Is it sad to fancy David Tennant when you're dead?

16. Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger

This was an interesting yet odd book by the author of The Time Traveler's Wife. Julia and Valentina are twins who have never met their mother Edie's twin Elspeth, so they are surprised one day when they are twenty years old to learn that their aunt has died and left her London flat and all her money to them. They will inherit the money when they turn 21, and they must live in the flat for a year before they can sell it (if they choose to sell it). Julia, the more extroverted of the two, is excited to move from Illinois to London, but Valentina agrees simply because she and Julia always do things together.

At Vautravers (the house in which their flat is located), Valentina becomes close with Robert, their downstairs neighbor who was Elspeth's partner. Julia befriends Martin, their upstairs neighbor who suffers from extreme OCD and whose wife has left him after 25 years of dealing with his ever worsening illness (he hasn't left his flat in a year). But their most interesting acquaintance is the one living with them -- Elspeth herself. At first they don't realize she's there, but Valentina can sense her and after a few months can actually see her; Julia can eventually sense her but never sees her. At the heart of the story is Elspeth's and Edie's estrangement as well as Valentina's desire to distance herself from her twin and have a life of her own. This desire for separation leads to a plan that made me go, "Wha-?" Niffenegger deftly blends the everyday with the paranormal, even if the last 50 or so pages take a left turn at Albuquerque.