What readers think of One of Us, plus links to write your own review.

One of Us by Dan Chaon is an unnerving examination of identity, alienation, and that difficult question of what makes a person "normal." Simply put, on a plot level, it is a story about a small-town boy born profoundly deformed and adopted into a family who later must navigate adolescence grappling to create a sense of self in a world of stigma and cruelty and curiosity. The book shifts between his intimate experiences and larger patterns of societal othering and whether difference dictates destiny or if empathy is a stronger force than fear.

What drew me most is that Chaon merges horror and empathy so much. The hero is never defined by how he looks—he is reflective, longing, and deeply human. Yet he doesn't flinch from revealing how others attribute monstrosity to him. This tension begets disturbing questions: is "otherness" something innate, or something foisted upon us by society? It's a thread that haunts