Customer Reviews

Her Fearful Symmetry Large Print

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3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(2)

 

 

I loved The Time Traveller's Wife and so was so so looking forward to reading more of the same. Ok, I accept that a writer can't go around rehashing what they did before just to please readers but Her Fearful Symmetry was disappointing to say the least. Julia and Valentina are twins, drawn into a conflict between their mother and aunt (who are also twins). When their aunt Elspeth dies and leaves them everything except her private papers, (which she leaves to her lover who lives downstairs) she imposes the condition that they must live in her flat for a year before they can sell- and so the essentially American twins are off to a glorious adventure that is London.

Sadly, the twins tend to come off as vague, self absorbed, and slightly annoying, so one hardly cares what happens to them. Key points in the plot just don't add up. Without giving anything away, the HUGE SECRET about the relationship between mother and aunt turns out to be something of a damp squib, the other key characters are a little wooden and the few opportunities to let rip with some real drama slip away.

The story is set around Highgate Cemetery- which is fact a brilliant place to go visit if you happen to be in London.

My advice- forget the book- take a tour of Highgate Cemetery instead. It will far more stimulating than this.

I agree with Sheena! I, too, was a huge fan of The Time Travellers Wife and was hugely disappointed with Her Fearful Symmetry. The ending was incredibly bad and left me wondering if I'd picked up a completely different book entirely. First 300 pages were kind of average but readable, and Audrey could have saved it with a big ending that wowed her readers.... but the last 90 pages were so disappointing. I finished the book completely confused about what actually happened and why the characters would behave so irrationally (and Im a twin so I thought I might be able to relate to this story!) There were lots of loose ends that weren't tied up. Im actually not sure how this book got published like this???

First, I partially agree with Sheena and Samara, however my husband read the book and enjoyed it and recommended it to me. I only give it three stars because although I liked the book, the plot did stretch credulity at times and ending is a bit weak.

Extraordinarily bizarre: that was my overall impression of Audrey Niffenegger's Her Fearful Symmetry as I closed the book having finished it, with a contended sigh that you only get after reading a truly profound and sophisticated work of fiction such as this one. In a nutshell, Her Fearful Symmetry is a ghost story unlike any other enveloped with compelling characters and a deliciously-woven storyline that will leave you breathless with wonder.

Julia and Valentina Poole woke up one day to receive a letter from their recently deceased aunt Elspeth Noblin whose existence is kept from them until now. The twins were as surprised as their parents when Elspeth left her beautiful flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery to the twins on the condition that their mother is never allowed to set foot in it.

As excited as the twins were to start their own separate lives for the first time, away from her parents in America, Julia and Valentina soon found themselves entangled in a web of secrets surrounding her aunt. Not only they had to unravel the mystery of their aunt, but the twins are left to deal with their obsessive-compulsive neighbor Martin who lives just above them and their aunt's elusive lover Robert who resides in the flat below.

As she did with her vastly triumphant best-selling novel The Time Traveler's Wife, Niffenegger once again succeeded in conjuring up a gripping narrative told in an eccentric and equally puzzling prose, full of suspense that will pleasantly haunt you long after you have read the final pages of this enchanting tale. The deep and dark mysteries surrounding the lives of the odd characters in this book is set to jolt you with enough jaw-dropping moments to make you go O-to-the-M-to-the-G! You seriously can't afford to miss this scrumptious bite of a novel.