Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

13 reviews

abenetcarpenter's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol, Grief, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Car accident, Cursing, and Gun violence

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.

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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

passionatereader78's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wonderfully written book! I enjoyed this exploration of time travel. I loved the relationship between Claire and Henry. There is so much heat in theses pages! I love the way the story was easy to follow. The time jumps were uncomplicated and I could follow the plot. I loved everything about this book!
This is Henry and Claire's beautifully complicated love story!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Grief, Infertility, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcohol, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, and Toxic relationship

yyes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Alcohol

lizzye33's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Blood, Toxic relationship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Car accident, and Murder

jenn_reads's review against another edition

emotional fast-paced

• 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? Yes

2.5

I could have lived my whole life without reading the phrase "I want to give Clare a baby, see Clare ripen like a fresh melon" but here we are. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Miscarriage, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders

Decapitation, car accident, limb amputation

reading_christine's review against another edition

This is not the sweet but sad love story I was expecting. Why does no one talk about how creepy this book is? How disturbing some of the sexual content is? I think people pick this up expecting a story like The Notebook and they get something completely different. Reader beware!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual assault

Minor: Fatphobia

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: 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

sari_lavender's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcohol, Miscarriage, and Suicide

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

mergwenthur's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

This book is problematic in a lot of senses.

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Suicide, Car accident, Medical content, Grief, Miscarriage, Alcohol, Antisemitism, and Cancer