hired to skirt the adoption system, faced an impossible choice: go to the police or pay up. They paid $30,000 to keep their paperless baby.

Navigating her mother's violent alcoholism and caring for her disabled and depressed 600-pound father, Patricia spent her childhood trying to save her saviors—unaware of the lifelong threat that haunted them: at any moment, someone could come back for the baby.

At eighteen, pregnant and standing in her birth mother's shoes, Patricia discovers a shattering secret that launches a lifetime search for answers. But it takes decades—and her adoptive mother's death—before Patricia realizes the secret-keepers won't live forever. Guided by her mother's ghost, she races to uncover the truth.

A tumble down the rabbit hole of America's baby trade, part detective story, part searing family portrait, Wonderland exposes what happens when adoption's house of cards finally falls—when falsified documents and dark family secrets can no longer sustain one woman's relentless search for truth.

A haunting reckoning with Baby Scoop Era exploitation that asks the urgent question: are we ready for Baby Scoop 2.0?

A Finalist/Winner in the 2026 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, WONDERLAND: MEMOIR OF A BLACK MARKET ADOPTION is the story of one bartered baby who refused to be erased.

Genres: Memoir, Audiobook, Nonfiction, Adoption, True Crime

380 pages, Paperback

Expected publication November 3, 2026

About the author

Journalist, adoption reform advocate, and relinquishee from the Baby Scoop Era black market. Born in 1970 and trafficked through an attorney-brokered deal, Patricia Knight Meyer was raised without a legal adoption or valid birth certificate. Her relentless search for the truth led her to both biological parents and enabled her to obtain her first legal identity at age 47.

A graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a degree in journalism, Patricia founded the adoption blog My Adopted Life and YAYDNA Genetic Greeting Cards. She serves on the board of the National Association of Adoptees and Parents (NAAP) and Concerned United Birth Parents, keynotes at national adoption conferences, and leads memoir writing workshops. She divides her time between the Texas Hill Country and New Orleans.

Reviews

[Andrea Keeler]

The title of this book caught my eye right away. I'm fascinated by the inner workings of the adoption "system" and was really excited to learn more by reading this book. Books with titles like these often fall along a familiar continuum from data-heavy to memoir-heavy, and this was certainly more of a personal story than a data-based analysis of the mess that is the adoption world. I strongly prefer stories with more research embedded, but this was still an interesting read. The author did a great job distinguishing mother vs birth mother and discussing her feelings with family. The author also did a great job narrating the audiobook!
Adding more statistics and research would have made this memoir more impactful.
One odd note - the feelings the author shared about her brother were uncomfortable and weird. 😬

Thanks to NetGalley for this early release audiobook.

[em]

What an incredibly moving and poignant book this was. Meyer writes with such conviction and bravery, sharing parts of her story that I can only imagine were difficult to live through, let alone relive to share with readers. Her tone of voice throughout was gentle and refreshingly honest, even in some moments where I felt like I was intruding on a private conversation. To tell her own life story with this much integrity, while also acknowledging her trauma, was inspiring to say the least.

I couldn’t put this down, I read it over a weekend and found myself gravitating towards it whenever I wasn’t reading. A real page turner with so many beautiful and heartbreaking moments. I feel lucky to have read this and gotten a glimpse into Meyer’s life.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for kindly providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review. #Wonderland #NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

[Kathy]

Wow, what a doozie. If “Before We Were Yours” met “The Glass Castle,” this is something like what you would get. Exceptionally well-written, often in ways that make it feel like a novel. Also because some of the things that happen in her life feel unbelievable. Or at least you wish that they were untrue. Meyer’s blunt but caring honesty about her own life and experiences, as well as the realities of trauma inherent in adoption (legal and otherwise) is handled with the utmost care. Highly recommend this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

[Faithe]

Wonderland: memoir or a black-markwt adoption by Patricia Knight Meyer is a true story of the author's upbringing.

She takes us through her childhood, both the good and the bad, and through finding out that she was adopted illegally and what this meant for her life going forward. She takes along with her through her search for her biological/1st family, and all the ups and downs and emotions that entails.

I received an audiobook copy of Wonderland from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion and review.

The audiobook was done very well. It was voiced by the author herself. It must have been painful reliving and retelling some of those moments, but she did so with grace and poise. I admire her ability to be so raw and open about her less than ideal circumstances growing up, and also into adulthood. I think everyone adopted legally or not, could learn and be inspired from listening or reading her story.

Coming to bookstores November 3rd 2026

[Sara Murphy]

Review of advance copy received from the author through Netgalley

Wow! What a fascinating and immersive story.

WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black Market Adoption is a deeply personal and unforgettable memoir that takes readers on the author’s extraordinary journey to uncover the truth about her adoption and, ultimately, her own identity. I truly appreciated the author's openness and vulnerability in telling this story. It takes tremendous courage to revisit painful experiences, family secrets, unanswered questions, and difficult memories and to share them with the world.

