Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

After reading and really enjoying the Time Traveler’s Wife, I was excited when my friend leant me another of Audrey Niffenegger’s books, Her Fearful Symmetry. The story centres around Valentina and Julia, 20-year-old American 'mirror' twins who are wandering through life aimlessly and still living with their parents in the suburbs of Chicago. Their life takes an exciting turn when they inherit an apartment in London from their estranged aunt (the twin of their mother). From here the novel gets pretty complicated, but to sum it up their new life in London is filled with eccentric neighbours, ghosts and deeply buried family secrets. The novel starts off promisingly, and it’s undeniable that Niffenegger has a certain way with words, but I found that the story just got a bit out of control and was too unrealistic. In The Time Traveler’s Wife, Niffenegger was able to take a science-fiction concept and portray it extremely realistically, but she fails to do the same with Her Fearful Symmetry. I felt that it was a lot harder to connect with the characters and a lot of the plot twists were just a bit absurd. It seems like she tried to cram too much into one story and in the process lost a lot of the human emotion and connection that made me love the Time Traveler’s Wife. There are still some poignant passages and an enjoyable sub-plot but the story as a whole just never quite came together for me.

Was it worth the read?

I would have to say no. It’s definitely an interesting story, and the ridiculous plot is what kept me reading, but I was left unsatisfied and a bit disturbed in the end.