A review by trixie_reads
Pandora's DNA: Tracing the Breast Cancer Genes Through History, Science, and One Family Tree by Lizzie Stark

4.0

I liked the book, though it definitely resonated with me for personal reasons. I'm BRCA1+, and have lost my mother (when I was four), grandmother (when my mother was two), and cousin (last year when she was 50) to breast cancer. My grandfather and uncle died of cancer. My uncle died in his thirties from cancer, and my brother had cancer 18 months ago, at age 47. So yes, it's personal for me, and I'm not sure someone without BRCA in their family would find it as absorbing. Maybe yes though -- I liked the Henrietta Lacks book.

I found myself nodding during several points in the book, and the author definitely captured some of the collective family fear, feeling of inevitability of getting cancer, and relief that there is something (no matter how awful) that can be done to prevent it.