I am familiar with the condition, watching my MiL from early stages till death. While I felt Ms Genova explored many of the dynamics of the disease and the family and their reactions, I felt in ending the book when she did, she wimped out on the full reality of the condition. The sad fact of the eventual disappearance of the person until they are a mute, bedridden shadow of their former self means the reader is not taken on the full journey. While such an ending is sad it could have been alluded to in an epilogue. I found the epilogue in this book was not really an epilogue at all.