This is so much more than a story about adoption. It explores identity, family, belonging, trauma, secrets, resilience, forgiveness, truth, and finding your way home.
I couldn't stop listening to the audiobook, narrated by the author herself. Hearing Patricia tell her own story added another layer of emotion and authenticity. This isn't only a life journey it is also a healing journey.

I also really enjoyed the Alice in Wonderland references and symbolism throughout the book and how they connect to Patricia’s search for answers and going down the rabbit hole!
This is beautifully wirtten with so much heart and honestly. It is real, raw, poignant, heartbreaking and ultimately deeply moving. It opened my eyes to aspects of adoption I had never considered and reminded me how profoundly the circumstances surrounding our beginnings can shape our lives.

I commend The author for sharing her story with the world and doing it so with so much grace.
This story stays with me forever.

A big Thank you to NetGalley, the author and YAYDNA Press for gifted ALC. All opinions are mine.

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[Kelly Pramberger]

As an adoptive mom, I read and devour all books with an adoption theme. This was no exception. I was fascinated by the stories Meyer shared. The writing is expert-level, and I found myself staying up late to read through it!

[Helena Regan]

In a literary landscape often cluttered with neatly packaged redemption arcs, Patricia Knight Meyer's Wonderland arrives as a gut punch of raw, unvarnished truth. This is not a comfortable memoir, nor should it be. It is a searing excavation of a life built on a foundation of sand, a relentless search for identity in the face of institutional failure and profound personal trauma. Meyer has accomplished something rare here: a work that functions simultaneously as a poignant personal narrative and a vital piece of investigative journalism, a feat that immediately places it in a category of its own.

Meyer’s story begins with the fairy tale her adoptive mother loved to recite: a snowy day in 1970, a hospital curb in Houston, and a brand-new baby simply driven away. But this is a fairy tale with a poisoned chalice. As Meyer matures, the cracks in the narrative become chasms. The revelation at age twelve that she has no birth certificate is the first tremor in an earthquake that will shake her world for decades. The subsequent confession from her parents that they paid $30,000 to a shady attorney to bypass the legal system, and were subsequently blackmailed to keep their paperless child transforms her origin story from one of rescue into one of transaction. It is this core, uncomfortable truth that Meyer explores with unflinching honesty: the commodification of a human life and the lifelong cost of a secret.

What elevates Wonderland beyond a simple memoir of dysfunction is its dual focus. The first half of the book is a harrowing, intimate portrait of growing up in a house where she is the caretaker for her saviors. We see young Patricia navigating the treacherous waters of her adoptive mother's violent alcoholism while caring for her disabled, six-hundred-pound father. It’s an upbringing defined by trauma and responsibility, an inversion of the parent-child relationship that leaves a deep and lasting scar. Meyer’s prose here is stark and unsentimental, conveying the impossible love and resentment that defines such a complicated childhood. She doesn’t paint her parents as villains, but as deeply flawed people who were themselves victims of a system that made their desperate desire for a child a tragedy waiting to happen.

But then the memoir pivots. The personal becomes political, and the detective story begins. Meyer’s decades-long quest to discover "Who In the World Am I?" is the engine that drives the second half of the book. It’s a labyrinthine journey, a tumble down the rabbit hole of America's baby trade that exposes a horrifying and often-overlooked history: the Baby Scoop Era. Meyer’s reporting is impressive; she deftly contextualizes her own experience within the larger, shameful national story of coerced surrenders, for-profit adoptions, and the systematic erasure of identity. She illustrates how a perfect storm of social stigma and an unregulated market created a system ripe for exploitation, where women were treated as vessels and children as commodities. The moment she tracks down her birth mother, only to discover harrowing details about her conception that shatter any fantasy of a happy reunion, is a masterclass in narrative tension and emotional devastation.

Meyer's courage is the book's true superpower. She confronts her own history with a raw, emotional vulnerability that is breathtaking. She does not shy away from the painful complexities of reunion, documenting the difficult relationships with her biological parents with an honesty that feels almost confessional. This is not a story that ends with a neat bow. It is a story about seeking answers in a system designed to deny them, and finding a truth that is more complicated, and more painful, than any fiction could be. Her voice is powerful and authentic, guiding the reader through a maze of lies and secrets, never once losing sight of the child who just wanted to know where she came from.

Wonderland is a vital, urgent, and essential read. It’s a testament to the indomitable human spirit and a haunting reckoning with the systemic abuses of the past. Meyer’s concluding call to action is both chilling and timely: as we witness reproductive rights erode, are we prepared for a Baby Scoop 2.0? This book is more than just a memoir; it is a warning and a plea. It will linger in your mind long after the final page is turned, a testament to one woman’s relentless search for truth in a world determined to keep her in the dark. Patricia Knight Meyer has given us a gift a story of profound loss and courageous discovery and it is one we are all responsible for witnessing.

