Saturday, November 07, 2009

Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger


Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger (2009)

I guess this book has come out with a lot of fanfare. The Time Travelers Wife, is one everybody has read and this year it comes to the movies. So like lots of others I had high hopes for this one. I hear the rumours, the slight disappointments.

For me, it seemed like it was a book of good ideas. Julia and Valentina are identical 'mirror' twins, who find out that an aunt they didn't know, has died and left them her flat in London that overlooks the Highgate Cemetery. So they move and begin to discover the world by themselves.

I could feel that this book was one that was plotted with a couple of good ideas, but much of the beginning and middle felt like it was filled with filler, just trying to lead you to the end. There is the obsessive compulsive/hoarder neighbour, the aunts boyfriend, and the aunt who as a ghost remains around the house who are all playing their parts as interesting background characters. It was the twins who annoyed me the most, they seemed passionless and insipid. I would LOVE to have a flat given to me in London, I would live in the cemetery if I had to.

I liked the ending, I didn't see it coming, but I am not going to tell you what it is. Read the book. 3/5

1 comment:

Pia K said...

i very much enjoyed 'the time traveler's wife', not loved it but enjoyed it, so i will probably pick this one up. but this particular cover puts me off, quite awful and very superficial chick-lit it is. i hope there are other versions available, hm...