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A review by manic_bibliophile
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
4.0
The summary and taglines for this book are incredibly false. This is not a love story. Sure, there's a love story in it, but from the very beginning it makes it clear that that's not what this is. At best, it's a tragedy of love that's doomed to take place at the wrong time over and over again.
I despise this book in it's entirety. Why do I rate it so highly? Because it was a good story. Because the writing was beautiful. Because at the end of the day Clare and Henry did love each other, or at least, the idea of each other as soulmates. But these good qualities aside, there was so much that sucked complete ass; the constant unfair treatment that Henry endured even when he was supposed to be happy up until the very end, the completely depressing quality to the second half of the book where everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong, the lack of any kind of hope to be found that left the ending feeling empty, and the omission of details that would have made the story more concrete versus the cut and paste style of Niffenegger's writing. It seemed like, in an effort to create a time-is-meaningless air to the story, Niffenegger decided to not go into too much depth at any point in time that wasn't the present....and even then, she sure did skip on a lot that I would have loved to see play out.
I loved the potential of this story, I loved immersing myself in it, but I sure am disappointed in how it ended. I was expecting hope, the feeling of love transcending time, triumph in Henry and Clare's struggles not having been simply a means to an end, closure. But the exact opposite is what I got.
I despise this book in it's entirety. Why do I rate it so highly? Because it was a good story. Because the writing was beautiful. Because at the end of the day Clare and Henry did love each other, or at least, the idea of each other as soulmates. But these good qualities aside, there was so much that sucked complete ass; the constant unfair treatment that Henry endured even when he was supposed to be happy up until the very end, the completely depressing quality to the second half of the book where everything that could possibly go wrong goes wrong, the lack of any kind of hope to be found that left the ending feeling empty, and the omission of details that would have made the story more concrete versus the cut and paste style of Niffenegger's writing. It seemed like, in an effort to create a time-is-meaningless air to the story, Niffenegger decided to not go into too much depth at any point in time that wasn't the present....and even then, she sure did skip on a lot that I would have loved to see play out.
I loved the potential of this story, I loved immersing myself in it, but I sure am disappointed in how it ended. I was expecting hope, the feeling of love transcending time, triumph in Henry and Clare's struggles not having been simply a means to an end, closure. But the exact opposite is what I got.