Although the subject matter was compelling and a great idea to write about, I had trouble liking this book. The characters were sooooooo mainstream, they almost read like caricatures. I realized midway through that I just didn't like Mara or her storyline. Her husband was unbelievably perfect. I mean that literally. I did not believe in his character--nobody is that perfect to begin with and certainly not in dealing with a stressful disease. I also hated how much the avoidance of embarrassment was a motivator for Mara, especially when it came to her 5 year old daughter. The way she apologized over and over to her 5 year old (about having fallen down in front of said 5 year old's classmates, due to having HD) sickened me. Another thing that wasn't realistic was Mara's ridiculously over-the-top independence. There's no way that Mara, as a lawyer who worked over 50 hours a week and was married to a doctor who likely worked just as much, cleaned her own house or cooked dinner every night. There just wouldn't have been time for it. So when she was incapacitated by HD, even if she wouldn't have wanted to have been coddled, she still would've had a housekeeper/maid and/or the practice of ordering in take-out food, if nothing else.

I liked Scott a lot better, but his wife was a total pill, and if this were real life, they'd be divorced in two years.

I was afraid that Mara would not

Spoiler

be able to go through with killing herself and I was so relieved when she did (and not because I didn't like her character, but because I think, at a certain point, there's so little quality of life with diseases like this one and it's honestly better for everyone that the affected person not have to live through it all to the end). I didn't believe in Scott's wife's turn-around, but at least it made for a nice ending. Scott loved Curtis so much; I was glad he got to be a father to him.