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mvdd1's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Rape, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Time travel, romance, sci fi, familylenorayoder'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'sdeja 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.
I found the way the author handled time travel interesting, especially the implications of Clare's
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,
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
jaina8851's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
1.25
Where do I even begin with this book. I had no intention of ever reading this, because I have seen the basic gist in way too much of Steven Moffat's Doctor Who writing (derogatory). My book club picked it for this month and I decided to slog my way through.
Reader, it was just as bad as I imagined. Reading interviews with the author somehow made it worse. She says in a modern interview regarding Steven Moffat's own TV series version of this book (you'd think he'd get tired of creating the same story over and over again) that the reader is *supposed* to be uncomfortable with the idea of adult Henry visiting child Clare repeatedly, but then in other interviews describes Henry as "there's not going to be some fabulous perfect soulmate out there for me, so I'll just make him up", so which is it, Audrey?
My biggest issue with this book is that I didn't care a single bit about either of our main characters. Clare is effectively a cardboard cut-out that has a trauma porn life journey but we never see any of the consequences. Imagine basically any of the big-T traumas that a wealthy beautiful woman in Chicago might undergo, and Clare lives it. Are we ever inside her head long enough to feel her grapple with these things? No. Because the entire focus of this book is about the time travel schtick. We are instead shown scenes that are gruesome and difficult for the reader to read, but that seem to just be par for the course for Clare, because she always just seems to be fine and solely focused on Henry at the expense of literally anything else. Henry's internal monologue is absolutely insufferable. I nearly threw my phone across the room and quit when he described his erection as "tall enough to ride an amusement park ride without a parent" in the first thirty pages of the book. I couldn't find myself caring about Henry or his struggles at any point because I was too busy making increasingly horrified grimaces at the things that he was thinking, often about an actual child.
And then there's the time travel schtick itself. I *LOVE* time travel stories. I've read gobs of Doctor Who/Torchwood fanfiction that incorporate timey-wimey stuff, ranging from silly nonsense to deeply thoughtful explorations of the concepts that I still think about. But I kept getting so caught up on the inconsistencies and the "y tho" about the way the author constructed this. Did she only make it that he time travels naked so that there was the creepy ick factor of child Clare finding him that way? The hand-wavey in universe explanation for why he consistently goes back and visits child Clare just didn't make sense to me. There's a running joke in Doctor Who about the fact that of all the places on planet Earth, and the broader solar system and universe, why is the crisis ALWAYS in London, and this felt like an even more egregious and nonsensical version of that. They talk about the danger of him driving a car or flying in a plane but then have him walking around with a baby on his shoulders. Life is so dangerous for him when he travels that he has to know how to pick locks and fight, but somehow he isn't WELL KNOWN in the city of Chicago? How would it not be a news story the FIRST time this happens that a man disappears in public before people's very eyes leaving a pile of clothes behind, or that a man appears on the middle of a sidewalk out of nowhere completely naked? If he keeps time traveling in and out of the same places and times, why does he not do a better job taking care of himself with caches of supplies and hidden keys than just trusting a six year old to keep clothes for him? Nothing about this story makes sense actually.
All in all I hated this book just as much as I expected to. I don't normally make myself read 500+ page/16+ hour books that I hate, but you can't leave ratings on a DNF, so I finished the whole thing out of spite.
Reader, it was just as bad as I imagined. Reading interviews with the author somehow made it worse. She says in a modern interview regarding Steven Moffat's own TV series version of this book (you'd think he'd get tired of creating the same story over and over again) that the reader is *supposed* to be uncomfortable with the idea of adult Henry visiting child Clare repeatedly, but then in other interviews describes Henry as "there's not going to be some fabulous perfect soulmate out there for me, so I'll just make him up", so which is it, Audrey?
My biggest issue with this book is that I didn't care a single bit about either of our main characters. Clare is effectively a cardboard cut-out that has a trauma porn life journey but we never see any of the consequences. Imagine basically any of the big-T traumas that a wealthy beautiful woman in Chicago might undergo, and Clare lives it. Are we ever inside her head long enough to feel her grapple with these things? No. Because the entire focus of this book is about the time travel schtick. We are instead shown scenes that are gruesome and difficult for the reader to read, but that seem to just be par for the course for Clare, because she always just seems to be fine and solely focused on Henry at the expense of literally anything else. Henry's internal monologue is absolutely insufferable. I nearly threw my phone across the room and quit when he described his erection as "tall enough to ride an amusement park ride without a parent" in the first thirty pages of the book. I couldn't find myself caring about Henry or his struggles at any point because I was too busy making increasingly horrified grimaces at the things that he was thinking, often about an actual child.
