You'll Miss Me When I'm Gone

October 15, 2017
When the genetic lottery strikes a family unevenly, only one twin gets a death sentence. Fraternal twins Tovah and Adina are both ambitious, but the similarity ends there. Tovah's an AP student who wants to go to Johns Hopkins for pre-med, while Adina's a talented viola player who's conservatory-bound. Tovah hides her curves, while Adina wears "Siren" lipstick and sexy dresses. And Tovah's tested negative for the Huntington's disease gene, while Adina has tested positive. These bilingual, white, Jewish sisters have watched their Israeli mother's health deteriorate from the disease since her diagnosis four years ago. Now their mother's memory loss, mood swings, and physical tics seem like a grim foretelling of Adina's eventual condition. The once-close twins can't support each other in this terrible time, as they've been barely speaking since Adina sabotaged Tovah back in sophomore year. The point of view alternates, and readers watch religiously observant Tovah begin her first flirtation while sexually active and irreligious Adina seduces her 25-year-old viola teacher. The chilly prose depicts a family that's been dysfunctional for so long, and Adina approaches her grim solution to the Huntington's death sentence with such aloofness, that neither their pain nor her epiphany evokes much feeling. While the fraught sibling relationship rings true, the narrative is ultimately too detached for the subject matter. (Fiction. 14-18)

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November 1, 2017

Gr 10 Up-Fraternal twins, Adina and Tovah, are driven young women with very definite plans for the future. Adina is a viola prodigy with a dream of becoming a soloist. Tovah's heavy AP class load for the last four years is about to pay off with her early acceptance to Johns Hopkins University, the first step in her path to becoming a surgeon. But there's a darkness looming that threatens to destroy those bright futures. On the eve of their 18th birthday, Adina wants Tovah to release her from the promise she made years ago-the promise to take the genetic test for Huntington's Disease. But Tovah insists-especially since she believes that Adina still owes her for past transgressions. The twins know firsthand what Huntington's does to a person's mind and body. They have been living with the specter of the disease since their Israeli mother was diagnosed four years earlier, and they have a 50-50 chance of developing it. When the results come in, one of them has tested positive. Solomon has created two distinct voices for Adina and Tovah. Neither girl is perfect, but both are realistically drawn as young women on the cusp of adulthood struggling with grief, guilt, and anxiety while trying to figure out their place in the world. The twins' use of profanity, exploration of their sexuality, and underage drinking helps make the characters three-dimensional. VERDICT A solid offering for fans of realistic drama. Adina and Tovah's story is relatable to those who have had to pivot when their carefully made plans abruptly change.-Elaine Baran Black, Georgia Public Library Service, Atlanta

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 13, 2017
Gloomy, chilly Seattle is an ideal setting for Solomon’s dark and thought-provoking debut novel. Fraternal twins Tovah and Adina Siegel found out at the impressionable age of 14 that their mother was diagnosed with Huntington’s disease. At 18, the twins take a genetic test to determine if either or both of them will eventually contract HD. The results prove life-altering—one girl tests positive, the other negative—and the twins flounder in different ways. Growing up they were close, but now Tovah and Adina lash out at each other and the world, looking for an escape from heartbreak. Alternating between Tovah and Adina’s perspectives, Solomon’s novel is a moving glimpse into a religious family facing the effects of a tragic disease, a rocky sibling relationship, and two Jewish girls each searching for identity and security; the fallout from the diagnosis strengthens one twin’s faith while the other rebels against it. It’s an intense story that will likely trigger some powerful emotions in readers. Agent: 14–up. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary.

March 1, 2018
Tovah and Adina Siegel are estranged twins whose mother is dying of Huntington's disease. On their eighteenth birthday, the twins are tested for the hereditary disease: studious, scientific, devout Tovah did not inherit the gene that causes Huntington's; ?musical, romantic, rebellious Adina tests positive. Alternating chapters between Tovah and Adina's perspectives, Solomon's debut novel examines how the news of an awful inevitability splinters everyone's vision of the future. The family's Conservative Jewish faith provides refuge for Tovah, but Adina struggles against a God who can't save her mother and hasn't protected her. Dialogue in Hebrew is sprinkled throughout the family's conversations (the twins' mother is Israeli), adding intimacy to their happy moments and sharpness to their disagreements; the sisters' bitter fights are emotionally charged and dramatic. Subplots include Adina's secret relationship with her viola teacher, which gives her something else to concentrate on; and Tovah's plans to attend Johns Hopkins to study medicine going awry. Though a cloud of tragedy hangs over the twins' eventual future, they each figure out how to exist in the present and embrace the lives they've been given, for however long they will last. sarah berman

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