#3

Okay guys, i finished Her Fearful Symmetry because i am not a giver-upper. I was not impressed. I always judge a book on two things. The first thing i look at is if it has any page-turner qualities. It definitely doesn't. it tries to be with allot of weird twists that just end up very confusing and ridiculous. compared her Niffenegger's last book, The Time Travelers Wife, this is a disappointment. The next thing i judge a book on is the feeling it gives you. For example, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Fault In Our Stars, And Catcher In the Rye all leave you with a magical, lust for more story. Its why they became so famous, and if you ask me, im still lost as to why Catcher in the Rye isn't a movie yet. Either way, this book did not have that. It did have a few interesting characters, but none that had a particularly interesting point of view or personality that you could connect to. So, to summarize the book, Elspeth and Eddie switches places before she married Robert so he was actually married to Eddie the entire time. this is ridiculous and impossible and super unrealistic. then she gets stuck in her apartment as a ghost and ultimately steals one of the girls bodies to live as her when they come to move into her apartment. her husband Robert into okay with it but has no choice. basically what im saying is, that this book is no where near what the time travelers wife was. the OCD man and his wife never got back together and Robert continued to work at the cemetery. Turns out however, i was right about the foreshadowing. The title, "Her Fearful Symmetry" is titled that way because the twin girls were actually symmetrical. One girl had her heart on the wrong side of her body, opposite her sisters. This is interesting and all, but has nothing to do with the story other than the title. another thing i didn't like about the book, (not to totally burn it into the ground) was the flat dialogue. there wasn't allot of conversation or interesting character development, other than the man with OCD. The action didn't move quickly either. when you type it out it sounds worse than it actually is, because lets face it, it got published. however, i cant think of anything i actually liked about it and ultimately forced myself to read it.

#2

From my last blog post i think its safe to say, i hated the book. and for awhile i gave up and began reading "19 Katherine's"  by john green. rad book. check it out. But after a long wait in a dentist waiting room with nothing to do or read but "her fearful symmetry" and had no choice. I must say, it got really really cool. we are introduced to a very interesting couple upon arriving at Elspeth's funeral. this couple lives in what was Elspeth's three flat building on the third floor. Their names are Martin and Marijke, (good luck figuring out how to pronounce it). Robert, Elspeth's now widowed husband, lives on the first floor of the building and for some unexplained reason Elspeth lived on the second. the next 50 pages of the book are dedicated to Martin and Marijke's story. Marjike is extremely artsy and open minded with short fusia hair and a love of funky clothes while Martin is bland and over cleaned due to an insane level of OCD. Marjike left a letter hanging from the ceiling outside of Martins bathroom door so that it wouldn't touch any germs. then she leaves. the next few pages go into detail and Martins OCD. This is everything from shaving his entire body to brush his teeth 36 times because he couldn't remember if it had been an even number of strokes on the right side. I absolutely loved this clip of the book because it was so surprising and in depth. Martin says that he doesn't remember Marjike's face or their sons, (who is in college). All he can recall are blobs of emotion. after having to walk sideways through his bedroom door and and do it in exactly 12 steps, then having to talk himself into touching his shoes, he finally sees the letter and takes it down. in the letter Marijke explains that martin hasn't left the house in 20 years due to this condition and that she plans to move to New York (from London) and says that they can be together if shes important enough for him to leave the house and live in a white apartment. Actually pretty sad. The rest of what i read focuses on Robert coping with the death of his wife. this part of the book is even more depressing. "Robert fell asleep waiting for his wife to come to bed." it just kind of shows how sudden things can change. this section also goes into detail on why Elspeth died. Robert thinks a]back about watching her lose her hair and get thinner before she died of leukemia. so far the book as really picked up and while the Victorian-esque grammar still throws me off, i like where the book is headed.