[Kristina Pauls (ARC Reviewer)]

PUBLISH DATE: Nov 3, 2026

PUBLISH DATE: Nov 3, 2026
BOOK TITLE:WONDERLAND (Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption)
AUTHOR: Patricia Knight Meyer
NARRATOR: Patricia Knight Meyer
PUBLISHER: YAYDNA Press
FORMAT: Audiobook
DURATION:
I received a complimentary digital ARC [Advanced Readers Copy] of this book via NetGalley. Thank you to the Publisher and the Author for the opportunity to read and review this title prior to publication. As always, the opinions expressed in this review are my own.

[Elizabeth Weaver]

I am grateful to have gotten early access to this audiobook through NetGalley. I was drawn to the title as the daughter of an adoptee who has been on her own reunion journey. I was struck by the many similarities in their stories, even with very different circumstances. I’m very appreciative to the author for sharing such an intimate and nuanced account. She paints such a true picture; though she includes failings and flaws, it’s clear that she deeply loves her family. I hope others will read this story and better understand that adoption is not a simple solution to anything.

[Katie McCoy]

Received an early copy of this memoir from NetGalley and could not put it down. Extremely well written and the story truly takes you on a wild rollercoaster of events. I especially appreciated the authors willingness to share personal details of her life that everyone can connect with. Although I have no connection to adoption, it’s still a gripping story that makes you emphatic to the trials adoptees go through. Highly recommend if you’re into memoirs like myself!

[Julianne Nanzer]

Prior to reading this memoir, I had no idea about the baby scoop era and black market adoptions. Honestly, everyone should read this memoir, especially if they are wanting to participate in any form of adoption. Patricia really writes a profound, tragic story that truly is compelling.

Thank you to Unsolicited Press and Net Galley for the opportunity to get my hands on this Advanced Readers Copy!

[Elizabeth King]

thank you netgalley for this arc 🫶🏻

what a whirlwind of a memoir. i don’t know a lot about black market adoption, but this really tore at my heartstrings. after such a tumultuous life, i hope patricia knight meyer is having a good day

[Becky]

🎧 audiobook

4.25 ⭐️

[Carrie Gulledge]

This is a difficult one to write a review on - the 4 star review reflects the quality of the story telling and writing of the book and not necessarily my enjoyment or feelings about the book. Memoirs like this are always a struggle since it isn't really the readers place to put a rating on another person's life experiences or the way that they talk about them. So I think that overall, this was well written with a decent flow to the story telling. I listened to the audiobook which is read by the author herself and I found her easy and engaging to listen to. The main thing I would have liked to have seen in the writing of the book was the same amount of attention to minute detail in later portions of the book that we got in the first half.

The rating isn't a reflection of how uncomforable I was with her calling her mom Mommy the whole book, the struggle I have with the amount of details the author claims to recall from early childhood in spite of severe CPTSD, the detail she put in to telling us about her childhood trauma but the way she glossed over the same trauma being dealt to her daughter or the way it icked me out that she was incredibly judgmental of her (clearly financially struggling) birth mother but accepted her (well-off) birth father with open arms. All of this contributed to making it very hard to connect with the author past the first thirty percent or so of the book; there were times I actively found myself disliking the person being written on the pages. But none of that makes her story any less valuable or genuine or compelling - just things that I struggled with personally.

I obviously wasn't able to connect with the author on the basis of adoption - but I actually could connect with her over the lack of identifying paperwork. I was born in a California hospital on Christmas Eve, where my mother claimed none of the staff spoke English - as a result, I didn't have any legal paperwork definining my birth until I was 18. I somehow did end up with a social security card but that was it and it made life very difficult, delaying things that are important in your teen years like a driver's license or acceptance to schools, etc. My birth certificate is written in my hand writing. So those parts of the story I found especially fascinating since they were often the only points in the story that I was able to really understand.

I was also really interested to learn a lot of information I hadn't known previously about the adoption system during a period of time when Black Market adoptions were happening. This book did give me a view into something I knew very little about and gave me a lot of interesting perspectives to consider.

** I received an ALC of this book from Netgalley**

[Chelsea]

3.5⭐️

I’m new to the autobiography and memoir world of non-fiction but was really interested in this author’s story. I was intrigued about what I thought would be the main topic of this book – the author’s detective story into her own illegal adoption. I was expecting an epic investigation story and research into the history of black market adoptions, possible documentary style, and the effort this author took to find her birth parents. However, a majority of this story is the author giving a detailed backstory of her childhood to adulthood. Her memories and feelings of growing up with her adoptive family and how it affected her viewpoint on life growing up. When the actual investigation happened into her birth parents, this part of the story was not that much. She did some digging and found them, after years of putting it off and always wondering. She then delves into the comparison of her bio vs adoptive family. How her life may not have been so bad after all, despite all the trauma she dealt with growing up?

