Reviews with content warning for Death - La mujer del viajero en el tiempo

Reviews tagging 'Death'

La mujer del viajero en el tiempo by Silvia Alemany, Audrey Niffenegger

64 reviews

kbeva's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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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.

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thomas_ryan04's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

This novel has a storyline with so much potential - a science-fiction/romance crossover following the love story of time traveller, Henry DeTamble and his wife, Clare Abshire, who Henry met when she was just six (the moral issues here are vast, granted). However, I feel like the potential the storyline harnesses isn't exercised to its maximum potential.

There are some really good points about the book, and the last one hundred or so pages, in particular, had me gripped. Once you get your head around the complex concept of time travelling, it becomes easy to track when Henry is off time travelling and when he's in the 'present'. The dual first-person narration from Henry and Clare is enjoyable - it's interesting to see both their views towards their relationship, which is characterised by long periods apart in their early days as well as desire and passion throughout. The development of the novel is at its best in the early days of Henry's time travelling and towards the end of the book - there is where I was gripped the most and where I felt most connected to the characters.

This leads me onto some of the problems: ultimately, the middle of the book lacked much character development at all. As soon as Clare and Henry meet "in the present", they seem to click straight away despite the fact Henry said he wouldn't remember her when they met. For a 520-page book (which is way too long, and could easily have been shortened to 400 pages), you'd expect better character development and no massive gaping holes in the plotline. Another gripe of mine is the sex - the GRAPHIC sex which left nothing to the imagination. I understand desire and passion was at the centre of the couple's relationships and a few sex scenes dotted throughout would have done no harm - but Niffenegger seemed obsessed with giving every detail, of every sexual encounter, from start to finish. I also had to check the publication date of the book sometimes - 2003?! - there's definitely a few too many characters who seem to have been crafted in the 20th century when authors 'got away' with cultural stereotypes a bit more (Kimy's broken phonetic speech, anyone?!).

Overall, the concept was great - yet it could have been executed better. There was some good points, but also some bad points. Yet, the last 100 pages had me gripped - which makes me question what rating is best for this book. An (above) average 3.75 stars for The Time Traveler's Wife.

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kadtide's review against another edition

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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

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anoelle896's review against another edition

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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

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jessthanthree's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad 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? No

3.5

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sugarcookie545's review against another edition

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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

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readintherain's review against another edition

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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

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mireyadiaz's review against another edition

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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.🤷🏽‍♀️

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davidbythebay's review against another edition

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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

WOW! I just can't believe that this was ever considered a good book. There is a book for everyone and everyone for a book; however, this was just a mess. I'm going to just start listing my issues with this, in no particular order:

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.

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