Bibliosearcher: Information about Her Fearful Symmetry

Product Information:
Pages: 496
Publication Date: 05/07/2010
Publisher: Vintage
Binding: Paperback
ISBN 10: 0099524171
ISBN 13: 9780099524175

Editorial Review
Julia and Valentina Poole are normal American teenagers - normal, at least, for identical 'mirror' twins who have no interest in college or jobs. But everything changes when they receive notice that an aunt whom they didn't know existed has died and left them her flat in an apartment block overlooking Highgate Cemetery in London.

Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating:

Strange, depressing, disappointing!
Whilst this book is extremely well written and the characters are intriguing and well developed (particularly Robert and Martin) the end of the book severely lets it down. As other reviewers have written it seems to be a book of two halves. The first half being completely removed from the end. The beginning sets up the book beautifully introducing the characters and giving hints of family secrets whilst giving little bits of history about London and Highgate Cemetery. However, the second half of the book seems to completely leave any sense of reality behind. The twist instead of being exciting ended up just being extremely strange, dark and left me feeling quite depressed. It is such a shame that a book that started out with such promise and depth of character lost its way. I have given two stars purely for the standard of writing in the first half of the book.

Gripping
I took this book on holiday and couldn't sleep one night so got up at 2.30am and started reading, I could not put it down until it was finished, it twists and turns and is a very brilliant read, I was so excited about getting to the end to see what happened to the characters, and that's when I became dissapointed, the ending for me is pants!! All that beautiful, gripping writing , to end like that! Ms Niffeneggar what were you thinking of!!
I gave this a 4 star rating because of the gripping tale, and the way the author writes is brilliant, but the ending was a different story!!

Rubbish
This could have been so good and, like other reviewers, I was impressed by the first third of the book. However, the plot "twists" become ever more farcical and incredulity is strained way beyond breaking point. If you want a good ghost story read MR James or Henry James' 'Turn of the Screw' not this load of overblown nonsense that is ultimately an insult to the reader's intelligence.

Promising start, shame about the last third...
The Time Traveller's Wife was a beautifully constructed book with a conclusion that left me weeping like a small child, so it was with trepidation that I approached her second novel. It could only be a disappointment.

I think perhaps my biggest problem with it is that, for the most part, it isn't disappointing at all. I fell completely in love with Robert within the first few chapters; was intrigued by Marijke and Martin. The twins I disliked but I susoect that this was the intended effect.

Sadly, the Kitten is clearly a plot device from the moment she appears. Little Kitten of Death indeed. As for Elspeth's ghost: well. I suspect the story would be significantl more interesting - and better - without it.

Her Fearful Symmetry did, however, fascinate me, at least up to the point where Elspeth started making herself known and Robert and Valentina's relationship foundered. His attraction to his dead lover's nieve intrigued me. It was a shame to see it sacrificed to what was in essence an exercise in surrealism for its own sake.

As for Elspeth and Edie's story, where is the symmetry the title speaks of? I was expecting to see elements of the younger twins' relationship reflected but this is simply not so. An opportunity missed in my opinion, and I was simply not able to "buy" the explanation for the rift.

The first two-thirds or so of the novel are exemplary, so much so iin fact that I read the entire novel in a day. A shame, then, that the unsatisfactory twists and off-the-wall conclusion ruined it for me.

a novel of two halves ...
i was totally enthralled by the first 300 or so pages of this novel then it started to go down hill very rapidly. by the end i was really disappointed as it became totally and utterly incredible/unbelievable. the ending i was hoping for never materialised. this could have been a much, much better book ... what went wrong? it seems as though the writer lost her way and panicked and it seems as though her editor got fed up and gave up. i won't give the real plot away but wouldn't it have been a much more satisfying and enriching read if valentina had then entered julia's body and they'd got their revenge on elspeth/edie...
good bits .... martin was belivable and his love story held my attention throughout. and i loved the history of highgate etc, hence three stars rather than one.
such a shame. i loved the first half and got confused and irritable with the terrible writing in the latter part ...
re-write it someone. please.

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