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spectacles_and_books's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This broke me, in the best way. And I will never watch an adaptation, because this was perfect.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage
Moderate: Addiction, Death, Infertility, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Cancer, Car accident, and Drug use
Minor: Sexual assault
daisdu's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This took me a frustrating number of tries to actually finish, but once I got through it I was really glad for it. It’s really devastating and made me sob like a little baby and that was mostly good! But a little bit of the end just felt like an unnecessary downer. The book is really just a lot to think about, it really makes you think a lot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Addiction, Blood, Infertility, Ableism, Death of parent, Grief, Car accident, Death, and Miscarriage
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: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Sexism, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Torture, Classism, Mental illness, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Abortion, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Bullying, Racism, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Car accident, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Body shaming, Physical abuse, Ableism, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Rape, Stalking, and Violence
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Miscarriage, Medical trauma, Child death, and Addiction
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Car accident, Grief, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Drug abuse
ejoymiller11's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
slow-paced
- 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
I am not usually a tough critic, but I did not love this for several reasons.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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
steffitina's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Miscarriage
Moderate: Suicide, Violence, and Transphobia
Minor: Addiction
readintherain's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, and Death
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Suicide, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy
mireyadiaz's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Main problem as a genz reading this was actually the entire plotline with Gomez. I felt it wasn't really needed, at least not at the end like yikes. Other than that not a bad read, but then again I'm a sucker for time travel tropes just for complexities of the thought and possibility of it. Also, like the author is clearly white woman, because any person of a minority most likely would not continuously describe a person's ethnicity or weight whenever they see a new person. But luckily for me my default description of people is Latine like meself 🤓. But yeah... it just depends on your cup of tea. Also, I really found the Catholics kinda funny like in general.(as a catholic🤣) By that I mean there do be crazy ones like that, unless like my family, sin is expected and whatever.🤷🏽♀️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Sexism, Violence, Suicide, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Torture, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, and Miscarriage
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death of parent, Death, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Classism, Dementia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, and Cancer
davidbythebay's review against another edition
emotional
slow-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
1.0
1) Okay, I lied. My biggest, number one, issue was grooming. The entire story is about Henry periodically stopping into Clare's life and telling her how she's going to make a good wife for him some day. This is a 20-40 year old man (depending on which time jump he is on) telling a girl ages 6-18 that she will be his wife one day. I don't mind age differences in romantic relationships, but I do mind grooming and underaged relations. It is IMPORTANT to note that Henry and Clare never have sex until she is 18 and he's 42 (on her 18th birthday).
2) Henry is the most manipulative, authoritative, controlling man throughout this! I get that he has to be a quick thinking, fast talking con man to get away with time travel shenanigans with the public at large, but with his family and the woman he loves he is so controlling of everything. He's such an egotistical prick at times I really just wanted him to time jump into a brick wall. He gets so jealously upset when she dates someone, or just goes on a simple date, and yet he's out screwing women and having a real dodgy reputation. He actually tries to say that he's running through women and liquor to "pass the time" as he waits for Clare.
3) On a simple plot note: the time jumps can be so confusing to understand where we are, what age people are, and what the whole situation is. Like, there were several times I thought there was some under-aged hanky panky going on, but there wasn't because they were in their 20s or something.
4) The POV jumps around so much without any clear definition of who is speaking it just gets jumbled.
5) There are periodic tangents, especially early on, into such philosophical and sometime religious discussions that are just so boring and elitist feeling. Like they are the annoying hipsters who speak of "Marx's Communistic systems" instead of simply "communism".
6) Okay, back to some specifics... Back in Clare's past she is assaulted by a boy she went on a date with. Henry shows up and she (aged like 15 I think) shows the older Henry her bruised breasts and Henry wants to make this kid pay. Now, assault is absolutely intolerable and should be punished; however, Henry and the youthful Clare are pressing an unloaded gun into this kid's face, stripping him naked, and tying him up to leave him in the woods. It's just a bit much, especially given the Bonnie and Clyde way Henry and Clare go about it. It just feels like they are about to knock the kid out and have sex on his body.
7) Henry kisses a child. It may or may not be a sexual kiss, but it is described in an almost sexual way. Also, Henry is constantly on the brink of not being able to control himself around the prepubescent and teenage Clare. Get. Your. Hands. Off. The. Child. Henry!
