Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger:
The story revolves around two different sets of twins. The
latter twins are 21 years old and haven’t really decided what to do in life or
how to go about it. They are content with sitting at home and watching the
tube, reading and enjoying each others companies. The other twins are the
mothers of the younger twins. Elspeth and Edie are twins who let a horrible
secret keep them apart for years. Julia and Valentina are a product of Edie and
her husband Jack. While on her deathbed Elspeth bequeaths her apartment and all
her worldly belongings to her nieces. So Valentina and Julia make the valiant
decision to move to England and inhabit the home of an aunt they never knew. There’s
all the side story of the other residents of the building, Robert, Elspeths
lover/life mate. Martin and Marijke a couple whom are basically the silver
lining of the book. Without them the book would be a dreary history of a cemetery,
selfish people and body robbing oh and twin things.
Bitch Please!
This is where the book ends being interesting and begins to
get boring because the story seriously starts to get boring. The man upstairs
Martin has OCD and he can’t leave his apartment the annoying twin Julia goes to
visit him and discovers that she likes him immensely so she keeps going to keep
him company. Here’s the thing the guy Robert who was in love with Elspeth is
afraid of going to see the twins and avoids them and finally goes to see them
and falls in love with Valentina. Remember I had just read Flowers in the Attic
so this was the overall theme of the week. Uncles marrying nieces. What I hated
most about this book was that Elspeth who was dead came back as a ghost. I
wanted the twins to go on an adventure and figure out the dark secret their
mother was hiding and then live a fulfilled semi separate life. But Valentina
my initial favorite sister turned out to be selfish and stupid. *Spoiler Alert*
Valentina is a fucked up bitch, in her desperate attempt to
leave Julia’s side she decides to kill herself with the help of Elspeth’s soul.
She deserved to never figure out how to get back into her body because she was
selfish. She didn’t care that she was making her parents heart break or that
she was going to abandon Julia. I hate Elspeth for knowing beforehand she was
never going to let Valentina back into her body and befriending her anyway. I
hate that Julia was left alone and sad and couldn’t move on with her life. My
favorite part of the book was Julia’s interaction with Martin. I definitely
liked the idea of a man living with OCD and aided by a young curious girl who
was determined to help him trump his fear and reunite his wife. In fact I vote
for Ms. N to take this story and revamp it with different names and then make
it a book. It would have been better than what she eventually presented in
manuscript. This was really frustrating to read. I didn’t like how it ended,
not even how Valentina figured out how to be free. I wish I hadn’t read this
before Cather in the Rye and after Flowers in the Attic. Vomit.
