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.”

Book #9 Week #9, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger is a book I have been wanting to read for quite sometime. The "wife" is Clare and the "time traveler" is Henry. Henry has a defect in his DNA which causes him to travel through time at random. Although he has no control over his travels Henry mostly finds himself in the past visiting Clare throughout her childhood. In fact the first time she meets Henry he is 36 and she is 6 but in reality she is only eight years younger than he is.

I'm going to be honest here and try not to give too much away. I hate a love-hate relationship with The Time Traveler's Wife. I loved how the story was told from both points of view, I hated how this could be a little confusing if I was not paying a lot of attention to dates or who was "talking" at the moment. I loved how the story follows their journey completely, I hated how sometimes it seems like much was lost in trying to fit so much in one book. I HATED the ending, I NEEDED more, so many questions I had.

The story was great but I wanted to hear more of the happy times, seems like there was a lot of focus on the hard times, maybe it's just seemed that way to me I'd love to hear other opinions on that. I also wanted to hear more about Henry and Clare's relationships with other characters of the book. It felt like after they were married the story just rushed by. That's about all I can say without going into serious detail so I leave you with my favorite quote:

“Time is priceless, but it’s Free. You can't own it, you can use it. You can spend it. But you can't keep it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”