My biggest concern of this book is how the author normalizes the emotional abuse her adoptive mother put her through. I too can relate to “good mommy” and “bad mommy”. Relate to a mother who wants a lavish lifestyle and a father who works himself to the bone to give her mother a rich lifestyle while living in a country setting. I too recognize this cycle of abuse that poor, southern American families undergo. The concept of “hurt people hurt people”, especially from parents to their children, then to their children, and so on and so forth as the cycle continues. I know that the author realizes this and works to break that generational trauma, but she normalizes the abuse so much. She held so much other trauma outside of that, and I’m glad her story contains moments of healing. But I hate this message of “well both families are not that great, but I turned out ok with my abusive family at least, so they may have been the better choice all along.”

I don’t mean to criticize a story about someone’s life, but I wish there was more understanding by the author that readers may relate to her story but may not appreciate how normal she made the abuse feel.

I would say, the author did well in writing an interesting book about her life story but it did not dive into the topic of black market adoptions as much as the book summary makes it out to be.

I’d recommend reading if you are mainly interested in learning about someone’s life story from childhood to adulthood and the feelings and challenges she went through to find her biological family as well as finding herself along the way.

Thank you yo NetGalley and the publisher for an ALC for me to listen and review.

[Hannah]

A memoir written like a novel, WONDERLAND: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption is an engaging read that details the complicated and confusing life of a woman who was never legally adopted by her parents. Author Patricia Knight Meyer covers generational trauma, love, abuse, reconciliation, and more in this debut.

In the first half of the book, which covers Patricia’s childhood, she keeps readers on their toes with the constant suspense of an unstable home. Around every corner, it was a gamble if one would find a loving familial scene, like making po’boy sandwiches with her father, or a traumatizing moment, like her mother shattering dishes in anger. Especially concerning for little Pam was the fear that The Dark Man (a mysterious, semi-imaginated figure) would take her from her family. As a teenager, Patricia learns that her parents never received her birth certificate; then as an adult, she realizes why. Pam was not adopted through the legal system. She is a black-market baby.

The memoir takes its audience on a journey of self-discovery through a very personal, investigative lens. Patricia uncovers that her family was black-mailed by a shady attorney who likely sold dozens, if not more, babies to desperate families, who one can only hope had good intentions and resources. Her mother and father had skirted the system her entire life, worried that she would be taken away. The Dark Man was not just a nightmare.

With this knowledge, a new fear develops. What happens if the system catches up and realizes that she does not legally exist? In an effort to track down her birth record and claim it, she begins a search for her biological parents.

Over the years, she overcomes the trauma to earn a college degree and raises her daughter to be an emotionally secure and intelligent woman. Then at 40 years old, Patricia finds her first mother, which reveals a whole other problematic history. After a more-than-rocky reunion, Pam is led to her birth father and finally experiences the bond-felt-in-your-blood connection she’d sought for so long. With his help, she is able to claim her birth record at 47.

WONDERLAND exposes the intricacies of a broken adoption system, explores the importance of women’s reproductive rights, and tastefully handles the concepts of generational trauma and loving a complicated family. I highly recommend it for anyone connected to the adoption community, and for those who aren’t. This is a book that educates and fosters facing your own familial pains, adopted or not.

[Christina Pace]

A big thank you to Unsolicited Press, Netgalley, and the author for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Wow, this book hooked me.

As the title implies, this is a memoir about the author's experience as an adopted child growing up in 1970s Texas as she untangles the weird web of her parents - both adoptive and biological. It details the side effects of the "Baby Scoop" - a phenomenon where attorneys and lawyers used black market tactics to facilitate under the table adoptions. It hit its peak in the late 60s/early 70s, but I have no doubt in my mind that this is still going on to this day (especially in the post-vlog era of 'kidfluencers' and mommy vloggers). There will always be desperate prospective parents and unplanned pregnancies, and to bridge this gap between the two is a sordid industry that takes advantage of both parties.

I'm glad that Patricia is here to share her story, as it's a refreshingly realistic account of how adoptions can really affect everyone involved, and not just the adoptee. I feel like adoption is often depicted as having a fairy tale-esque happily ever after, where the kids are happy with their new kind parents, and the parents are overjoyed with their kids. In reality, it's far more complex, and Patricia Knight Meyer does a great job illustrating her feelings, from as a child to an adult. There's love, but also hatred, anger, despondency and confusion, all the 'ugly' emotions that come with being raised by a turbulent couple as an adoptee.

I really liked that Meyer included her experience with finding her birth parents - something that is also often talked about in rosy depictions of adoptions stories but is equally as (if not more) complicated. Where do you even start with the emotional unpacking? I love how honest and frank Meyer is with the whole experience - from the first contact to the current day.

