Her Fearful Symmetry

Twin sisters Julia and Valentina inherit an apartment in London from their aunt Elspeth, the estranged twin sister of their mother. Part of the inheritance stipulates that they must live in the flat together for one full year before selling it. Once they arrive, they become acquainted with the other two people living in the building -- Martin, a severely agoraphobic and obsessive-compulsive man whose wife just left him, and Robert, their aunt's romantic partner grieving her death. What's more, they discover that their aunt's spirit is stuck in the apartment haunting it.

This was one of the books I wanted to like more than I did. It was fine enough, but some aspects were off putting. The beginning felt a little long to me, and it seemed show more like it would have made more sense for the reader to meet the London crew at the same time Julia and Valentina do instead of having introductions for characters that don't seem to fit the puzzle just yet. Honestly, for most of the book, I didn't really care that much for Martin's story and wondered why it was there, but ultimately it did come together with one of the more satisfying conclusions of the whole story.

I also found the relationship between Valentina and Robert very strange. Because of the estrangement between Elspeth and her twin sister Edie, Valentina didn't know her aunt, let alone her aunt's partner. But it felt really icky that Valentine and Robert were starting to develop feelings for one another when they were essentially niece and uncle. (Not to mention that the big reveal towards the end means that actually they were essentially stepdaughter and stepfather.)

And speaking of spoilers, I was very much surprised by the big secret from the past and the twist in the present. So I definitely give the book kudos for that. Also the characters were pretty intriguing and the plot fairly engaging. So I don't want to imply the book wasn't good, it just didn't reach the great tier for me.

One of the compelling things about me wanting to read this book in the first place was the praise I heard for the audiobook narrator. That was not unwarranted. The narrator fantastically brought all the different characters and voices to life.

I could see this book perhaps appealing to folks who liked the Practical Magic series in that it also has some supernatural aspects but is primarily focused on relationships, especially familial ones between female characters. show less

Much like Niffenegger's first novel, her second novel appears to be about something on the outside, but it is really just a convenient way for her to explore a theme. The Time Traveler's Wife was not about time travel, it was about waiting. Her Fearful Symmetry is not about ghosts, but it is about being tied to another person and being trapped in a place or in your life.

The book requires some suspension of disbelief. First you must get your head around the concept of ghosts as presented in her novel's universe. Then you must accept her characters' behavior. The young twins still dress alike and do everything together at the age of 21. Other characters do things that might only happen in extreme situations in real life. I didn't let any show more of that bother me because the themes Niffenegger explores are so interesting.

Elspeth is a ghost. She died and left everything to her twin nieces. Elspeth is trapped, for reasons we never quite understand, as a ghost within the confines of her apartment. Upstairs is the marvelously written Martin who has severe OCD and agoraphobia. Niffenegger's description of OCD through Martin's eyes is the best I've read. He is trapped in his apartment due to his debilitating mental illness. His wife has left him because she couldn't bear living that way, however, she is still tied to him emotionally. She still loves him. Downstairs is Robert, Elspeth's lover in life. He is trapped emotionally, unable to complete his thesis or move on with his life. He is still tied to her. Julia and Valentina are the American nieces who come to live in the apartment. Valentina is trapped, controlled by Julia though desperate to break free and live her own life. Julia has tied herself to her and will not let go.

The plot centers around the trapped characters - will they break free of their ties, or continue to live their lives trapped?

Niffenegger's prose is beautiful. This is a book to read slowly and savor. Yet, there are many mysteries to be resolved in the story, so you want to read quickly, hungering for the answer to your questions.

In all, a very good book and excellent second novel from Audrey Niffenegger who is quickly becoming a favorite of mine for her unusual ways in which to explore everyday themes. show less

I feel very torn about this book. The writing was exquisite -- Audrey has such a lyrical style and the quirky characters felt so real. I loved the way the story unfolded -- even the big surprise toward the end of the book.

My main problem with the book was the ending. I hated it. But, I can't really fault the book for not giving me the type of sugar-coated, neatly wrapped up Disney ending I've come to expect from everything. Heck, I loved The Time Traveler's Wife, but it certainly wasn't a barrel of laughs.

I think that's the other problem with this book. I loved her first one so much, this naturally falls short. It's VERY different from The Time Traveler's Wife. It's not a comfortable book or an easy read. Still, it's been a couple of show more days since I finished it and I find myself continuing to think about the characters and the story. It's haunting me.

I think this might be one of those books I'll come to appreciate more later. It might be one I even have to read again. I definitely think it was worth the read, no matter how much I disliked the ending. show less

Elspeth Noblin and Edwina Moore are twins who have been estranged for years. When Elspeth dies, she leaves her entire estate to her nieces, Valentina and Julia, who are mirror twins, with the stipulation that they must reside in flat, overlooking Highgate Cemetery, for one year, and that their parents must not set foot in the place. When the twins arrive, they discover that although Elspeth may be dead, she still inhabits her old home. At first merely a felt presence, she gradually begins to be seen by, and then to communicate with, the twins, as well as her lover, who lives in the flat below.

Valentina and Julia have very different personalities. Julia is the dominant and decisive twin, who looks after asthmatic and timid Valentina. show more Each becomes involved with a neighbor, Valentina becoming attached to Robert, Elspeth's younger lover, and Julia spending time with Martin, the upstairs neighbor whose OCD keeps him indoors all the time and led his wife to return to her native Netherlands.

As their year passes, Valentina's desire for independence intersects is seized upon by Elspeth's ghost, who conceives a scheme to help her break free of Julia, a scheme in which they involve Robert. (And that's about all I can say without giving a lot away!)

I've been a fan of Niffenegger's writing for years, when I discovered her writing the catalog for Chicago's Center for Book and Paper Arts (though I don't think she writes it any more), and Her Fearful Symmetry did not disappoint. This is an eerie book, with surprises around every corner, beautifully evocative. At certain points, I found myself wanting to say, "No! Don't do that! It's a mistake!", and actually stopped reading occasionally because I feared what would happen next. I wasn't always right.

Readers of Niffenegger's other works with recognize the Gothic sensibility as well as a variety of familiar themes: rival sisters, pregnancy, odd physical characteristics (Valentina has situs inversus, in which the internal organs are reversed), wandering ghosts, flight (in both senses of the word). There were images which here are in words but that I recalled from her illustrated novels, The Three Incestuous Sisters and The Adventuress. In this novel, as well as The Time Traveler's Wife, she has taken ideas which in those novels are presented in isolated and (generally) unspecified locations and times, and placed them in the contemporary world, where they are all the more startling for their incongruity. show less

Note: There are no spoilers in this review.

It’s probably good that I’m one of the last people in the universe to read and review this book, because unlike many others, I didn’t actually like it very much.

The story concerns two twins, Julia and Valentina, twenty-years old (although often mistaken for twelve). They are small, undernourished, they dress alike, and they are more than just identical: they are mirror-image twins. That is, every cell in each body is symmetrical with each cell in the other’s body:

"The marvel was most evident in X-rays: while Julia was organized in the usual way, Valentina was internally reversed. Her heart was on her right side, with all its ventricles and chambers inverted. …”

The mother of the show more twins was herself a twin, but the girls never saw their aunt. When the aunt died of leukemia, they received a will indicating they were to inherit her flat in London, but there were stipulations: they had to wait a year, and they could not let their parents visit. They complied.

In the flat in London, they live on the floor between two other neighbors. Below them lives Robert, who had been involved with their Aunt Elspeth. The upstairs neighbor is Martin, a victim of severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) whose wife Marijke had left him, unable to put up with his compulsions any longer. Valentina gets involved with Robert, so Julia befriends Martin. But Julia doesn’t really want to be separated from Valentina, so Valentina hatches an escape plan.

Discussion: Ghosts and symmetries of all sorts play significant roles in the plot. It also seems to be assumed that readers will ruminate on the nature of life and death, life after death, good versus evil, love, and identity, since these issues are overdrawn with an obviousness just shy of heavy-handedness. But in my opinion, the injection of supernatural elements into the plot militates against serious contemplation of these issues.

Evaluation: It’s hard to define what I didn’t like about this book. To start with the characters, I didn’t like the twins, nor their mother or aunt. I felt impatient with the character of Robert, who was weak and easily manipulated. Martin was perhaps the best-drawn character, but his OCD was exasperating. The double ending (yet another symmetrical plot occurrence) was doubly dissatisfying: quickly resolved with many questions unanswered, as if the editor had said, “Alright! Let’s wrap it up now!” show less

Ok, in one word: Wow!. I mean this is worse and better than a ghost story. I never saw the ending coming, yet it all made sense at the end. Maybe not a happy ending, but possibly a just ending. I don't want to give anything else away, because that would take away from the immediacy of the end of the book. You have to travel through the entire book to get to the end. You have to read all of the beginning and middle to understand the ending. But I have to say that Audrey Niffenegger has taken her place along with Alice Hoffman in making the modern faerie tale, the old ones before the Grimms Brothers and Disney got ahold of them. This story just doesn't let you go, it lingers even after you've put it down for the night. And then..POW. show more knocks you on your butt and leaves you gasping for air. So all hail Aubrey Niffenegger, though I'd never want to meet her in a dark alley late at night. show less

As she used and refined elements of time travel mythology to create The Time Traveler's Wife, Niffeneger uses the ghost story as a means of telling a human story of relationships, identity, and loss. The characters of this story are trapped in some way - literally in some cases - but mostly trapped in relationships or trapped in their own past. Elspeth, the ghost of the story, is trapped in her former apartment near Highgate Cemetery in London. The gist of the novel is that Elspeth wills the apartment to her twin nieces whom she's not seen since their infancy on the condition that the twins reside in the apartment for one year before selling and that they not allow her sister Edie (also a twin) to enter the apartment. The tightly show more connected sisters Julia and Valentina start to see their relationship erode under Elspeth's ghostly watch as well as befriending their neighbors Robert (Elspeth's grieving life partner) and Martin (a man so overcome by OCD that he cannot leave his house).

Halfway through this book I thought this was a brilliant novel balancing the intertwining tales of these five characters with the mystery of Elspeth's afterlife. And then a twist in the story* breaks the narrative tension and makes the novel more pedestrian, in my opinion. Another twist** pushes the boundaries of the absurd and really broke the suspension of disbelief for me. A revelation late in the novel*** and the conclusion† are utterly predictable and disappointing (see footnotes for spoilers). Ultimately, Her Fearful Symmetry is entertaining enough but fails to deliver on its strong start. I think Niffeneger could've done much better with a promising premise.

* Elspeth learns to communicate with Valentina, Julia, and Robert through Ouija boards and controlling their hands to write notes.
** Elspeth learns to tear out the souls of living beings and then place them back in their presumably dead bodies.
*** Elspeth is the twins' real mother.
† Elspeth removes Valentina's soul but puts herself into Valentina's body. show less