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3.19 AVERAGE
3.19 AVERAGE
I was left feeling a bit off, after this. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it. In some places it was enjoyable, mainly when Niffenegger got into the descriptions of the places inhabited by her characters. Highgate was beautifully described. The main problem I had was that the twists in the book were, well, painfully obvious. And it left me disliking many of the characters, if I hadn't disliked them already.
It is, essentially, a ghost story. A woman dies, leaving behind a bereaved boyfriend. Her nieces come to live in her flat - they're twins, just like the woman and her sister. While there, they find out the house is haunted and, big surprise, it's haunted by the woman who died there. The ghost is not able to do much, the twins are painfully naïve for their age and it is constantly mentioned how young they are,
This story had so much more potential, but at times it feels just a tad too forced. Liked it for the descriptions, and the occasional sort of beautiful prose, and the relationship between the upstairs neighbour and his wife (probably the only two likeable characters in the whole thing), but couldn't give it more stars because the other characters just felt flat and unlikeable. And the 'twists'. I like a twist that surprises me, and lingers on the edge until the reveal, not one that I can see coming from just a few chapters in.
It is, essentially, a ghost story. A woman dies, leaving behind a bereaved boyfriend. Her nieces come to live in her flat - they're twins, just like the woman and her sister. While there, they find out the house is haunted and, big surprise, it's haunted by the woman who died there. The ghost is not able to do much, the twins are painfully naïve for their age and it is constantly mentioned how young they are,
Spoiler
which makes the relationship between one twin and the ghost's boyfriend very uncomfortable. After this and Time Traveller's Wife, I'm wondering what Niffenegger's deal is with young women/older menThis story had so much more potential, but at times it feels just a tad too forced. Liked it for the descriptions, and the occasional sort of beautiful prose, and the relationship between the upstairs neighbour and his wife (probably the only two likeable characters in the whole thing), but couldn't give it more stars because the other characters just felt flat and unlikeable. And the 'twists'. I like a twist that surprises me, and lingers on the edge until the reveal, not one that I can see coming from just a few chapters in.
It's a shame that when an author writes a best seller, everything that author writes from then on will be compared to what they first wrote even if the two are not connected in the slightest.
Saying that, I feel like Niffenegger has once again put me in a situation in where I hate what she's written and have fallen in love with it all at the same time. I feel like my head is reeling from all of the information that she unfortunately decided to throw in all at once, but at the same time, I'm glad that she did it the way that she did.
I don't want to fill my review with spoilers because I feel like this is one of those books that can't even fully be described without reading it for yourself. It's a ghost story but it's so much more. It's a story of betrayal while being a hell of a lot less.
This is one of those stories that is going to haunt me for ages and I'm always going to be trying to find a way around what happened.
That being said, people who HAVE read the story, I do feel that the ending was rushed and not thought out enough and that sometimes the story could have been expanded more and other things could have been cut completely.
This book is one that could successfully be put to film and I would honestly not mind having all of the haunting descriptions and actions put there in front of me because I have a feeling that what I think in my mind isn't nearly as beautiful as what it could be.
Saying that, I feel like Niffenegger has once again put me in a situation in where I hate what she's written and have fallen in love with it all at the same time. I feel like my head is reeling from all of the information that she unfortunately decided to throw in all at once, but at the same time, I'm glad that she did it the way that she did.
I don't want to fill my review with spoilers because I feel like this is one of those books that can't even fully be described without reading it for yourself. It's a ghost story but it's so much more. It's a story of betrayal while being a hell of a lot less.
This is one of those stories that is going to haunt me for ages and I'm always going to be trying to find a way around what happened.
That being said, people who HAVE read the story, I do feel that the ending was rushed and not thought out enough and that sometimes the story could have been expanded more and other things could have been cut completely.
This book is one that could successfully be put to film and I would honestly not mind having all of the haunting descriptions and actions put there in front of me because I have a feeling that what I think in my mind isn't nearly as beautiful as what it could be.
As a huge fan of Niffenegger's first novel, I was eager to read this new book and wanted to enjoy it. So it was with much regret that I eventually set it aside mid-way through the book. Life is too short to continue reading a book that hasn't hooked you. I'm not sure if it was just the mood I was in, but none of the characters were especially likeable or sympathetic. And the story was just a bit too bizarre and unbelievable for me.
This book was no where near as good as The Time Traveler's Wife. It was pretty good. It held my interest all along, especially toward the end. But I was somewhat disappointed with the ending.
This was a bizarre book, but it did hold my interest throughout (barely). The supernatural got a bit much in the book's climax. None of the characters were very likeable, and the younger twins were just too extreme in their behavior. I enjoyed reading about the cemetery the most, and wish it had suited the story better.
This was a weird book. I had high hopes. It was just too unreal with ghosts and suicides for no real reason and characters that didn't really belong. Also pretty easy to figure out the ending
I read this book more than three years ago. What stuck with me was the description of OCD and its impact on a loving relationship.
I will mostly be repeating other reviews when I say that with Niffenegger's works, suspension of disbelief is pivotal to actual enjoyment; with this particular novel, that suspension ultimately frays and you are left wondering what exactly you are holding onto. Julia and Valentina are great, complex characters (even if their "American" language is a little awkward) in the beginning, but they slowly devolve into whiny twenty-something girls who are totally preoccupied by love. Elspeth was my favorite character up until the first so-called twist, and by the second twist, I had no sympathy for her anymore and was tempted to skip over the sections told through her perspective. The other characters, with the exception of Robert who seems like a normal guy with an abnormal inclination towards bad luck, are just lackluster and don't really figure into the story, which is so different from The Time Traveler's Wife where it feels like a whole other world has been created with authentic human beings and real experiences. The title of the book has a lot of potential in exploring what it means to be a twin and what it means to be a sister, yet we don't get much of the sensitive, romantic language we see in Niffenegger's first novel. The first two-thirds of the plot are definitely intriguing and worth reading (and the Kitten redeems most other negative qualities of the storyline), but overall this book was too ridiculous and disappointing.
Though not in the same league as "The Time Traveler's Wife", "Her Fearful Symmetry" is a twisted and articulate tale about the importance of identity.