Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - The Time Traveler's Wife

Yikes. The author sure is good with words, but otherwise this is awful. A pretentious, cliche, and boring man travels through time to groom and rape his future wife. Just yuck.

Content Warnings

delvie's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

kadtide's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

anoelle896's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.25

Content Warnings

sari_lavender's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Content Warnings

sugarcookie545's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.0

This book inspires so many conflicting feelings all at once that I can't say I liked it, but I can't say I disliked it either. I enjoyed myself while reading it, for the most part anyway, so that has to count for something.

I'll start by saying that my favorite part of the book was the first half - I thought it was interesting showing this man popping up in Clare's life seemingly randomly. It was also interesting to see Clare develop feelings for this man that she knew she would eventually be with.

However, as it got later in their lives, I became significantly less interested in their marital life. Particularly, reading about Clare's multiple miscarriages and attempts to have a child annoyed me. I'm not particularly sensitive towards pregnancy plots nor sympathetic towards infertility plot lines, and that section seemed to drag on way too long for me.

By the end, when Henry learned of his death, we begin to feel it creep up on him. But it felt like it was dragged on - maybe that was the point? We were supposed to dread the feeling of his death with him? We would feel the inevitable but not know how long we had left. But I don't know, after a while, it just stopped seeming inevitable and just felt like it was taking forever.

I also don't know if I was a super huge fan of the writing style - a lot of it was so matter of fact and perfunctory, it was almost distracting sometimes. I think at the beginning of the novel, Clare begins with telling us what she was doing using "I [verb]" sentences like eight times in a row. I don't think flowery writing would've been suitable here, but maybe something with a bit more personality. As I read it, sometimes I had to go back and check if Clare or Henry was narrating because their voices weren't too dissimilar.

Also, the title of the book almost seems like a misnomer - it's not just about the time traveler's wife. In fact, I would almost say it was more about Henry than Clare, but we do begin and end the story with Clare, and he survives as long as he does because of her. But with alternating viewpoints within every chapter, and the narrative not being focused entirely on Clare, it just seems like it would be named "The Time Traveler and His Wife" or something, but that doesn't quite roll off the tongue so what do I know.

Lastly, I have some hugely conflicting thoughts about their whole relationship - I think it was cute at some parts, and I never actively rooted against them or anything, but it did feel weird sometimes and it was like "Hm, where do I draw the line?" Also more philosophical questions arise, like how Clare never really got a chance to have her own life because Henry has always been in it, so who would she be without him?" But I think they're interesting questions, and good ones for discussion (If I had anybody to discuss it with lol).

I say all this to say I didn't hate the book. I wouldn't call it fun, but I had an enjoyable time for the parts that weren't my own personal "ick." I wouldn't actively recommend it to anyone, but I wouldn't discourage them from reading it either. I'm not sure if I would reread it, but I could see myself choosing to just because I know how events unfold and I'd like that extra perspective. Since I'm so undecided about it, overall I give it a 3/5

Content Warnings

mattypallett's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional sad 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

2.0

There was definitely some parts of this book that I thought were compelling (although quite overlong), and the concept is a really good one.

However, I really couldn’t see past the grooming. Henry groomed Claire, no doubt about it. Not to mention the paper-thin characterisation Claire had; she was literally nothing without Henry; not in a hyperbolic tragic, romantic way, but in a ‘author forgot to give her a personality’ type of way.

Content Warnings

More...