Book #39 week #31, Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

One of my early books in this project was The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger which I had a very mixed reaction to. Recently I was browsing Barnes & Nobles clearance section and came across Her Fearful Symmetry for only $1.99 so I figured why not? Let's see what this book is like.

Here we follow the tale of Elspeth Noblin and her twin sister Edie. Elspeth has died and left everything she has to Edie's twenty-year-old twin daughters Julia and Valentina on the condition that the girls leave Chicago and spend one year in Elspeth's London flat before they decide what to do with it. Also the girl's parents are not to set foot in the flat as Elspeth and Edie had a falling out and have not spoken in twenty years. This worries Edie as she is afraid the twins will find something in the flat that will tell them what had transpired between their mother and her sister so long ago.

So Julia and Valentina head off to London. All of Elspeth's diaries have been cleared out by Robert (Elspeth's younger boyfriend). Robert lives in the flat below the twins and Martin, a man with sever OCD lives in the flat above. Here the year long journey begins. Julia befriends the oddball Martin, and Robert who has not been handling Elspeth's death very well suddenly starts feeling better after meeting Valentina. The girls start living their own life's finally but it is not easy. Julia feels content always being attached to her sister and looking after her (Valentina is sickly) but Valentina feels controlled and smothered.

At first I thought this was going to be a normal book about love, loss and moving on but in walks Elspeth's ghost..... ah shucks! 

You know this did add to the story though. Elspeth figures out how to communicate, Valentina comes up with a drastic plan to separate herself from Julia, the big secret is finally revealed (and I will admit I was shocked) but in the end I just wasn't happy. I can't say I hated Her Fearful Symmetry but I didn't love it. The writing was good and the characters were interesting and engaging but I wasn't thrilled with the turn of events. I know Audrey Niffenegger has other books out and this makes me want to read them and see if I can finally love one of her books but I just don't know if I can do it!

Quote:
“Listen, sometimes when you finally find out, you realize that you were much better off not knowing.”