Wonderland: Memoir of a Black Market Adoption

Meyer's haunting debut... both a poignant personal narrative and a work of impressive reporting. Publishers Weekly

Recited to her like a fairy tale, Patricia's adoptive mother loved to tell the story about the snowy January day in 1970 that she and her husband pulled up along a Houston, Texas hospital curb and drove away with their brand new baby. Yet Patricia would grow up celebrating a made-up birthday, haunted by nightmares of The Dark Man. At 12, when her parents confess they never received her birth certificate, questions mount about alleged extortion and the impossible choice they say they faced: go to the police and report the shady attorney that acquired the infant or stay silent and meet his demands. Did they really dole out $30K to keep their paperless child? Such revelations compel young Patricia to wonder how she came into this family-no judge, no paperwork, no questions asked-and lead her on a quest to discover Who In the World Am I?

Navigating her bipolar mother's alcoholism and caring for her disabled 600-pound father, Patricia spends her teen years trying to save her saviors-unaware of the lifelong threat haunting them: at any moment, someone could come back for their child.

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 those holding the truth won't live forever. Guided by her mother's ghost, she races to unlock a labyrinth of lies designed to erase her true identity.

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 missing documents and dark family secrets can no longer withstand the weight of one woman's relentless search for truth. A haunting reckoning with Baby Scoop Era exploitation that asks: are we ready for Baby Scoop 2.0?