Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

9 reviews

lenorayoder's review against another edition

emotional

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Better than I thought it would be, but not as good as I hoped it would be once I got into it. It's very interesting to read a fucked up relationship develop from the perspective of the people in it. They do love each other, but they're also overly dependent, unhealthy, and don't communicate well. They are the only people who understand each other, but it is because they have both engineered it to be so. On some level they both know the relationship is doomed, but they don't want to be without each other.

I found the way the author handled time travel interesting, especially the implications of Clare's

deja vu moments, and the sketch with the trimmed date

. The underlying terror that Henry almost constantly feels permeates the book, and one of the unvoiced stumbling blocks of their relationship is that Clare never really seems to understand that fear -

evidenced by the fact that she so desires to have a child that will likely have the same terrible condition

. The way Niffenegger's chosen to depict this story and time travel unfortunately means that the reader never really gets to sit with these characters, and by the end of the book I still felt like I didn't really know them, just their relationship. I wish the book was more narrow in scope, or gave us more insight into what Clare and Henry are like apart. The Time Traveler's Wife is a compelling title, but the book is not about Clare, it's entirely about Clare and Henry's relationship with everything else serving as set dressing. 

Overall enjoyed and would recommend. Sometimes the descriptions and references get a little self-indulgent and pretentious, but seeing this complex relationship evolve from the perspective of two incredibly biased narrators was always interesting and page-turning. Also,

fuck you Gomez. Cherisse, why the fuck did you marry that man, let alone have kids with him. Yikes

. I had to list so many content warnings and I didn't even get them all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Racism

leer_amor's review against another edition

3.0

I feel very conflicted reviewing this book. There are a lot of parts of this book that I really liked, and the vibe was immaculate. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that there are some parts of this book that are wildly inappropriate. And that there’s some actual grooming in this book that is awful. This might be considered a spoiler so here’s your warning, this book is about a man named Henry who can time travel. He doesn’t have any control over when or where he travels to and when he time travels he always arrives naked. He often visits the childhood of his future wife Clare. So he’s basically having a relationship with her when she’s in her teens. And I know in the future they’re married but it just seems awful to me that he’s having this relationship with her when she’s younger. It quite literally is grooming. I think this book has not aged well. It was quite a success when it was first published and they made a movie or show about it, but the series was also canceled because of concerns of grooming. So yeah… I just think here are better time travel books out there… Interesting premise but poor execution. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, and Pedophilia

flowers_and_cows's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The story of Clare and Henry was surprisingly easy to follow, even with all of Henry's time traveling. A great story, and the ending left me wanting and wishing that there was more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Miscarriage, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

fishgulper's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

delvie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I went in blind, and I wasn't ready. 

If not for some unfortunate stereotypes and slurs used and the gratuitous sex, it would have been a slam dunk five stars- the audiobook specifically. I think I would have hated this book in print. 

Check TW's; I would not recommend this book if you use reading to escape. 

The last 40 minutes hit so hard, I had to take my headphones out because I was on the threshold of tears. 

I get why it's been adapted twice; I imagine you could do some pretty cool stuff via film with this premise. 

I'm not gonna get over this for a while. Sheesh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Cancer, Confinement, and Abortion

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Vomit, and Classism

filipacarvalho's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Miscarriage, Abortion, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, and Car accident

Minor: Infidelity

katsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

"...absence can be present, like a damaged nerve, like a dark bird..."

"It's hard being left behind... It's hard to be the one who stays... Why is love intensified by absence?"

I had a lot of feelings about this novel. I originally thought I would give this 4 or 5 stars because when I initially finished reading, the story evoked a lot of emotion for me and I felt so melancholic at the end of the novel. However, now that I've had some time to sit with it, I also have some critiques. First off, I loved the writing. It was emotional and really packed a punch. I also liked the format. The dual perspectives and multiple timelines were interesting but not overly confusing. I also really enjoyed how Henry and Clare's characters were not perfect and I found the fact that their flaws were not downplayed very refreshing. Now a few things of which I wasn't a huge fan. The scenes where older Henry visited young Clare made me cringe. It was very clear that Henry didn't want to cross any lines but every scene just felt a bit like grooming to me. I applaud the author for exploring the implications of that part of the plot but the scenes just didn't quite sit well with me. I also really disliked the representation of some of the side characters. It was written almost 20 years ago but having both Henry and Clare grow up with women of color as pseudo-mother figures felt incredibly tokenistic to me. It felt very much like the author was trying to have some kind of diverse representation but didn't know how to do that authentically. The last thing I really hated was Gomez. His character was the worst! And I still don't really understand what the purpose of his character was to begin with. It really feels like he was just there for me to hate. Overall, this book was just okay for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent