I've known more than a few adopties and most of their lives have been anything but fairy tales. There is no way to separate the darker trajectories of their lives from this is how things go for some people and this is because you are adopted.

More than one of them were addicted to drugs at birth, which seems to lead to substance abuse problems later in life.

Two of them have a ton of health problems and are really tiny people, which they think came from severe malnourishment when they were very young.

It seems that most of them were adopted by controlling super religious people, which caused a lot of conflict and pain.

My friends adopted a kid who was mixed race latino. My friends are a mixed race Latino/White couple. The kid was around six when they got him. The kid would cower in fear when he messed stuff up, was terrified of long car rides (that he was going to get dropped off with people he didn't know who might hurt him), read below grade level and other little things that were pretty disturbing.

A few year later the kid is reading above grade level, knows his parents aren't going to hit or leave him, is playing sports and is thriving in all kinds of ways. So I don't think it's always bad or dark. The kid will always have some kind of edge in his psyche from what came before but it seems like he's way better off.