Having been bowled over by and fallen in love time & time again with The Time Traveller's Wife, I was more than eager to read Audrey Niffenegger's 2nd novel 'Her Fearful Symmetry'. However, like many other people, I found it be a little lacking in a certain 'something' . . .

I knew Audrey Niffenegger was a little 'left of field' from her books published prior to The Time Traveller's Wife, so wasn't suddenly expecting some 'middle of the road' formulaic read, but this was slightly disappointing and bland.

Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an awful read and I would recommend it, but it didn't set my imagination on fire and was not a 'page turner' to me. The modern ghost story element was novel, but there was very little substance to the characters and the pace of the story was a bit slow and ploddy. I kept reading expecting something exciting or vibrant to happen and it never really did.

There were sensitive and caring human elements to the story - like Martin and Marjike's relationship - but overall it was all just a little flat and grey.

I don't want to write the whole plot line for you as I think that would spoil the book! But the general gist is: 2 sets of twins, mother and daughter generations, one of the elder twins dies and leaves her estate to the younger twins. The twins move into the flat, befriend/fall in love with the male neighbours and get haunted by the dead twin. Younger twins, go through issues of becoming individuals and end up becoming very different through their experiences. Then 1 younger twin dies . . . . I don't want to tell you the ending as it's probably the best part of the book, so will leave it there!!

I am myself a twin, so could relate to alot of the 'twin dynamics' which was personally entertaining.

I feel this may come across as a harsh review and it's not intended as such. I just found Her Fearful Symmetry disappointing following the genius of The Time Traveller's Wife - although it is still worth a read.