Eighteen-year-old twins Adina and Tovah have little in common besides their ambitious nature. Viola prodigy Adina yearns to become a soloist—and to convince her music teacher he wants her the way she wants him. Overachiever Tovah awaits her acceptance to Johns Hopkins, the first step on her path toward med school and a career as a surgeon.
But one thing could wreck their carefully planned futures: a genetic test for Huntington’s, a rare degenerative disease that slowly steals control of the body and mind. It’s turned their Israeli mother into a near stranger and fractured the sisters’ own bond in ways they’ll never admit. While Tovah finds comfort in their Jewish religion, Adina rebels against its rules.
When the results come in, one twin tests negative for Huntington’s. The other tests positive.
These opposite outcomes push them farther apart as they wrestle with guilt, betrayal, and the unexpected thrill of first love. How can they repair their relationship, and is it even worth saving?
From debut author Rachel Lynn Solomon comes a luminous, heartbreaking tale of life, death, and the fragile bond between sisters.
This book had no choice but to be sad. I shed SO many tears for this entire family. I couldn't imagine watching my mother deteriorate from this horrible disease, while imagining that happening to me or my sister. Though having the story be about twins - one testing positive, one testing negative - was all sorts of tragic, it was a great way for Solomon to examine dealing with a positive diagnosis, as well as the dealing with being negative, but still being directly affected by HD.
Solomon did some interesting things in the story, giving each twin some wins and some losses. It was a nice way to balance it out. And, though this book was really heavy and heartbreaking at times, she ended it with a little hope.
This is my second Rachel Lynn Solomon book. I now firmly believe she will continue to make me cry buckets, and I will be looking forward to shedding many more tears for all her characters.