This book comes out in November, and I think if you're interested in reading more about what it's like to be an adopted child, this is a great, personal introduction to the topic. It's a very 'no frills' memoir about American adoption, and the questions it raises about a second "Baby Scoop" happening due to the overturn of Roe V. Wade is very real. I've heard and seen many stories of adoptions 'falling through' on social media, and while most of them are scams, I can't help but wonder how many of them do end up succeeding - with very little paperwork and documentation of the adoptee's existence.

[Janine]

An incredibly moving memoir about a search for meaning and connection that is profoundly poignant and an important read for anyone seeking to understand their “roots.”

The author shares her life story with refreshing honesty and true heart. As a little girl she was told she was adopted, celebrated her birthday on a made-up date, and found out she had no birth certificate to prove her identity. Revelations over time revealed a shady “black market” adoption process the author later learned was fairly common in the 70s (known as the Baby Scoop Era where under-the-table adoptions were prevalent) and an attempt to extort money from her adopted parents. This compelled her to wonder who she really was. However, having to care for her alcoholic mother and 600-pound father consumed her early years so it isn’t until she’s eighteen and pregnant that she learns a secret that will take her years to uncover and resolve.

I was so moved by this story of a woman so loved by her adopted, though slightly dysfunctional parents (aren’t we all though?) but was identity-less. Without a birth certificate she could not establish legal identity and obtain required documents like a SS card (as a side note: it wasn’t until 1986 that SSNs were required to be issued to children and in 1989 the Issuance at Birth process streamlined this). As I listened I kept thinking I was somewhat glad this hadn’t happened in our crazy times where some people have to walk around with passports. Identity today is a cause célèbre of sorts so for the author born in America without all the paperwork to be almost rendered her stateless is appalling. But this is really less important than her desire to know her “roots” and achieve closure in understanding her past.

The part where the author meets her birth parents is revealing for its heart wrenching exploration of the meaning of “anticipation” vs the “reality.” As much as her adoptive mother could be mean, her real mother was something else but while reality can be a letdown, motherhood isn’t vested in biology as the author finds out. I was so happy when she finally met her birth father and that he turned out to be a good guy. I was invested in the story at this point I didn’t want anything less.

I listened to this book as well as reading it while listening (my thanks to NetGalley and YAYDNA for granting me access to the audio ARC and Unsolicited Press to the book ARC). Kudos to the author for her narration and writing this important book - two of the reasons for my five star rating - on the impact of black market adoption. I also appreciated the honesty and truthfulness given in telling this story.

[Alexander]

A big thank you to NetGalley and YAYDNA Press for the copy.

Medium: Audiobook

My thoughts: This was a fascinating look into someone who faced a reality that very few of us will ever experience or even think about. In this day and age, when everything is digitized and paperwork is the name of the game in order to exist in the country that you were born and spend your entire life in, not being able to prove that you even exist is a true nightmare.
The description provided for the book was somewhat misleading since it focused on the illegality of the adoption process that Mrs. Knight Meyer went through instead of what the focus of the book acutally was. This story is a journey of adoption and looking for oneself by finding the biological roots and the story behind one's birth. Despite my misled expectations, I found the story to be riveting and the narrator/author to be a heartbreaking case study for what can happen when people are failed by the system as well as by the people that were supposed to protect them in the first place.
I have to say that I was a little put out by the descriptions of certain meetings and people, as well as how the narrator reacted to them. Understanding that it is a normal part of going through something very intense, I disregarded most of them or simply attempted to get in her shoes for a moment. The one description and interaction that I saw other reviewers comment on as well that is harder to fully justify is the one of her half-brother. There is, apparently, a studied hypothesis that posits that people are attracted to one another based on genetic similarities. It has been used in a lot of cases of adoption where one member of a family unit was adopted out and upon meeting their relatives later on in life, they have a strong attraction to someone. The hypothesis is called Genetic Sexual Attraction and it is highly disputed and criticized as pseudoscience. Whatever the case may be, the part where she met her brother was uncomfortable to listen to.
Generally speaking, this book was very interesting and generally well written, giving me a view into the psyche of adopted people that I haven't had the opportunity to delve into before. If, however, you are looking to find a structured look into black-market adoptions, dubious practices and the proverbial "selling of babies", this is not for you.

[Taylor M]

Wonderland was a deep look into one woman's life who happens to be shaped, not only by her own black market adoption, but by the trauma and addictions of her adoptive parents. Split into parts, this memoir tackles several things: her childhood, her adoption, and finding her biological parents.

Sometimes I can really struggle with believing the author when they have very deep, fleshed out memories; much like part one of this book. However, the author comes off as very genuine. It's clear she's trying to be as clear as possible -even to the point of detailing intense, traumatic experiences- and never aims to pick any one person's side. In addition, while I do know her thoughts and opinions on topics, it never came off as "preachy" or pushing any one specific agenda. Meyer sought to expose the black-market adoption, as well as the impact of adoption on children, through the (perhaps therapeutic) lens of her own life experiences. Part three of this story, especially, was a heartbreaking look into what many adoptee's must experience when the birth parent of their dreams in no way mirrors the real, flawed human they have found. Her emotions throughout the story are so valid and raw in all their conflicting glory.

