Her Fearful Symmetry, by Audrey Niffenegger

This is one of the more disturbing, cringe-inducing ghost stories I've read.  The story begins when Julia and Valentina Poole (twins) are presented with their deceased Aunt Elspeth's Will, which bequeaths them her London flat with two conditions. 1) they must live in it for 1 year before they sell it and 2) their parents may not enter it.  The reason for the 2nd stipulation is that their Aunt Elspeth has been estranged from her own twin; their mother Edie.

Unlike Elspeth and Edie, Julia and Valentina are twins that are attached at the hip, figuratively. (Because obviously in some cases this can be literal.)  Julia is the assertively dominant one, while Valentina has been the passive, asthmatic, mirror-image twin - literally (Because not so obviously, she has situs inversus.  I had to look this up, and yes, this is a real thing.)  Valentina mirrors Julia in every way, down to her inner organs.  Because of this, Valentina sees herself as a reflection of Julia rather than having her own identity. 

Though Valentina is quite happy with how things are in the beginning of the story, she gradually becomes discontent with her life in London.  I did mention that this was a ghost-story, didn't I?  Well, Aunt Elspeth isn't quite dead... and she becomes quite a disturbing influence on Valentina as they develop a "good" rapport with each other.

To further complicate things, there is Martin, their upstairs neighbor who suffers from OCD, and Robert, their downstairs neighbor who is the grieving lover of their Aunt Elspeth.  Julia's and Valentina's somewhat romantic involvements with Martin and Robert, respectively, will make you cringe a little.  Martin is a married man who is twice their age, and Robert's practically their 'uncle'.  The 'ick-factor' intensifies with a cliched twin plot twist later in the book.

There's a good chunk of supernatural, a dash of plot-twist, a solid portion of twisted psychology, and a a heavy-handed sprinkling of heebie-jeebies that will allow you to savor the book.  While I appreciated Audrey Niffenegger's creativity and her incredible devotion to research (while she researched London's Highgate Cemetery, she worked as a tour guide there), the ending was too bizarre and rushed for me to say that I loved the book.  I'm just 'in-like' with it.

-NK-