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A review by kozakxx
The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
3.0
So the first half of this book is pretty bad. Maybe in 2003 it was okay to travel back in time and meet your wife when she was six and court her until she’s 18 but it was definitely an uncomfortable read. (I simply don’t want to hear about a 13 yr olds “developing hips and breasts”???). I felt incredibly sorry for Clare for the entire book.
More than anything else, Henry is an insufferable character with few redeeming qualities. He speaks in a weird Gen X/Millennial cringey persona and treats women terribly except Clare for no obvious reason, is obsessed with himself, and coffee and speaking to ppl in French/German unnecessarily is half of his entire personality. The way he describes himself and his thoughts are always so masturbatory and annoying, I rolled my eyes through the whole book. Every piece of dialogue reads like one of those dramatic Tumblr stories from 2011 that is so obviously imagined and unrealistic and annoying. Gomez is also written this way. Also, crazy weird comments on race/gender/sex/homosexuality throughout the book. Also, so much sex at inappropriate/uncomfy times.
All of that being said.. the actual world building of Henry’s time traveling is really well written and devastating. I didn’t expect the hardest part of the book to write to be the best part, but it was. If she had given that much care to the characters, dialogue, and culture it could be amazing.
I complained about the book the entire time I read it but the last few years of his life had me crying hard. Eventually the messages about loss, time, grief, and love were actually extremely compelling. I feel I would have liked this book a lot more if it was the same idea about a different man and written by a different author. The three stars speaks to how great the overall timeline and construction of the plot is for the latter half of the book. <3 adding it to the category of books/movies about time that made me cry
More than anything else, Henry is an insufferable character with few redeeming qualities. He speaks in a weird Gen X/Millennial cringey persona and treats women terribly except Clare for no obvious reason, is obsessed with himself, and coffee and speaking to ppl in French/German unnecessarily is half of his entire personality. The way he describes himself and his thoughts are always so masturbatory and annoying, I rolled my eyes through the whole book. Every piece of dialogue reads like one of those dramatic Tumblr stories from 2011 that is so obviously imagined and unrealistic and annoying. Gomez is also written this way. Also, crazy weird comments on race/gender/sex/homosexuality throughout the book. Also, so much sex at inappropriate/uncomfy times.
All of that being said.. the actual world building of Henry’s time traveling is really well written and devastating. I didn’t expect the hardest part of the book to write to be the best part, but it was. If she had given that much care to the characters, dialogue, and culture it could be amazing.
I complained about the book the entire time I read it but the last few years of his life had me crying hard. Eventually the messages about loss, time, grief, and love were actually extremely compelling. I feel I would have liked this book a lot more if it was the same idea about a different man and written by a different author. The three stars speaks to how great the overall timeline and construction of the plot is for the latter half of the book. <3 adding it to the category of books/movies about time that made me cry