val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Cancer, Infidelity, Suicide, Medical content, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Death, Infertility, and Pregnancy
potsnpots's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Miscarriage, Infertility, Infidelity, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Alcoholism and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Car accident, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Homophobia, Grief, Medical content, Infertility, and Infidelity
cloudbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The good:
The concept of time travel as a condition rather than a power was really, really interesting.
Getting to know the two main characters was such a big part of the experience!
I absolutely loved Alba. I think this story would have been better had it followed her.
The bad:
When you think about it, the characters grow more and more flat. They have characteristics and interests but not really personalities. Outside of Henry, we're never told what Clare is like. Her whole existence is to love him and to want him.
Henry is a bit more fledged out. He has interests beyond Clare and a work life as well. But if he didn't have time travel as a condition, he'd be a rather boring character.
Their relationships to other people are built around experiences we're not told about. Henry's best friend dislikes him the first time he meets him, then carries on being his best friend afterwards for no apparent reason. The same for Henry's father. We're never told how he makes it out of his grief, let alone how Henry manages to repair his relationship to him.
The book, in the end, seems to try to handle too many issues at once which prevents it from going into detail about anything. I'd have loved to hear more about Henry's genetic disease, about Clare's relationship to her mother, about Alba's childhood. Instead we get excessive descriptions of music, art and books that somehow define the characters but don't give much in terms of who they are and what their life is like.
I'm glad I listened to it. I probably won't read it again though.
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Car accident, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Terminal illness, Cursing, Pregnancy, Grief, Medical content, and Death of parent
rvareader's review against another edition
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Vomit, Death, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence
ejoymiller11's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
1. This story (in my opinion) was told backwards, and would last the test of time better had it been told the other way around. Being about time travel, the story bounces around quite a bit. However, I would argue the story more closely follows Clare’s linear timeline. Before we actually get to know the two main characters as a couple, the first half of the book is about how Clare knew Henry as a child and teenager. We learn about Henry’s lustful thoughts about her even when she is underage, even when she is prepubescent, which made me very uncomfortable. In my opinion, had we learned about their adult relationship first by strictly following Henry’s timeline, and had Henry just straight up not had inappropriate thoughts about a CHILD, I think the relationship would seem less creepy (but let’s be honest, some of what happened would be creepy, inappropriate, and sick regardless).
2. About 200 pages of the 536 pages I read weren’t relevant. I don’t understand why certain scenes were necessary as they didn’t contribute to the plot, character development, or context of the story. The whole infidelity thing? For what.
3. INCONSISTENCIES. And inaccuracies. Some of this book just straight up didn’t make sense. I found myself wondering SO many times, “did the author do literally ANY research??” Yes, probably with certain art pieces and music mentioned in the story, but certainly not how pregnancy, miscarriage, birth, hypothermia, and other medical things work. Furthermore, so many times the book would mention something like “they decided to leave the kids at home!” And on the next page, “the kids were playing quietly in the corner.” Like did no one proofread this? I’m lost.
4. Sometimes it was really hard to understand who was speaking. The book bounces between Henry’s and Clare’s perspectives, but in sections of the dialogue there are long stretches with no indication of who is speaking. Several times I had to go back and reread to understand the context of what was happening and what the characters were feeling.
I felt like this was a great concept that was so poorly executed. This could be a fantastic, timeless love story, but it just fell flat for me. The writing combined with the characters who weren’t just flawed, but horrible people, ruined it for me.
Graphic: Miscarriage, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, and Suicide
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Medical content, Infidelity, Death of parent, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Alcoholism, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Drug use, Chronic illness, and Cancer
fishgulper's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Grief, Infertility, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Child death, Alcohol, Gun violence, Medical content, Drug abuse, Death, Drug use, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Death of parent, Miscarriage, Car accident, and Suicide attempt
kadtide's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Death of parent
Moderate: Car accident, Death, and Infidelity
Minor: Homophobia and Eating disorder
anne152's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Cancer, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Child death, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
mergwenthur's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.5
First of all, the time travelling doesn't make sense to me, it's always confusing for me anyway.
It's understood that Henry first met Clare when he was 28 and they were both adults but for Clare, she's known him since she was 6 and Henry was early 40s.
It was actually quite sad to see that Clare literally spent her whole life surrounded by Henry, waiting for him, loving him, wanting to be with him etc etc.
Atleast Henry was able to live his own life and go down his own routes and paths. Clare was not able to do that.
It made me uncomfortable for Henry groom Clare in that way. He was attracted to her when she was in her early-mid teens. He quite roughly kissed her when she was 15/16 and then slept with her on her 18th birthday.
Not only this but other problematic aspects within the book. The way the writer was 'descriptive' also made me uncomfortable.
What was the need to know the nurse was Black (and it was written in what felt like a passive aggressive way). Or to know 'an Indian doctor called Sue.'
To the author...erm.... the doc said nothing about their ethnicity but you wrote 'Indian' because you wanted to portray them as brown? Surely South Asian would make more sense. This just made your characters look stereotypical.
Also insensitive sentences about rape which added nothing to what the characters were saying. There are much better ways to say those things.
And the antisemitism ?? Yeah that was also not okay.
The film did a lot better in regards to being less problematic and harmful but overall, yeah. This book is not good.
Graphic: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Car accident, Medical content, Grief, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Antisemitism, and Cancer
uranaishi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Car accident, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, Classism, Medical content, Abandonment, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Blood, Cancer, Cursing, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, and Torture
Minor: Addiction, Child death, Classism, Self harm, Homophobia, Rape, and Vomit