The one thing I can say I found lacking to this story was a more broad dive into adoptions (especially the Black Market aspects) and the struggles of being a legal, undocumented person. I always love to learn more about these niche types of topics, so more research information would have made this story that much more impactful. However, I understand that this is a memoir not a deep-dive, non-fiction story.

This was a very honest and authentic memoir. Made better through the narration from the author herself. She has a poetic writing style and is an excellent story teller. Overall, an excellent listen and highly recommended.

Thank you to Netgalley and YAYDNA Press for this ALC in exchange for my honest opinion.

[Wildrose Reader]

“Wonderland: Memoir of a Black Market Adoption” by Patricia Knight Meyer
🎧 Format: Audiobook
🎙️Narrator: Patricia Knight Meyer
📚 Pub Date: 10.15.26
⭐️ Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Stars

“Wonderland: Memoir of a Black Market Adoption ” by Patricia Knight Meyer is a riveting, fascinating true story about a black market adoption.

Patricia writes about how she came to realize that she was adopted on the black market as an infant. Her adoptive parents desperately wanted a child, even though they weren’t particularly well suited to being parents. Her adoptive parents were people who struggled with addictions, mental health issues, and financial difficulties. Patricia’s childhood was filled with various forms of neglect and abuse.

After spending years of her life searching for her biological parents and the story of her birth, Patricia is able to find some information that sheds some light on her birth. The saying “Be careful what you wish for!” immediately comes to my mind.

I don’t want to spoil anything about the storyline, and I encourage everyone to read Patricia’s search for her birth identity/birth circumstances. I highly recommend “Wonderland: Memoir of a Black Market Adoption ” by Patricia Knight Meyer.

Patricia is extremely gifted with words and she articulately and eloquently portrays her own life story, which at times was gut wrenching to read.

Though I personally don’t share her opinion that adoption is always traumatic and unnatural; I recognize that Patricia’s personal life experience has contributed to that belief.

I listened to this book by audiobook, and I really enjoyed the narration by the author. I am grateful that I listened to it by Audiobook, because I felt that it brought more depth and emotion to the story to hear the author’s own voice.

Thank you to Patricia Knight Meyer, NetGalley & Unsolicited Press for the Advance Review Copy. All opinions are my own.

#WonderlandTheMemoir
#PatriciaKnightMeyer
#NetGalley
#UnsolicitedPress

[Leah Pierce]

Wonderland: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption is an in-depth look at one woman's journey of being adopted on the black market in 1970. Patricia Knight Meyer always knew she was adopted, but that was the extent of what she knew and she grew up with more questions than answers. Eventually she started investigating and what she discovered was not what she expected.

The audiobook is narrated by Meyer herself, and that choice makes all the difference. There's a depth of emotion an author brings to their own story that no other narrator can fully replicate, and her performance is a perfect example. She handles the harder chapters with real inflection and emotion, and in the warmer passages you can hear genuine joy come through. Her reading style truly brings the story to life. Her pacing is excellent throughout, never rushed and never dragging, which matters enormously in a memoir this emotionally dense.

The flow was easy to follow in audio, too. Each chapter is clearly announced ("Chapter 1...") and opens with an excerpt from Alice in Wonderland, which doubles as a natural marker for a new section as well as a beautiful tie-in to the book's themes.

The story itself has a wonderful arc: it opens with her adoptive family, characters so vividly drawn you want to keep reading (or listening) about them, and closes with her birth family, who are just as compelling. Getting to witness Patricia's full journey from having no idea where she came from, to uncovering the truth, to using that truth to heal is intimate, detailed, and unflinchingly honest.

I'd recommend either format for this one. If you're an audiobook person, you'll love this. Meyer's narration adds a layer you simply can't get elsewhere. But if you prefer print, I think you'll still glean the same emotional tone from her intimate, honest portrait of her life.

[Brenda]

I flew through this audiobook that I would describe as a mix of Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate and The Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls in that author Patricia Knight Meyer was basically a non-existent baby all the way into her adulthood, when she began to research her roots as an adopted baby with a false "delayed birth certificate".

Like many adopted children, at some point they may be curious about their birth parents, but not having a legal birth certificate, or anything that could identify her birth, or even her citizenship in the US sent Meyer on a deep dive. Thankfully she was coming into the era of DNA testing and Ancestry.com

What she found about what she calls "open adoptions" was so sad. I do have to disagree with her definition of open adoptions, because not all open adoptions are these shady deals that were done in her case. Some are actually legal and above board. In fact, we support one of these. But during this time, hundreds of thousands of children were literally just handed over with no legal documentation.

