Review: Her Fearful Symmetry
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger
Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Ghost Story
Published: September 2009
Rating: 4 of 5 stars
As the second novel from an author with such a hit debut as The Time Traveler’s Wife, I think everyone was expecting something unusual and phenomenal. What we got were ghosts, a bit of romance and a pretty good story. Quite different from her first novel and for the most part very enjoyable.
American twins Julia and Valentina Poole are to inherit the estate of their Aunt Elspeth when they turn twenty-one but they must live in her flat in London for a year and their parents must never visit. The twins agree to move to London unaware that their aunt’s spirit was still in the apartment and getting stronger every day.
I liked that this story was quite different from Time Traveler’s Wife. The author has a beautiful writing style; the words flow and the reader stays engaged. There was an interesting mix of supporting characters: Elspeth’s former boyfriend, Robert, who lives in the flat downstairs, Martin, who suffers from OCD and lives in the flat upstairs and Highgate Cemetery, the Victorian burial grounds that their new home overlooks.
The twins were probably the least interesting characters in the book. I never really did get to like them. While the other characters become more complex and developed the twins appeared more superficial and shallow. Elspeth, the ghost, begins to show her true colors as the story progresses and she becomes stronger and stronger and Robert, the former boyfriend, is a delightful and, at the same time sympathetic, character. I found Martin the most interesting of them all and would have liked to know more about him.
While I was not a fan of the ending at the time I was reading it, I like that fact that it was a bit of a twist, not what I was expecting and now that I think back on it, it seems somehow right. Definitely worth reading if you are a fan of ghost stories or modern gothics.
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Source: Public Library
Under My Apple Tree 
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