A really great read. Somewhat expected the ending, but there were a few twists along the way that were completely unexpected. ( )

Having been uninterested in the Time Travelers Wife, I was surprised to find myself drawn to Her Fearful Symmetry. Niffenegger makes the existence of ghosts acceptable, and her characters real. The premise is just far fetched enough to keep readers interested, and the writing style such that you'll be reading for hours without realizing it. The twist at the end is regrettable, weird, and a little sad. Definitely worth a read. ( )

Well, I bought this book with high expectations due to the amount of publicity the local bookstores was giving it, not to mention that it was listed quite high in "books to read" and good reviews etc. I wasn't sure quite what I was expecting, except that there's meant to be some form of deep dark secret and it felt all creepy crawley.

The book started out slow with some portions of descriptives glossed over. It started out with the descriptions of the twins and their aunt, the main characters of the book, and setting the scene for the feeling of mystery. Firstly, with the weird will, secondly with the twins' physical differences and then with Elspeth (the aunt's) necessary haunting.

When the "deep dark secret" was revealed, I was disappointed. by about 30 pages before hand, it was starting to be apparent what it could be. yet, throughout the book, because there was no real closeness mentioned between the characters involved, the twist wasn't as shocking and surprising as it could be.

When the twist in the book happen (which is different from the secret), there was a horror of what happened but because it was so simplistically set out, the horror didn't last for more than a few pages.

and then, the ending of it all happened so quickly it was dissatisfying. or rather, it wasn't because it was quick as much as it was a huge anti-climax.

all in all, I wasn't happy with the book but... maybe it's someone else's cup of tea :) ( )

Long a fan of the Time Traveler's Wife (yes, despite its maddening plot issues), I hesitated to pick up Audrey Niffenegger's new book, Her Fearful Symmetry, because, as a rule, I do not like ghost stories. I quite dislike them, in fact. Science fiction, yes; ghost stories, no. Now you know. But it haunted me in that way books will when you quite enjoyed their predecessors, and so I eventually succombed.

The concept of mirror twins, one twin per set perfectly reversed in body, including organ placement, added to the curiosity those of us born singular will always have for twins. Two sets of mirror twins form the book's core. Elspeth and Edie have been estranged since Edie's twin daughters, Valentine and Julia, were three years old. Layered atop the curious dual dualities is a thick swath of fairy dust in the form of the girls' estranged aunt Elspeth. Following her death to cancer, Elspeth leaves her London and a substantial sum of money to the twins, Valentina and Julie, with the meager request that the they live in a flat for one year. Robert, Elspeth's mourning boyfriend and aspiring historian of the cemetery they're soon to live alongside, is named a guide for the twins' London life. As usual, Niffenegger draws a sumptuous setting for her pivotal characters, living in the flat adjunct a posh historical cemetary called Highgate, and the story builds from that connectivity between the living and the dead.

The delicate side story of OCD-suffering Martin, a crossword puzzle composer, and his patient, harrowed wife Marijke is used to waylay the book's major plot, though it deserves its own book with detailed treatment instead.

Niffenegger writes the way most people breathe, the prose simply falls away from the page as you're reading. If you're anything like me, you'll be gaga over the plot and characters, drowning in the beauty of the scene and overall interestingness until midway through the book. The dialog and the nuanced characters, all is spot on. Which is why it's so frustrating when it all goes to shit.

Without ruining the plot's major surprises, Niffenegger appears to confuse even herself with the mirror twin idea, complete with a flimsy bait-and-switch plan that might lose you brain cells sleuthing for rational motivation. Niffenegger ignores several key points. First, she hints, through Robert, that ghosts are missing an integral component of humanity, suggesting a sinister intent. This is one-off line that doesn't play through to later portrayals — though it should have — that whispers a more cohesive direction for the plot. Second, there should have been more to the idea of mirror twins than a simple plot twist. It feels affectatious, and I'm angry at being manipulated by it and at Niffenegger for letting that lone concept skew the story.

What I've written here may be more confusing than helpful, as a review goes. It isn't that I don't recommend this book. It isn't even that I dislike it. Instead I feel disappointed in a motherly sort of way, like my baby won't learn to walk, dammit, despite being ohsoclose.

In the end, much of the Niffenegger's descriptive detail is wasted, imperiled later by the crippling and rapidly deflating twin epicenter. Her conclusions fail several of the characters and the book's lush setting, but also feel unfinished, shortsighted.

ChristineReads.com ( )

I still haven't read The Time Traveler's Wife by Niffenegger so I went into this book not really knowing what to expect from the author. What I found was not only a ghost story, but the result of keeping secrets buried for a lifetime between twin sisters who gave up on their relationship years ago. This book was full of beautiful, descriptive writing of London and gave you a vivid glimpse into the Highgate Cemetary.

Elspeth has lived her entire life in a flat next to the Highgate Cemetary in London, where her deceased family rests. When Elspeth dies of cancer within the first few pages of the book, her spirit finds its way back to her flat and cannot seem to leave that area. In her will, Elspeth left all of her belongings to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina, with the condition that they live together in her flat for at least a year with the stipulation that their parents must never set foot on the premises. It is definitely curious as to why Elspeth would leave such a valuable lot to a couple of girls that she has never known and with such strict stipulations.

Julia and Valentina have lived their lives in Illinois with their parents, Edie and Jack. Edie is Elspeth's twin but since they became estranged many years before, they have hardly had any contact since she left London years ago. Edie's twin daughters have done everything in their lives together, including attending the same college. If college life wasn't working out for one of them, both of the girls would return home. So it isn't a surprise when they decide that they will head to London to live in Elspeth's flat together.

The twins find life in London exciting as they realize they can do basically anything that they wish since Elspeth left them plenty of money for expenses. Although they do everything together you start to get the sense that both want to branch out and explore their own personal interests and longings. Julia wants to sit back and enjoy life while Valentina wants to continue her education. With both girls wanting to pursue different endeavors that means that they would have to continue their life journey separately, and neither one is quite sure of taking this drastic action.

After the twins are living in the flat for awhile, Elspeth finds a way to communicate with them. They find comfort in getting a chance to know the aunt that they never had a chance to know before. I enjoyed this part of the book because I do believe that there is a very powerful spiritual realm out there. While certain events occurred that made the occurrences more realistic, the book seemed to take a turn that really was a bit too far out there for me. It's not that I didn't like where it was going, but maybe just unsure of it (if that makes sense).

I enjoyed getting to know all of the characters that were in this novel. Elspeth's boyfriend Robert happened to live in the flat below the twins and Valentina was able to befriend him in a way that helped him recover from losing his love. Martin lived in a flat upstairs from the girls and after his wife left him he seemed to sink deeper into his OCD disorder. Julia became a confidant to Martin and eventually helps him to get his life back on track. I think it was interesting how the girls reached out to others and helped them find a piece of themselves that they didn't know existed-life without their twin by their side constantly.

The writing in this book flowed so nicely and I appreciated the vivid descriptions that were provided of both London and the Highgate Cemetary. If you enjoy a good ghost story without being scared to death then you will probably enjoy this book. Neffenegger is obviously a very talented author and I do plan on reading The Time Traveler's Wife yet, even though I have already seen the movie. ( )