Her Fearful Symmetry

A Novel

By: Audrey Niffenegger

Narrated by: Bianca Amato

Length: 13 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

When Elspeth Noblin dies of cancer, she leaves her London apartment to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina. These two American girls never met their English aunt; they only knew that their mother, too, was a twin, and Elspeth her sister. Julia and Valentina are semi-normal American teenagers - with seemingly little interest in college, finding jobs, or anything outside their cozy home in the suburbs of Chicago, and with an abnormally intense attachment to one another.

The girls move to Elspeth's flat, which borders Highgate Cemetery in London. They come to know the building's other residents, including Martin, a brilliant and charming crossword-puzzle setter suffering from crippling Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; Marjike, Martin's devoted but trapped wife; and Robert, Elspeth's elusive lover, a scholar of the cemetery.

As the girls become embroiled in the fraying lives of their aunt's neighbors, they also discover that much is still alive in Highgate, including - perhaps - their aunt, who can't seem to leave her old apartment and life behind.

Niffenegger weaves a captivating story in Her Fearful Symmetry about love and identity, about secrets and sisterhood, and about the tenacity of life - even after death.

©2009 Audrey Niffenegger (P)2009 Simon & Schuster

Critic reviews

"[S]he has a knack for taking the romantic into the realm of creepiness, and she constructs a taut mystery around the secrets to be found in Elspeth's diaries and the lengths to which she will go to reunite with her younger lover. It's no small achievement that the revelations are both organic and completely unexpected." ( The New Yorker)

Lacking....

The story seemed to build slowly to a dramatic point....and then was over. It was as if the whole story was an introduction...then it ended right about where most stories would get going. This might actually be a clever literary device....but it didn't come off that way. Also, there was some foreshadowing....but it was so out of the blue, that it really didn't mean much. That is, when one of the main characters gives a glimpse of the future...you feel like she felt she had to slip that in....but up until that moment, there was really nothing else in the character's early actions to justify their later actions. Just a general disconnect between the character development and the plot development.

Where everything came together nicely in The Time Traveler's Wife, here, it seems much more forced, with characters acting....out of character...to advance the plot.

Hope Ms. Niffenegger returns to form next time.

Could have great....

but it just turned out WEIRD!

really?

After reading the Time Traveler's Wife I should have expected an off beat book. I actually enjoyed the first half. The last half was just so far fetched, I had a hard time caring about the characters.

Disappointing sophomore effort

After reading The Traveler's Wife and loving it, I was looking gorward to Niffinegger's followup and was, sadly, disappointed. Although the characters are reasonably well developed, I found the story itself thin. I hope she can redeem herself with a third book, as I am willing to give her another chance. I loved Bianca Amato's reading style and will look for other audiobooks of hers.

Disappointed

I was enthralled with the first 2/3 of the book, then the storyline just fell apart for me, unlike The Time Traveler's Wife which I re-read after listening to the book because I enjoyed it so much. The last 1/3 of Her Fearful Symmetry just didn't flow at all for me. I felt the author had "run out of steam" in completing a story that was so interesting at the beginning. The most interesting character ended up being Martin who was not one of the main personalities; the description of his OCD was very well portrayed.

This book is why ghosts moan!

The book started out as an interesting study of the relationship of twins. As my wife is a twin, I found many similarities of her life with her sister and the sisters in the book. While the relationship of the twins was spot on, based on my observations, the story line requires the reader to suspend disbelief in regard to ghosts. Everyone loves a ghost story, so not a problem. However, about halfway through the book, the reader is required to suspend disbelief and accept the ridiculous. Soon thereafter, the author spirals out of control into the realm of absurdity and stupidity. In the end, the book finishes similarly to how an elementary school student might finish a paper on the Titanic by saying "and then they all died." It's as if the author realized the minimum page number required by the publisher had been met and wanted to wrap it up in ten lines or less. The book is such a disappointment considering the work the author has demonstrated in the past. If not for the success of The Time Traveler's Wife, I doubt this book would have even been considered for publication. This book is why ghosts moan.

Excellent writer, disappointing story

Ms Niffenegger did a marvelous job in this book creating engaging characters and describing situations. Unfortunately, the story (especially the second half) became silly and ground to an unsatisfying halt. Excellent narrator.

If you must read it....go to library...

I was anxious to read Ms. Audrey Niffenegger new work; but, I just could not get into it as it failed to catch my interest. The American twins, Julia and Valentina, were ghostly on their own and lacking of real substance. All the characters had some serious flaws to include the dead aunt's beau, Robert, who stalks the twins for weeks/months upon their arrival in London. The plot gained some momentum upon their arrival in London to claim the flat and money left by their unknown mother's twin sister Elspeth. Their aunt Elspeth lives as a ghost in their flat overlooking a Victorian Cemetery, and appears to care for the twins, as she pines for her lover Robert. All of this while she gains on strength and wins the twins confidence. The twins'relationship that borders in the incestuous and bizarre, and their fascination with older men does not make it better. The entire story's premise was unlikely and the end was a wreck! If you expect the same wonder from reading the Time Traveler's Wife, think again, not sure what the author had in her mind. As it is, I wasted my money since I was not able to stomach the last third and skipped to the end only to be totally dissapointed. So,if you must read it then check it from your local library and donate the money to someone who needs it. Or better, skip it and preserve your mental health.

boring and strange

The story was weird and didn’t keep me engaged, the characters seemed immature for their age and not much was believable. The major conflict doesn’t really get resolved and takes only a few min of the story in the end. Would not recommend this book.

Great story, terrible narrator

This book wasn’t for you, but who do you think might enjoy it more?

People who enjoy the narrators dramatic reading with special accents for each character.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

The narrator is overly dramatic and I found the different characters accents and voices irritating.

Any additional comments?

Would love another version with a different narrator.