And then there's the time travel schtick itself. I *LOVE* time travel stories. I've read gobs of Doctor Who/Torchwood fanfiction that incorporate timey-wimey stuff, ranging from silly nonsense to deeply thoughtful explorations of the concepts that I still think about. But I kept getting so caught up on the inconsistencies and the "y tho" about the way the author constructed this. Did she only make it that he time travels naked so that there was the creepy ick factor of child Clare finding him that way? The hand-wavey in universe explanation for why he consistently goes back and visits child Clare just didn't make sense to me. There's a running joke in Doctor Who about the fact that of all the places on planet Earth, and the broader solar system and universe, why is the crisis ALWAYS in London, and this felt like an even more egregious and nonsensical version of that. They talk about the danger of him driving a car or flying in a plane but then have him walking around with a baby on his shoulders. Life is so dangerous for him when he travels that he has to know how to pick locks and fight, but somehow he isn't WELL KNOWN in the city of Chicago? How would it not be a news story the FIRST time this happens that a man disappears in public before people's very eyes leaving a pile of clothes behind, or that a man appears on the middle of a sidewalk out of nowhere completely naked? If he keeps time traveling in and out of the same places and times, why does he not do a better job taking care of himself with caches of supplies and hidden keys than just trusting a six year old to keep clothes for him? Nothing about this story makes sense actually.
All in all I hated this book just as much as I expected to. I don't normally make myself read 500+ page/16+ hour books that I hate, but you can't leave ratings on a DNF, so I finished the whole thing out of spite.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Medical trauma
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
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
carolinepritchett's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
theelliad's review against another edition
1.0
Well, that was a journey and a half. Did I actually dislike this as much as some of the course books of the same rating…probably not. However, I really really didn’t like this and for several reasons.
1. I wanted to like it so much. Miss Butt I would trust you with my life but evidently not with book taste. My high expectations definitely resulted in this falling so short
2. This book refuses to accept the creepy and paedophilic nature of its own existence. It is so uncomfortable at so many points and yet it’s weirdness is apparently ignored in favour of the plot.
3. It’s approach to many of the themes it touches on is so insulting. From its use of derogatory language towards disabled people and the queer community to its non chalante approach to the concept of rape (a word used as a synonym for eagerness in many cases and then not addressed in cases where consent is actually not confirmed). This adds to the uncomfy nature of the book and honestly made me want to DNF it throughout
4. The concept is so good, the execution is awful- I wanted so badly to love this idea of spontaneous time travel but the way it is used, and the sexual focus of the story just made it fall short
5. There is no character development. Literally how? you are focusing on the same group of people across all of there lives- why are they so boring?
1. I wanted to like it so much. Miss Butt I would trust you with my life but evidently not with book taste. My high expectations definitely resulted in this falling so short
2. This book refuses to accept the creepy and paedophilic nature of its own existence. It is so uncomfortable at so many points and yet it’s weirdness is apparently ignored in favour of the plot.
3. It’s approach to many of the themes it touches on is so insulting. From its use of derogatory language towards disabled people and the queer community to its non chalante approach to the concept of rape (a word used as a synonym for eagerness in many cases and then not addressed in cases where consent is actually not confirmed). This adds to the uncomfy nature of the book and honestly made me want to DNF it throughout
4. The concept is so good, the execution is awful- I wanted so badly to love this idea of spontaneous time travel but the way it is used, and the sexual focus of the story just made it fall short
5. There is no character development. Literally how? you are focusing on the same group of people across all of there lives- why are they so boring?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Homophobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
beatrizdizon_'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
You know in Twilight when Jacob imprinted on Renesmee, and it’s all icky and weird because it was bound to be romantic despite him being a full-grown adult and her a wee baby? I guess this makes me one of the people who doesn’t like how Henry and Clare met in The Timetraveler’s Wife. I didn’t mind that they got together, then I wouldn’t have read the book in the first place — it’s already in the title: WIFE. It just baffles me how they couldn’t just be both kids or at least the same age when Henry time-jumps to her. They meet in the present when Clare is 20 but for her, it has always been Henry. Henry is the person she knows she’ll dedicate her whole life to.
That’s what it felt like. It is as though Clare’s life revolved around Henry. Even in the two years they were apart, she was shattered and messy for him. Everything is for him.
Except the premise of the book had such great potential to make an interesting plot. Instead, we deal with characters I couldn't care less about or at least root for. Clare’s struggles and loneliness with a husband who constantly and unwillingly disappears have an appeal as a subject. That only materialized in the second half, I should not have to fight this much to enjoy a book!
I have a bone to pick with the writing: Ingrid’s ending, Gomez’s character, but specifically Henry’s POV. I hate that he constantly tells us that he knows what will happen and that he’s a time traveler. Like okay? We know too, damn, no need to spell it out. Let the readers be thrilled too and just show us.
Also, there were too many unnecessary mentions of breasts and r*pe. Especially for the latter, as if humans do not commit a plethora of wrongful deeds for a person to cite.