And what you find when you find your birth parents could be a joyous reunion, or just more problems. I am left thinking, no one is perfect, including birth parents and adopting parents. One thing that stuck in my mind is how she repeats that "adoption was something that was done to her"; she had no say-so like the birth mother and adopting parents. She also points out that the birth father is also left out of all decisions in this time period. The era of 1940's-1970's was a wild west in adoption! Read Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate.

But her story growing up with her adoptive parents, her search for her birth mother, her actual birth date, and how she has landed today, is a compelling story that I highly recommend.

[BookishDogMamaKate]

I listened to the audiobook Wonderland by author Patricia Knight Meyer.

It is to be released Nov 3rd, 2026.

Eloquently read by the author, Patricia shares her life story of being raised by adoptive parents, learning she was adopted, and further learning her adoption occurred on the blackmarket, prevalent during the baby scoop years.

She is adopted by well meaning parents. They are however plagued with financial issues and addiction, things that would have denied them a traditional adoption. The author grows up with the fear of being found out, ripped from the only home she had ever known. And also, the deep void of wondering where she came from. As she entered adulthood and became a mother herself she begins the process of “going down the rabbit hole.” And through her words and hypnotic voice, I got to go along.

I appreciate an impactful memoir. This…is a home run. I was captivated. I make it a routine to listen to an audiobook two hours a day. This one challenged me hard to stop at the 120 min mark and not burn through it. Had it been the book I’m sure I would have failed and neglected anything I had to do that day to finish it. Fascination, sadness, anger, hope, joy conflicted feelings….all woven solidly, truthfully through the chapters. I have read several books, fiction and nonfiction, from the POV of the “baby scoop” birth mothers. This is the first from the child. And what a punch it packed.

What after all can be more all genre encompassing and gripping than a stellar fiction book?…..well, a real life story, of course.

Highly recommended.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for providing this advanced copy. This is my voluntary and honest review.

[Krystelle (based on the novel by Stephen King)]

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This is a very complex book to rate, and also to read. I appreciate that the author has gone through something incredibly traumatic, and I also appreciate that this book delves into that in a material way. There’s a lot of content in here that is fascinating, however, there are definitely a couple of things worth noting.

First off is the focus (or lack thereof) on the black market adoption system. The author addresses a couple of things, however, this definitely isn’t a deep dive into the system and how it functions. I think that this would have been a really strong addition, but I also feel like the memoir aspect was what the author was aiming for.

Next is that I understand a memoir should be personal, I do. I do think that this veered into the territory of dirty laundry somewhat, particularly with the mentions of the barbecue and the ‘fly incident’. I think this went a little off the track into it becoming pure familial nastiness, and that bothered me a little. I think it’s incredibly important to speak about how a birth parent may not be who you expect and how it can be disappointing, but I do think this tilted somewhat into unresolved anger territory.

I also appreciate that the author must have a lot to process in respect of her trauma, and in respect of her adoptive parents. There’s a lot to dig through here, and I think there’s still a long way to go in respect of the author processing her family violence and neglect circumstances.

I do really hope she finds some peace with time, and I appreciate that she has put this book out there, but I do think there are a few things in here that could have been positioned differently.

[Benay Bubar]

Until now I’ve used a different system to track my reading, but after having received an advance copy of this book, I figured it was worth creating a Goodreads account so as to have the opportunity to review it now. Patricia Knight Meyer was adopted on the black market as an infant, with her adoptive parents having picked her up through the maneuvers of a shady lawyer—she never had a real birth certificate. Even though she was strongly attached to her adoptive parents, they would not have been approved to adopt through normal channels, and they ended up having their own challenges with addiction that made her childhood a complicated and sometimes precarious one. She ultimately embarked on a search for her birth parents, with some nominal success but also further complications such that she came to understand that she likely never could have had the ideal childhood she might have imagined in any case. Her story clarifies how adoption is virtually never the seamless feel-good transition of a child to a better life, and black market adoption, which has happened to many children over the years, only complicates things further.

This book is being put out by a small press I hadn’t known about before, and honestly sometimes I’m wary of committing to books from small publishers that are unfamiliar to me because I’m afraid that even if the story itself is good, the writing or editing will be poor. However this book was well written and compelling throughout, and it led me to question some of my own assumptions about adoption that I was not even conscious of having made, so I am glad to have taken a chance on it and appreciate having had the opportunity to read it.

[Esta Montano]

SPOILER ALERT

The topic of adoption can be triggering for many - and this book spells it all out, including the how's and the why's.

in 1960, Patricia "Pam" Knight Meyer was adopted on the Black Market. No papers were passed but money was, vis-a-vis a corrupt judge. When Patricia realizes that she has no birth certificate, her quest to find her bio parents begins in earnest, as she attempts to unravel the mystery of her origins. Adopted and raised by a morbidly obese Latino father who dies early, and an alcoholic and seemingly bipolar white mother, Patricia suffers many humiliations throughout her early life.. Yet she loves them, even knowing that their adoption of her was problematic and left a wave of questions.. She suffers chaotic teenage years and has a child at 20.

