#32 of 52 – 52 Books in 52 Weeks

Slightly spoilery post follows.

It took me a few weeks to get through this. I wanted to like this book, I really did. Mainly because I enjoyed The Time Traveler’s Wife so much. However, Her Fearful Symmetry is a very different type of novel in comparison. It has a supernatural element, and I love a good ghost story. It also has a great ensemble cast of characters (though some are certainly more sympathetic than others). Despite all this, I just couldn’t quite “get into” the book.

The story revolves largely around Valentina and Julia, twin sisters who move to London when their aunt Elspeth dies. She has left them her flat and most of her belongings, though they never knew her. Their mother, Edie, was Elspeth’s twin sister, but they were estranged during the years that Valentina and Julia were growing up.

If you’re slightly confused already, don’t feel too bad because I spent much of the book feeling confused. At first, I found the twins’ (Valentina and Julia, that is) relationship very strange. To me, there is something very creepy about 21-year-olds dressing exactly alike and being practically attached at the hip constantly. One never goes anywhere or does anything without the other. I feel more sympathetic toward Valentina, who is a sensitive, introspective girl. Julia can be caring, but she also has an underlying selfishness and immaturity that bothered me quite a bit at first. That changes, but not in the manner I expected.

Another character I liked is Martin, who lives in the flat above Valentina and Julia’s. He has obsessive-compulsive disorder and because of this, I felt nothing but pity for him at first. Throughout the course of the story, however, my feelings toward him warmed and I came to like his character very much. I was also satisfied with the resolution of his storyline.

There’s a twist ending, I suppose you could call it, but it’s kind of odd. When the climax of the novel is revealed, I wasn’t entirely surprised by it. I had guessed part of it early on–maybe a few chapters in?–and the other part of the twist really, really annoyed me. I was not happy with it. In fact, when I got to the last page of the book, I turned it in expectation I’d continue reading because I expected another chapter that might clarify, help explain what I just read. I just wasn’t happy with the way the story was wrapped up. To me, it felt like the first third of the book was intriguing, the middle was slow, and the final third was slightly…random. And not in a good way.

As I said before, I love supernatural stories, but the ending of this one just bugged me because it didn’t seem to have been planned out well. Compared with the rest of the book, the final few chapters felt off balance–not as fully developed.

Overall, sadly, I didn’t enjoy the book. However, I do like Niffenegger’s writing style–The Time Traveler’s Wife is such a compelling read. For this reason, I’m sure I’ll read her future books. After I finished HFS, I read some reviews online, and opinions of the book are rather mixed. Readers either loved the book, or had the same feeling about it that I had. I wouldn’t say I hated it, but I had higher expectations for it, given the quality of her debut novel.

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