Two for One

I hope that everyone had a great transition back into school this year, and an exciting Halloween.  I realized this morning, that I had forgotten to post my review in October, so I am going to give you two book reviews this month!

Her Fearful Symmetry

The Time Travelers Wife  is one of my favorite books, so when I found out that Audrey Niffenegger had written another book I was so excited to read it.  I was going to review this book in October for Halloween, because ghosts are at the center of this story.  The language in this book is beautiful, and the quirky characters are well developed.  Even if the storyline seems a little forced at times, you will not be able to put this book down.  I also found the surprise ending so shocking and upsetting, that it kept me awake for a number of nights afterward!  Enjoy this "haunting" read!  :)

Amazon Best of the Month, September 2009: Following her breakout bestseller, The Time Traveler's Wife, Audrey Niffenegger returns with Her Fearful Symmetry, a haunting tale about the complications of love, identity, and sibling rivalry. The novel opens with the death of Elspeth Noblin, who bequeaths her London flat and its contents to the twin daughters of her estranged twin sister back in Chicago. These 20-year-old dilettantes, Julie and Valentina, move to London, eager to try on a new experience like one of their obsessively matched outfits. Historic Highgate Cemetery, which borders Elspeth's home, serves as an inspired setting as the twins become entwined in the lives of their neighbors: Elspeth's former lover, Robert; Martin, an agoraphobic crossword-puzzle creator; and the ethereal Elspeth herself, struggling to adjust to the afterlife. Niffenegger brings these quirky, troubled characters to marvelous life, but readers may need their own supernatural suspension of disbelief as the story winds to its twisty conclusion. --Brad Thomas Parsons

The Secret Keeper

 

Families can have very complicated relationships, and when members of the family hold secrets the complications can be even greater.  I love the slow build of this storyline, while for some it might feel rather slow paced. Through out the story you can feel the tension in the characters.  This story does a nice job of blending past and present, and you know that in the end the characters will all find a sort of closure.   If you enjoy this book you might also like The Forgotten Garden.  Enjoy!

From Booklist

Australian Morton’s (The Distant Hours, 2010) latest will appeal to fans of Daphne du Maurier, Susanna Kearsley, and Audrey Niffenegger with its immensely relatable characters, passion, mystery, and twist ending. Laurel Nicholson is a teenager when she witnesses a shocking crime: her gentle, kind mother, Dorothy, kills a man. It becomes a family secret that Laurel never divulges or tries to fathom until five decades later, when Dorothy is on her deathbed, and Laurel finds a photograph of her mother with an old friend, snapped back in 1941, when Dorothy was barely out of her teens. As Laurel begins to dig, her burning questions become, Who was Vivien Jenkins, and why was she once so important to Dorothy? With the narrative shifting between Laurel, Dorothy, Vivien, and Jimmy, a man who also profoundly affected Dorothy’s life long ago, both reader and Laurel breathlessly hurtle into an astounding family secret that unfolds slowly and temptingly. Despite some loose threads and rather too leisurely pacing, this is likely to keep readers reading into the wee hours. --Julie Trevelyan --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.