Thanks for stopping by! I'm Cori and I'm happy you've found your way here. If you're wondering why my blog is called "Let's Eat Grandpa," it's an old grammar joke: Let's eat, grandpa! Let's eat grandpa! (Punctuation saves lives.) 
Her Fearful Symmetry, narrated by Bianca Amato
Read: because I loved the Time Traveler’s Wife (Scribner, 416 pages, originally published September 2009)
Rating: 7 out of 10 (finished 10/2/10)
Synopsis: Niffenegger follows up her spectacular The Time Traveler’s Wife with a beautifully written if incoherent ghost story. When Elspeth Noblin dies, she leaves everything to the 20-year-old American twin daughters of her own long-estranged twin, Edie. Valentina and Julia, as enmeshed as Elspeth and Edie once were, move into Elspeth’s London flat bordering Highgate Cemetery in a building occupied by Elspeth’s lover, Robert, and the novel’s most interesting character, Martin, whose wife is long suffering due to his crushing and beautifully portrayed OCD. The girls are pallid and incurious; they wander around London and spend time with Robert and Martin and Elspeth’s ghost. Valentina’s developing relationship with Robert arouses mild jealousy, and when Valentina pursues her interest in fashion design, Julia disapproves, which leads Valentina and Elspeth to concoct an extreme plan to allow Valentina to lead her own life.
Overall Impression: After loving the Time Traveler’s Wife, I was a little apprehensive about reading her sophomore effort. Would it be as good as her first (side note…is a first novel a freshman effort?)? While I didn’t love it as much as I did the Time Traveler’s Wife, I thought it was a worthy effort. It started off fairly slowly and was a little difficult to get into — I didn’t care about the characters to begin with. But once the twins got firmly settled in London, I started to like it more. I was sort of surprised to find out that this was a ghost story. Not a “oooo-eeee-oooo” Scooby Doo sort of ghost story, but a story with an actual ghost. A ghost that was actually likeable, although a bit selfish. As for the other characters, I particularly loved the subplot of the OCD Martin and his wife Marikah (sp? I listened to it so I have no idea how it’s spelled). It was beautifully conceived. The other storylines were interesting but I didn’t find myself getting lost in the stories. I also thought the ending got away from Niffenger a little bit, mostly for Valentina’s story.
The narration was well done, although the American accents came across whiny a lot of the time. Sometimes it worked…sometimes it grated on my nerves.
Pros: Very interesting concept — I’ve never read anything similar. Twins are always interesting. Martin was one of the most likeable and sympathetic and beautiful characters I’ve run across recently.
Cons: In an otherwise strong story, there were bits and pieces that felt weak and like they didn’t fit. It was a little tough to get into, too.
Other books I’ve read by Audrey Niffinegger: The Time Traveler’s Wife (read before I started blogging reviews)
Other books I’ve read narrated by Bianca Amato: none
Other blogger opinions: From the Sidekick, We’ll Always Have Books, books i done read, S. Krishna’s Books, and Bookishly Fabulous
