When Elspeth Noblin dies she leaves her beautiful flat overlooking Highgate Cemetery to her twin nieces, Julia and Valentina Poole, on the condition that their mother is never allowed to cross the threshold. But until the solicitor’s letter falls through the door of their suburban American home, either Julia nor Valentina knew their aunt existed. The twins hope that in London their own, separate, lives can finally begin but they have no idea that they’ve been summoned into a tangle of fraying lives, from the obsessive-compulsive crossword setter who lives above them to their aunt’s mysterious and elusive lover who lives below them and works in the cemetery itself.
As the twins unravel the secrets of their aunt, who doesn’t seem quite ready to leave her flat, even after death, Niffenegger weaves together a delicious and deadly ghost story about love, loss and identity.
I was quite enjoying this books strange take on the afterlife until, I repeat until, the incident with the kitten. If you have read the book you will know what I mean, if you haven’t I don’t want to ruin (?) it for you. Boy oh boy did things go down hill from there.
Elspeth is quite possibly the most self indulgent, twisted character I have ever known. She is so completely self absorbed in the later half of the book that it was blind siding. Why oh why did Niffenegger feel the need to take the book in that direction!!! I can’t believe that this is the same author who brought us The Time Travellers Wife. It is dark (and not in a pleasant way like chocolate), and screwy. Yep screwy is the best I can do to describe it, or maybe unsettling.
If you feel like reading something that will make your skin crawl, feel and question the morales of the author, than this is the book for you! And on a side note I think her betrayal of identical twins is creepy and wrong (my mum is one and her relationship with her sister is nothing like the twins in the book).
Overall Rating: 
2/5 teacups (and that’s just for the first half of the book, the second half is 0)
