How many reviews of Her Fearful Symmetry will begin with the reviewer telling you how much they loved Audrey Niffenegger's previous book, The Time Traveller's Wife?
And how many of those reviewers will then go on to tell you that however much they enjoyed Niffenegger's latest... it's not quite as satisfying as her debut?
I'd like to buck that trend, but I'd be lying if I did. Partly it's the downbeat subject matter of this second book - a story that literally spends the majority of its time hanging round graveyards like a moody Goth. Partly it's the characters - precocious twins Julia and Valentina, weak-willed romantic Robert Fanshaw and agoraphobic OCD shut-in Martin Wells... none of whom are quite as easy to warm to as Henry DeTamble and his eponymous missus. The best character in this story actually dies in the book's opening line - though fortunately that's not the end of Elspeth Noblin. Unable to move on, she haunts her former apartment (now bequeathed to her twin nieces from the States), trying to come to terms with her spooky new status... while secretly pining for a way back to the land of the living.
The story is slow to get going, though not unpleasant reading. Niffenegger spends a long time letting us grow to like - if not ever love - her characters, so that when the plot does begin to twist in unexpected directions, we're carried along. There is however one major plot twist which takes a huge amount of swallowing, and your enjoyment and satisfaction with this novel will depend wholly on whether or not you're able to force that down. If you can, there's a lot to admire about this book. If not... you might end up quitting three-quarters of the way through. Which would be a shame. But to say any more would spoil the plot for everybody. You pays your money, you takes your chances...
