Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Dark and Distasteful

I've just finished the last page of the new book by Audrey Niffenegger, Her Fearful Symmetry.  Her debut novel, The Time Traveler's Wife, was moving, sad and ultimately engaging.

This one kept me reading from start to finish all in one big gulp.  But the end result was starkly different.  Frankly, it creeped me out.  It's billed as "dark and delicious" on the cover, but the truth is I ended up actively disliking all four main characters and feeling uncomfortably unsettled by the whole thing.  It's one thing to finish a book thinking, "it didn't have to end that way", it's another not to have any sympathy at all for anyone but a secondary, prop character. 

Now I wish I hadn't blown 11 euro on the darn thing.

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