Her Fearful Symmetry

~Stacey's choice~

So yes. The book club was many, many months ago and I'm just now getting around to blogging. I'd like to say it's because I was SOOO busy, but in reality, I think it's because I just was NOT excited to blog about this book. After selecting a few golden books in the past {Same Kind of Different as Me, The Thirteenth Tale, Sarah's Key, Little Bee), I knew the pressure was on to select another good one. Well, I failed. Miserably. The book I chose, Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger, is not one I'd recommend. I had wanted to select another "suspenseful" book, but this one was not suspenseful, but rather a weird ghost story.


The story is about two young American twin girls, Julia and Valentina, who inherit an apartment from their English aunt, Elspeth (their mother's twin), that they have never met. They move to London to live in the apartment for a year, and while they are there, they get to know the people in Elspeth's life - her neighbor Martin, who suffers from OCD, and her boy-toy, Robert. I thought Martin was a well-developed character. Reading about his OCD tendencies and seeing the affect it had on his marriage and friendships was heart-breaking. This book had the potential to be a good story if it had been just about the twins learning who their aunt was and exploring the new relationships they encountered in London. Instead, it took a weird turn when the twins start communicating with Elspeth, who has been trapped in her apartment as a ghost. Valentina, the "weaker" twin, comes up with a plan to separate her life from Julia and it's all down-hill from there... After that, it's just a jumble of confusing, ridiculous, and SILLY story-lines.

Honestly, for those of you out there looking for a book recommendation, this is not one of them. Don't waste your time. We've read SO many better books than this! I AM proud of myself for finishing it, though. :-)

Here were our ratings for the book: (I honestly have no idea why I rated it this high! Months later, I'd like to change it to a 5... Haha!)

Stacey: 7
Kristin: 8
Allison: 8
Camille: 7.5
Erin: 7.75