shighley 's review for:

Inside the O'Briens by Lisa Genova

3.0

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I suppose if another author had written this, I might have given it a 4, but I had higher hopes for this (I never finished Still Alice, but often think about Love, Anthony). I am thankful that I learned more about HD, had my mind stretched by the myriad of possibilities (do they or don't they?), but was not surprised by the end. I'd like to think I'm a bit more empathetic (Have I ever seen someone with chorea symptoms? Am I too quick to judge when someone does?) The use of Boston, Charlestown and even Fenway (representing the number of people with HD) as the setting was a plus. I did some further research on HD and saw a figure of between 20,000 and 200,000 (Seems like an awfully big gap)

The book just felt a little uneven, jumping months some times (wait, is it time for Katie to find out yet?) I never did figure out what Felix saw in Katie. I did appreciate the scenes between Katie and Meghan on the steps, with Katie and her father at the yoga studio, and even the use of quotes throughout. The genetic counseling sessions were interesting; I wondered if it's true that 50% of all people who are tested for HD back out from hearing the result.

I was surprised that there was a typo on page 185 ('her' in place of 'he') Yes, I learned a lot, but I was hoping for more of an emotional wallop.