Once her adoptive parents are dead, Patricia takes on the charge of locating her bio parents, something that is difficult to do given that there is no legal or written history of the event. Once she finds her bio mother, it is not the homecoming that she had envisioned. Reuniting with her bio dad, however, is another story. As Patricia traverses mid life, she ponders what her life would have been like had she been raised by her birth mother. Her appreciation for her adoptive parents grows exponentially.

This is a hard read in that I could feel Patricia's emotions full force, and could appreciate her discomfort and dissonance. I did not fully understand the connection to Lewis Carroll's "Wonderland," which the author weaves into each chapter as a beginning quote. Over the past few years I have read a few memoirs that trace a search for birth parents, and this is one not to be missed.
More like 3.5 than 3 *s.

Thanks to #Netgalleyaudio for the ARC.

[Cherie]

Patricia Knight Meyer's new memoir details her life as a "black market" adoptee. When she was but a few days old, her adoptive parents picked her up outside the hospital. She had no birth certificate or other identifying information. The book tells the story of her abusive upbringing, with no oversight from adoption agencies because her adoption was never formalized. The book also discusses her years long search for her birth parents and her trauma from the devastating situation of her adoption and childhood.

It's hard to say I enjoyed this book. There are some pretty powerful scenes of abuse and neglect, sexual trauma, and drug use. It was not a feel good story. However, the author does a good job of detailing the effects of her adoption on her sense of belonging, family dynamics, the cycle of abuse, and relationship boundaries. It was an interesting read and one that has stayed with me since I finished. I can see this becoming a great non-fiction book club pick; there's lots to think about and discuss, and there are some really thoughtful discussion questions included in the book.

Having said that, I think the book could have been a bit shorter. There were some parts that seemed to drag on that made the book lose my attention in places. The author's commitment to telling her full story meant that the story was very linear; the book was chronological through her childhood, teen years, college, marriage, child rearing. I don't think it could have been done effectively any differently, but it did make for some parts with not a lot of action.

I am so glad I got the change to read this book. I'll definitely recommend it to others. 4 ⭐s.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Unsolicited Press for an advanced copy of this book. It's scheduled to be published on November 3, 2026.

[Victoria]

Full disclosure: I know Patricia personally, so take that for what it's worth — but I'd be raving about this book even if I'd found it cold on a shelf.

I went in expecting a hard story and came out having read something closer to a thriller. Wonderland opens with the detail that hooks you immediately: a newborn handed to her parents along a Houston hospital curb in 1970, no agency, no judge, no paperwork — and a birth certificate she wouldn't legally hold until she was 47. From there it splits cleanly into two books working in tandem: a relentless, decades-long investigation (the attorney who trafficked her, the cousin he trafficked too, the birth parents she eventually tracks down) and an unflinching portrait of the family that raised her, alcoholism and all, without ever flattening anyone into a villain.

What surprised me most is how well the Alice in Wonderland framing actually earns its place. It's not a cute gimmick — it's the exact right metaphor for a life spent falling through a system built on secrecy, where every answer just opens onto a stranger question. And it reads fast. This is reported nonfiction with the pacing of a novel; I stayed up far later than I meant to more than once.

It's also doing something bigger than one family's story — it's a real indictment of the "Baby Scoop Era" adoption industry, and it left me thinking about how much of that machinery is still running under different paperwork today.

If you loved Before We Were Yours or Educated and want the nonfiction, higher-stakes version of that kind of story, this is it. Handing this to everyone I know who likes their memoirs with a mystery attached.

[Alexandra]

Wonderland: Memoir of a Black-Market Adoption tells the real story of Patricia, who was illegally adopted as a baby, with no papers in Texas 1970. The book describes the trauma of adoption, especially an illegal one, and how it can affect the lives of the adoptee, adopted parents, and birthparents.

Before listening to Patricia's story, I was not in any way familiar with the phenomenon of black-market adoption. I was not prepared to have my heart broken so many times during the book. The book was very informative but also deeply personal, honest, and brave. Patricia describes her childhood with an alcoholic mother and disabled obese father, who, despite loving her fiercely, subjected her to abuse and neglect. Highly introspective, Patricia analyzes how the adoption could have affected everyone involved and how the same patterns of behavior can continue generation after another if not healed properly.

Throughout her difficult journey to find not only her birthparents but also her true self, Patricia openly recounts her experiences. Without hiding ugly truths, mistakes, and disappointments, she also shares moments of love, hope, and what family really means to her.

The story itself was an emotion roller-coaster, and I was immediately sucked in, and I could not put it down. Patricia Knight Meyer narrated the audiobook herself, which gave it even more personal touch. The topic was extremely interesting and still very relevant in 2026, with the possibility of a new Baby Scoop Era as reproductive rights are at risk. I highly recommend this memoir, but I advise you to check for possible triggers since it discusses many heavy topics.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, for the eALC ♡