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alexandrawpayne's review against another edition
- 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 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.
Moderate: Pedophilia
Minor: Rape and Genocide
riverofhorton's review against another edition
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.
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
taylormadespines's review against another edition
Graphic: Body horror, Cancer, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Car accident, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Grief, Infertility, Medical content, Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Vomit, Death, Gaslighting, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, and Violence
mouwuol's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia
mrs_reading_runes's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
By: Audrey Niffenegger
⭐️⭐️⭐️
Trigger Warnings⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️⚠️
Suicide
Pedophilia
Sex & Violence
Many have watched the movie and show.
This is the origin, this is NOT a love story as expected in my opinion its a tragedy.
Henry is a time traveler, that witnesses death and sadness at a young age. This creates his path of a life of drugs and alcohol.
Clare is 6 when she meets Henry who is already middle aged. This is Clare’s present and Henrys Past, Present and Future.
As they are already married in Henrys present with his belief he cannot change the pst and future he in a way grooms her to love him. First as a person and friend then romantically.
See she’s not given a choice but this is debatable. Henry is the first and only man she loves besides her father.
AT AGE 6!!
The story is confusing in the aspect of dates and times because how old is he in his present, the past and future as he time travels I eventually skipped over the dates.
You will meet Gomez, Henrys “best friend” he makes me sick.
This book really is about Clarethe girl with no free will, tortured by love and time.
I cried when I finished this read because it was exhausting. This is no happy ending it is all very sad.
Deep down in the plot,between each line of text there is a love story however if I didn’t LOVE the movie and the show, this book would have been 1 star or DNF which I have never done.
I appreciate the authors imagery and the development with so many moving parts but I am sad that the movie and show was better then the book. 😒
Graphic: Suicide and Pedophilia
Moderate: Miscarriage
Minor: Sexual violence
odamargrethe's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Moderate: Pedophilia
georgiatheresa's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
Graphic: Classism, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, and Rape
Moderate: Misogyny, Child death, Sexism, Suicide, Death of parent, Chronic illness, and Infertility
davidbythebay's review against another edition
- 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.
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
anne152's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Cancer, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Child death, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
gerose04's review against another edition
- Diverse cast of characters? No
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship and Miscarriage
Moderate: Blood and Pedophilia