8) Every now and then, randomly, there is a simple sentence that is just randomly inserted with an overly wrought word. It comes across like a high school spelling lesson where the kid has to make a sentence with one of the vocabulary words. "Just as they were drinking their milk, the car horn blared across the atramentous night."
9) There is a LOT of problematic language and stuff in here. A beehive hairdo is described as the kind only a Black woman can wear. Clare's family is rich with Black servants. Mrs. Kim is a racist stereotype that's even described as "flat-faced Korean woman". Much of the dialogue from people of color is stereotypically tinged, to say the least. There is a lot of body shaming, fatphobia, homophobia, racism, misogyny (by the ton!), and sexism.
10) One of these homophobic moments is when Henry is telling us how he was like 15 and his 15 year old self from 4 months in the future is in his bedroom so they start to get naked and fool around because "anyone would when they are a teenaged boy all horny and in their room with themself, but that doesn't mean he's gay! No he's not gay! Ugh." I paraphrase, but that's basically how it goes.
11) I got the ick when Henry and Clare discuss in their 20s/30s that they have too much sex and how sore she is down there. So he then tells her to tell him "not tonight" when she wants a break and how he will "respect" that but how she should know that he's absolutely dying, as a man would, to have sex with her and can barely control himself and will continue to respect her decision to not have sex until he dies of lack of nookie. Ick! He says shit like this a lot, in fact. He is almost constantly talking about how much he wants to jump the teenaged Clare because she's coming into her breasts and how he imagines the fully grown version he knows.
12) At one point, I kid you not, Clare tells Henry that she wanted him to have sex with her when she was underage, so it wouldn't have been rape because she wanted it. NO! NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!
13) The phrase "ripen like a flesh melon" should NEVER be used to describe a pregnant woman or a pregnancy.
14) Clare seems to say that adoption is pretend and that it means less than a biological child. That's just bullshit and completely disturbed thinking.
15) Clare's 18th birthday she sets up a lovely picnic with wine even so that when the 42 year old Henry travels in time to her she can have sex with him as she is now of the legal age of consent. At this time, yes it is legal but after all this "I can't control myself around her" and the grooming, it just feels wrong. What's also wrong is when Henry says he can't drink because of doctor's orders, but he tells the 18 year old to drink the wine (she is under 21, the legal age for alcohol in the US) and when she drinks it he comments about how "obedient" she is.
16) Henry is the epitome of douchey frat bro. He is constantly referencing how great he is at cunnilingus or sex. How he would definitely medal in the Olympics of oral. How he is amazing at it! The only one who brags more that Henry is Supreme Court Justice Boomer.
17) Clare actually slept with someone else between her passionate 18th birthday and first officially meeting Henry. She holds onto the secret for so long and is in so need of being punished for doing this heinous act that she practically begs Henry for forgiveness, but is perfectly fine with Henry's half-assed "Yeah I was schtooping a few women between your 18th birthday and when we first met because I was "waiting for you".
18) They just come across as an insufferable hipster pair of asshats. Like going on with quoting authors and poets in the original French or German, talking about reading Proust in a name drop, name dropping operas and books and music, and commenting on how Wagner's operas are a lesser opera that they don't care for but they have season tickets to the opera.
Just generally, how Clare is pining for Henry and waits for him like some pathetic waif of an individual while Henry can go and have this life and, yes, die young by what I can only imagine was not an accident but a concerted effort to save Clare by her family via killing the mysterious creep who keeps popping up in the woods by their house and grooming their child, whom she eventually marries anyway and then sits alone for the next 40+ years of her life after he dies, after the first 40-or-so years of her waiting to finally officially meet him and have sex with him. I just can't.
I wanted to read this in anticipation for Theo James (such a fine man!) and the new series coming out, but woah! I don't think even Theo James' sweet...assets and eyes can save this trainwreck of a plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Homophobia, Infertility, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Blood, Cursing, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Car accident, Death, Body shaming, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Stalking, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence
ravensalwaysreading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
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? It's complicated
2.5
I can finally say that the movie was better, and that's because they left out or altered 75% of what was in the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cancer, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Car accident, Death of parent, Death, Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Grief, Suicide, Alcoholism, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Miscarriage, and Toxic friendship