Review - Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffenegger

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars
When Elspeth Noblin dies she leaves her beautiful flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina Poole, on the condition that their mother is never allowed to cross the threshold. But until the solicitor's letter fall through the door of their suburban American home, neither Julia nor Valentina knew their aunt existed. The Twins hope that in London their own, separate, lives can finally begin but they have no idea that they have been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt's mysterious and elusive lover, who lives below them and works in the cemetery itself.

As the twins unravel the secrets of their aunt, who doesn't seem quite ready to leave her flat, even after death, Niffenegger weaves together a delicious and deadly ghost story about love, loss and identity.

This started off slowly for me then I started to really enjoy it. Not my usual genre and wasn't really sure how to categorise it. It's a love story, a ghost story and it's also about the relationships between twins.

Julia & Valentina are the twin daughters of Edie, herself a twin. When Edie's twin Elspeth dies she leaves her flat in London to her nieces with some strange stipulations. Nevertheless the twins travel from America to spend a year in the flat they have inherited, which backs onto Highgate cemetery.

The have 2 neighbours, Robert (their Aunt's lover) lives below them and Martin a crossword setter who suffers with extreme OCD and never leaves his flat above them. They also have the company of their Aunt's ghost.

It's quite a spooky story, very atmospheric and actually quite creepy. But it's well written and interspersed with a lot of information about Highgate cemetery and its inhabitants. I do like a book where the author adds depth to their story and characters.

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