Generally if I like one book by an author it is pretty congruent to assume that I will like another book by the same author. So, after reading The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger I could not wait until she wrote another book. When Her Fearful Symmetry finally came out I immediately put it on my “must read” list where it remained until I finally had it in my possession. I have just finished it and must admit that I am terribly disappointed. After reading The Time Travelers Wife I expected…well, to be honest I don’t know exactly what I expected but it definitely was not this.
I won’t give away any serious plot particulars but I will give an overview of what the book is about. Two sisters and twins, Elspeth and Edie, were estranged at a young age for reasons that nobody else in the family were privy to. Elspeth dies and leaves her flat (in London) to Edie’s two daughters (also twins) and stipulates that after they turn 21 they must live in the flat for a year before they are allowed to consider selling it. The will also states that if Edie or her husband enter the flat then everything Elspeth owns will then go to her lover, Robert, and the twins will no longer get her money or the ability to live in the flat. So the twins, Valentina and Julia, move to London a year after Elspeth dies (which is a week after their 21st birthday) and, upon moving in, begin to realize that even they live alone in the flat – they aren’t really alone because Elspeth’s ghost is haunting them.
I definitely would not have expected a ghost story from the author of The Time Traveler’s Wife but I figured if she could make time travel seem possible and romantic maybe ghosts could be too. Unfortunately this did not happen. The entire story is full of twists and turns that confuse you and cause you to set the book down every few pages and steady yourself from dizziness. I desperately wanted to love this book. After only a few chapters I was bored but I made myself read the whole thing believing that I would find out that I got better at the end. I was wrong. It didn’t. By the end of the book I was wondering why it ended there. There should have been more. Did she forget to write a chapter? Was there a sequel coming? It ended so abruptly with so much unfinished business that it leaves the reader wondering why anybody would do that.
Although, after all I have said, I must admit that it is not a bad book. In fact to many it is probably a great book. To me though, it is average. Well written? Yes. Good story? Definitely. Good ending? Um…that would be a definite no! Read it and tell me what you think. Agree or disagree?
-S
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