Review
I had heard of Huntington’s disease before I read this book, but I did not really know much about it, I know now what a destructive disease it is. The book revolves around two main characters in the book Joe O’Brien who is a police officer, father to four children and husband to Rosie. The second character the book focuses on is the youngest child Katie O’Brien. The read first tells about Joe and how his life starts to unravel due to the disease. The author does a stupendous job describing what Huntington's is through this character by how it affects him physically and mentally. Therefore, destroying each fragment of him a piece at a time. You grow to care about the characters making it emotional, but, the O’Briens have a special strength to their family that helps them get through each day. Strength plays a large part in this story. The mental strength needed must be hard to have with such an immensely tragic disease.
The other main character is Katie O’Brien. She has a fifty percent chance of inheriting Huntington’s disease from her father Joe and is indecisive if she wants to know if she is positive or negative for the disease. Through Katie, the author shows how traumatic it is for the family members. Katie’s character was unsure of her life before the option of having a deadly disease. Therefore, now how she should proceed with her future puts her in tremendous turmoil. I think that Katie was the perfect child of Joe's to be the other major part of the book. Due to the fact that she is an intelligent person, very insightful, and feels like the underdog in the family a lot.
The only thing that I did not like about this book is that it has an unfinished ending. I am the reader I want to know how it finished not guess. That is the point of a story a beginning, a middle, and an end. That was the only thing I did not like about this book. Who would I recommend this to? Anyone.
“To date, 90% of people at risk for HD choose not to know.”
Lisa Genova graduated valedictorian, summa cum laude from Bates College with a degree in Biopsychology and has a Ph.D. in Neuroscience from Harvard University. She is the author of the New York Times bestselling novels Still Alice, Left Neglected, Love Anthony, and Inside the O’Briens.
Speaking about the neurological diseases and disorders she writes about, Lisa has appeared on the Today Show, Dr. Oz, the Diane Rehm Show, CNN, Chronicle, Fox News, and Canada AM and was featured in the Emmy award-winning documentary film, TO NOT FADE AWAY.
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