Reviews with content warning for Confinement - The Time Traveler's Wife

Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

5 reviews

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.

Content Warnings

delvie's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings