You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone Hardcover – January 2, 2018

“We are a doomed family—but we are not done fighting yet. One thing is certain: before I go, I am going to make a hell of a lot of noise.”At the heart of it, this is a book about finding back your sister, even when she hurt you, even when you hurt her.In this deep-felt story, one of the twin sisters is tested positive on a Huntington’s disease, a rare degenerative disorder, and one is tested negative. Rachel Lynn Solomon strings in the pains and traumas what means to live life with certainty and what it can mean to live in the absence of it.What does one do when she knows she is doomed, one way or the other, and is there salvation in that painful certainty. Can a person choose to live decently when she realizes life hasn’t been fair to her from the very beginning?Through the story of Tovah and Adina, the writer answers some of the aforementioned questions, with dramatic ups and downs.Adina is a complex three-dimensional character. She isn’t a pitch-perfect person, but her struggles bring the reader to question their own moral compass. She is so real.The story of losing and finding a sister, one of the closest relationships, depicts what truly matters when time is ticking.My favorite lines from the book:· Textbooks and exams don’t have emotions. They’re much safer.· I’ve spent my entire life feeling different because I speak another language, because I don’t celebrate the same holidays as most people, because I don’t call my parents Mom and Dad.· The piece is so beautiful, I ache right alone with it. It is hopeful, then hopeless, then flitting between the two as thought it cannot make up its mind. (Lovely lines.)· As a kid, I couldn’t stand it when people said “Merry Christmas” instead of “Happy Holidays.” It’s easy to be inclusive, and yet most people just don’t care.· What is it about bad movies that make them so much better than good movies?· I spent the next few years consumed by Holocaust literature. Consumed by trying to find a why somewhere in all that history, heartbroken when I couldn’t. You can spend lifetimes searching tragedies for reasons why.

Finally, a novel about consciously Jewish characters coming of age in a mainstream community—characters who are modern and not self-segregated, and not Holocaust victims or survivors! Readers who found Jodi Picoult’s My Sister’s Keeper compelling, will especially engage with this thought-provoking, ethically challenging, scientifically enlightening, and psychologically intriguing story, with its very real, complex, sympathetic characters. I can see this as a film, easily. This book makes Jewish people relatable to non-Jews and simultaneously educates those readers about Jewish customs and beliefs without making Judaism seem “quaint” or “foreign.”

I absolutely adored this stunning debut by Rachel Lynn Solomon, a story of two very different sisters who clash at every turn but need each other to survive. Adina and Tovah are complex, beautifully written characters. Their layers of humanity, flaws, humor, and determination make it impossible to take sides in the fight that keeps them apart when they need each other the most, and even as they lash out at each other, your heart breaks for both of them. One of them will die of Huntington’s disease, and the other will not, and throughout the book we process the information along with them, progressing through the stages of grief by their sides. By the end, I felt so personally invested, I felt that grief palpably. Solomon does a masterful job creating multidimensional characters who dare to do and say the wrong thing, to risk unforgivable acts and cruel words, to push each other, and the result is two of the most fascinating characters I can remember reading in recent history. This is truly a rare book.

Do you ever finish a book and then want to cry because you didn’t want it to end but the ending is perfect and everything is perfect and wow reading is amazing??? Because that's how I felt reading this book.TW: self harm, suicide, depression, mature content with older characters, fatal disease (Huntington's)I picked up this book completely on a whim. It has a catchy title, beautiful cover, and it's contemporary so you know the biggest contemporary trash dumpster is going to be all over it. I was so surprised and engrossed in this book that I read it almost completely in one day and ignored all my responsibilities to do so (sound familiar?).What I liked about this book: everything. It covers some really sensitive topics while also focusing on a set of twins, each with a distinct, unique voice, and contains loads of diversity. The main characters are Jewish, with one of them struggling to understand and cope with her faith as she watches her mother die slowly and painfully for Huntington's Disease, the same disease she carries the DNA for and will one day manifest. One of the twins plays the viola and has huge inspirations, while also experimenting with herself and some older men. The other twin is more focused on getting into her dream university, and refuses to let anything--including high school romance and parties--interfere.The discussion of faith and trials, as well as growing up with a certain heritage and deciding if you will continue to accept that identity as you leave the home is super prevelant and rarely seen in young adult literature. I absolutely love these discussions, and if you enjoy that I would recommend as well The Names They Gave Us and Little Do We Know. Not only that, but we see a set of twins who fell apart whose relationship is completely realistic. I can easily see both sides. We see the parents who have favorites, the anxieties they feel towards their own identities and college, and all of it was so beautiful and real and I loved it.My only complaint would be some of the graphic scenes. There is a definite content warning on this (see the spoiler) as well as some inappropriate scenes for one of the twins. She is aware of her sexual appeal, and let's just leave it at that. The mental illness representation was fabulous, and I think the story focusing on Huntington's Disease not only brought awareness, but also was emotional, incredibly important, and the perfect unique quality that hooks the reader without them knowing the entire plot. This is not just another fatal illness story. Please pick this up if you are a mature reader and in for a good cry. I am in love with this book.

Takes your heart apart and puts it back together again.