New Book Release: Weirdo: Tales of a Geek Adoptee
Introducing my newest book: Weirdo: Tales of a Geek Adoptee. It’s a no-holds-barred memoir about my experience as a Baby Scoop Era adoptee and features spicy commentary about the adoption industry. My adoption story intertwines tightly with my geek identity, and that combination is why I often felt like a stranger in a strange land while growing up.
I waited to share my adoption journey in a significant way because my story felt incomplete for most of my life. My plenary (closed) adoption meant I lacked huge chunks of information about my origins. I’ve always been curious about them, but legal barriers prevented me from accessing information about my birth families. Plus, general life demands kept my attention elsewhere.
Everything changed in 2022, when I reunited with my first mother. Our reunion was amazing in and of itself, but I also gained access to a family document that provided fascinating insights into my relinquishment and identity. That kind of information is a rare treasure in the world of adoptees.
The reunion and discovery experience lit a spark inside me, and so with my first mom’s support, I wrote a memoir about my adoption experience. I hope you find it helpful in some way.
Here’s the description:
Weirdo: Tales of a Geek Adoptee by Heather Massey
Weirdo: Tales of a Geek Adoptee delivers an inside look at adoption during the Baby Scoop Era, chronicling a shocking part of American history that should never be forgotten.
Relinquished for adoption in the late 1960s, Heather Massey grew up knowing few details about her origins, with the rest shrouded in secrecy. Yet one fact was certain: she was a geek in a family of normies who couldn’t understand her passion for anime and science fiction. Despite being a misfit, life was great—until a tragic car accident tore her adoptive family apart.
Desperate for control over a traumatic situation, Heather’s parents tried to make her into someone she wasn’t. When she resisted, they cast her as the black sheep of the family. Her adopted status only exacerbated the differences between them. Clashes with her mother and her father’s death from cancer drove Heather to search for clues about her original families. The document she found revealed a stunning secret that made her question everything she thought she knew about herself.
Decades later, a twist of fate led to Heather’s joyful reunion with her first mother. Then she made another surprising discovery: her biological grandmother’s little-known autobiography. A formidable matriarch, Sofie was the architect of her family’s saga—and the one who pulled all the strings.
Sofie’s life journey—from her youth in Nazi Germany to her adventures in America—uncovered startling details about her role in Heather’s adoption. Sofie kept her first grandchild a deep, dark secret, believing that was the end of the story.
Instead, it was just the beginning.
Promotional graphic for Weirdo: Tales of a Geek Adoptee by Heather Massey
Weirdo: Tales of a Geek Adoptee combines the humor and pop culture angle of Sarah Myer’s Monstrous: A Transracial Adoption Story with the theme of belonging explored in All You Can Ever Know by Nicole Chung and the search for one’s identity in the vein of Surviving the White Gaze by Rebecca Carroll. It also provides incisive commentary about being a transracial adoptee like that of Bitterroot: A Salish Memoir of Transracial Adoption by Susan Devan Harness and You Should Be Grateful by Angela Tucker.
My memoir is 100% human-made, which includes the writing, editing, and cover design. It’s also affordably priced at only $3.99!
Available at:
