In 2003, the world fell in love with Henry de Tamble and Clare Abshire in Audrey Niffenegger’s “The Time Traveler’s Wife,” her much-celebrated debut novel that tells a seemingly impossible love story of two people whose past, present and future never quite align.

“The Time Traveler’s Wife,” a curious mix of science fiction and romance, bagged the Exclusive Books Boeke Prize in 2005 and the British Book Award for Popular Fiction in 2006. It has sold a combined 2.5 million copies in the US and the UK since its release.

The film adaptation also hit the theaters this year, with Eric Bana and Rachel McAdams portraying the tragic couple.

After two illustrated novels, “The Three Incestuous Sisters” and “The Adventuress,” which showcase her prowess as a visual artist, Niffenegger returns to the literary scene with her second novel, the highly-anticipated “Her Fearful Symmetry.”

MODERN-DAY GOTHIC STORY

In “Her Fearful Symmetry,” 20-year old twins Julia and Valentina Poole are enjoying a life of leisure in America when they receive word that their estranged aunt Elspeth Noblin, their mother’s twin sister, has passed away and bequeathed to them the bulk of her estate.

Effective on their 21st birthday, the twins are the new owners of their aunt’s London flat, which borders the legendary Highgate Cemetery, home to the graves of Christina Rossetti, George Eliot, Stella Gibbons, and Karl Marx. Elspeth has only two provisions: that they live in the apartment for at least a year before they sell it, and that their parents not set foot in it.

Eager for independence, the girls move to London to claim their inheritance, managing to work their way into the lives of the other residents in the building: the obsessive-compulsive Martin and his dejected wife Marijke; and the scholarly Robert, their aunt’s lover.

But something is afoot in their flat – the restless presence of Elspeth’s ghost.

As Julia and Valentina get to know more about their mysterious aunt, their own relationship unravels and family secrets are revealed, building up a modern-day gothic story that explores love, life, family, and the special bond between twins.

FROM BENIGN TO SINISTER

“Her Fearful Symmetry” is a vast departure from Niffenegger’s first novel, with a pervasive bleakness to it that musters a longing for the warmth and sincerity that made “The Time Traveler’s Wife” a compelling read.

As protagonists, Julia and Valentina Poole come across as dry and uninspiring, failing to evoke sympathy in the reader, while Elspeth makes a tiresome ghost, bordering on cheesy when she tries out the usual ghostly tricks – flickering lightbulbs, messages in the dust, and ouija board conversations.

Surprisingly, it is the support cast that is better written – Martin as the charming crossword puzzle maker crippled by his compulsions, Marijke as the long-suffering wife trapped by her husband’s fears, and Robert, the grieving lover and the cemetery scholar, painstakingly recreating the lives of graveyard’s inhabitants to keep their memories alive.

The Highgate Cemetery (where Niffenegger is a volunteer guide) provides a fascinating and atmospheric backdrop for a story inspired by Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw” and Wilkie Collins’ “The Woman In White,” and Niffenegger’s evocative prose is up to par, but it’s difficult to digest the direction the story takes.

The first two-thirds of the book is pretty much uneventful, and when the story picks up, it gets rather unwieldy and requires a strong suspension of disbelief, even for a ghost story. There is, perhaps, one set of twins too many in this convoluted plot, and it goes from benign to sinister in a series of absurd and unsettling twists concentrated towards the end of the book.

“Her Fearful Symmetry” is a valiant attempt from Niffenegger, but it remains in the shadow of “The Time Traveler’s Wife.” Fans may want to read it for its novelty, but should hold out on the hope that it will surpass her first novel.

“Her Fearful Symmetry” is available at National Bookstore branches nationwide.