I admit that there were moments I was moved, shedding a few tears here and there, hence 2.75. Still, I had to let that semi-rant out. But to be honest, I would have DNF’ed this if I wasn’t annotating it for my best friend. I have been looking forward to talking to her about this, and I can’t if I only know a small percentage of the material.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
Minor: Gun violence
alexandrawpayne's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
This contains light spoilers.
This book is a creative concept but has several problematic themes. A romance that transcends time itself is fascinating, particularly through a sci-fi lens.
However, the grooming and pedophilia riddled throughout the story is impossible to get past. There are several mentions of the husband being sexual attracted to his wife while she is still a child and him trying to fight off the urge to be with her sexually before she’s legal.
When they have sex for the first time, the wife is freshly 18, and the husband is in his 40s. He has known her since she was 6 and has been grooming her since then.
The characters are also flat. I found myself not caring what happened to anyone. Some of the plot was set up for deeper character development that never occurred.
By the end of the book, I felt like nothing had changed.
This book is a creative concept but has several problematic themes. A romance that transcends time itself is fascinating, particularly through a sci-fi lens.
However, the grooming and pedophilia riddled throughout the story is impossible to get past. There are several mentions of the husband being sexual attracted to his wife while she is still a child and him trying to fight off the urge to be with her sexually before she’s legal.
When they have sex for the first time, the wife is freshly 18, and the husband is in his 40s. He has known her since she was 6 and has been grooming her since then.
The characters are also flat. I found myself not caring what happened to anyone. Some of the plot was set up for deeper character development that never occurred.
By the end of the book, I felt like nothing had changed.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Pedophilia
Minor: Genocide and Rape
riverofhorton's review against another edition
I had to take a couple of days to cool off after deciding to stop reading this book, I just found there to be too much homophobia, racism, and misogyny to continue.
The final straw for me was getting jumpscared by an utterly needless homophobic slur (as it was until very recently) less than 100 pages in. Given the 'past' parts of the book are set in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, I could have deal with some casual prejudice, so as the world was at that time, especially if it were there to make a point and/or portray that character as being a negative person. But these prejudices are not only blatant, but could have been removed from the story without it losing anything.
And there is also the moral weirdness surrounding the relationship between itself. From Claire's perspective, she first met Henry at the age of ~5 years old, when he was in his 40s. He visited her regularly growing up, even waiting for her to turn 18 so he could have sex with her on her birthday. Sounds creepy, right? From his perspective though, he first her in his late 20s, her being early 20s, and the relationship proceeded somewhat normally to begin with, only a couple of mentions of how long she has known a future version of him. It's just kind of a mess, and considering he could time travel as a child as well, I don't quite understand why he couldn't have been a child of a similar age, or even have the whole thing contain within their respective adulthoods.
It's such a shame, the basic premise of two people falling in love out of sync because of time travel has the potential to be incredible, but this was just a disappointment. It's the first book I've ever DNFed, and it saddens me that it's a Sci-Fi book (one of my favourite genres) that can claim that title.
The final straw for me was getting jumpscared by an utterly needless homophobic slur (as it was until very recently) less than 100 pages in. Given the 'past' parts of the book are set in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, I could have deal with some casual prejudice, so as the world was at that time, especially if it were there to make a point and/or portray that character as being a negative person. But these prejudices are not only blatant, but could have been removed from the story without it losing anything.
And there is also the moral weirdness surrounding the relationship between itself. From Claire's perspective, she first met Henry at the age of ~5 years old, when he was in his 40s. He visited her regularly growing up, even waiting for her to turn 18 so he could have sex with her on her birthday. Sounds creepy, right? From his perspective though, he first her in his late 20s, her being early 20s, and the relationship proceeded somewhat normally to begin with, only a couple of mentions of how long she has known a future version of him. It's just kind of a mess, and considering he could time travel as a child as well, I don't quite understand why he couldn't have been a child of a similar age, or even have the whole thing contain within their respective adulthoods.
It's such a shame, the basic premise of two people falling in love out of sync because of time travel has the potential to be incredible, but this was just a disappointment. It's the first book I've ever DNFed, and it saddens me that it's a Sci-Fi book (one of my favourite genres) that can claim that title.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Abortion, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
valeria_balzan's review against another edition
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book was alright. It had an awesome setup but I think it was missing some plot. I understand the book mostly centers about Claire and Henry and their "love story" but I did not care about them or the other characters at all (or what happened to them, for that matter.)
I feel like the author had great opportunities to push the limits of time travelling and how it can impact a person's Henry's life but he is just boring and hates this ability.
I feel like the author had great opportunities to push the limits of time travelling and how it can impact a person's Henry's life but he is just boring and hates this ability.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Minor: Mental illness and Abandonment