Terzah read and liked Molly Lindley's review of Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel:

"Pity the author whose first book becomes an unexpected mega-bestseller, for the five million dollar advance her next book garners won't buy her five million dollars' worth of story.

Which is, I guess, just an unkind way to say that like ev...more Pity the author whose first book becomes an unexpected mega-bestseller, for the five million dollar advance her next book garners won't buy her five million dollars' worth of story.

Which is, I guess, just an unkind way to say that like everyone else on the planet, I loved The Time Traveler's Wife, and I understand that it's a tough act to follow. But seriously: if you *must* write a story about twins, must their appearance and demeanor be so excruciatingly twee? Must the story, of absolute necessity, hinge on "long-buried secrets" that, obviously, always turn out to be about cases of mistaken identity, as if this were a fucking Mary Higgins Clark novel? And do you really need to give out blatant clues about how the story ends halfway through the novel? Couldn't there be at least one tiny plot twist, instead of a predictable soup made by unlikeable caricatures of human beings with improbable motivations? The story is what it is, but I don't even think it's the best version of itself that it can be--and that's a shame for the author as much as for the reader.

Audrey Niffenegger is a great stylist, and I finished the book in a couple of days; I'm not saying it's a slog or that I'm sorry I spent the effort. But it frustrates me immensely to look at this book with the sense that it's basically a runaway freight train--that the thing that determines the sales of this book will be the sales of the last one, and not whether this book is actually worth getting excited about. It makes Michiko Kakutani's review seem refreshing and fair--and that's saying something.(less) "

Terzah read and liked Jeannine's review of Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel:

"Such a disappointment.

While I certainly didn't expect this to be a clone of The Time Traveler's Wife (and I hate when authors write the same novels over and over, like, say, Jodi Picoult), this book was exponentially "less than"...more Such a disappointment.

While I certainly didn't expect this to be a clone of The Time Traveler's Wife (and I hate when authors write the same novels over and over, like, say, Jodi Picoult), this book was exponentially "less than" TTTW.

The main characters (Julia and Valentina the twins, Robert Fanshaw, Elspeth) were not likable or warm. I had some sympathy for Valentina and her desire to split from her overbearing twin, but the scheme concocted to acheive this was over the top (even more over the top than a time traveling man ... somehow that was more believable than this premise). Elspeth's experience as a ghost kept me engaged for a time, but at the end my sympathies for her, wane.

The secondary characters of Martin and his wife were intriguing. Martin suffers from OCD and can't/won't leave his house, even after his wife of 25 years moves to Amsterdam. His story is the most triumphant of the lot.

The writing was not as sharp as in TTTW, the pace was slow - lots of description of the cemetery (for which the author has great fondness, but boring to read about). Overall such a let down from an author I hoped would write beautiful stories for years to come.(less) "

Terzah read and liked Teresa's review of Her Fearful Symmetry: A Novel:

"I read Niffenegger's first novel before the days of GR; and I remembered when I decided to rate it, I wavered between 3 (liked it) and 4 stars (really liked it). I ended up opting for 4 stars, because I did remember so much of it due to its sense of...more I read Niffenegger's first novel before the days of GR; and I remembered when I decided to rate it, I wavered between 3 (liked it) and 4 stars (really liked it). I ended up opting for 4 stars, because I did remember so much of it due to its sense of place and its unique storytelling. Her second novel has these same elements -- her strengths are obviously her imaginative story lines, which she roots in concrete reality. But the story, which started out so strong, lost its way long before the weak ending.

My strongest complaints, though, are with some of the writing. The point-of-view was all over the place, changing sometimes from sentence to sentence within a paragraph. I don't have a problem with this kind of thing if it can be pulled off, but here it seemed inelegant and clunky (even lazy). And while the writing was very visual (to great effect, in many instances) some of the details were unnecessary and pedestrian.

I'm giving it 3 stars (as opposed to 2, though I really do think it's just "ok") because of the times I did feel drawn in and drawn back to the book. And it's because of these times that I ended up disappointed with it as a whole -- it had such potential and could have been so much more.(less) "