A Great Ghost Story for Halloween
Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger 416p. copyright 2009
As a rule I am not a ghost story person, but I am an Audrey Niffenegger fan, so I thought I’d pick this one up and give it a try. I’m glad I did. It is your usual ghost story, but more of a thought provoker on the relationships between sisters in general and twins in particular.
The story concerns two twins, Julie and Valentina who inherit a flat in London from their aunt whom they had never met. They move in and find it haunted by her ghost who eventually manages to communicate with them. While the two girls live together, they begin to piece together the story of their aunt and, her twin, their mother, and the secrets they shared. They also each form a relationship with men in their building, one of which had had a relationship with their deceased aunt; the other is a married OCD sufferer and Valentine begins to realize the unhealthiness of her relationship with her own twin and plots of a way to change it.
The story is very well written and the characters are fascinating as are the thoughts it raises on the different types of ghosts in one’s life: memories as well as those who are dead and what is a twin, but a ghost of one’s self? I was totally sucked into the story, for once I didn’t mind being under the hairdryer at the beauty parlor, it was an engrossing read and I strongly recommend it.
Her Fearful Symmetry can be found at the Cavendish Fletcher Community Library is both book and audiobook form.
