Reviews with content warning for Infertility - The Time Traveler's Wife

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Reviews tagging 'Infertility'

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

39 reviews

daisdu's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

This took me a frustrating number of tries to actually finish, but once I got through it I was really glad for it. It’s really devastating and made me sob like a little baby and that was mostly good! But a little bit of the end just felt like an unnecessary downer. The book is really just a lot to think about, it really makes you think a lot.

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beatrizdizon_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

2.5

You know in Twilight when Jacob imprinted on Renesmee, and it’s all icky and weird because it was bound to be romantic despite him being a full-grown adult and her a wee baby? I guess this makes me one of the people who doesn’t like how Henry and Clare met in The Timetraveler’s Wife. I didn’t mind that they got together, then I wouldn’t have read the book in the first place — it’s already in the title: WIFE. It just baffles me how they couldn’t just be both kids or at least the same age when Henry time-jumps to her. They meet in the present when Clare is 20 but for her, it has always been Henry. Henry is the person she knows she’ll dedicate her whole life to.

That’s what it felt like. It is as though Clare’s life revolved around Henry. Even in the two years they were apart, she was shattered and messy for him. Everything is for him.

Except the premise of the book had such great potential to make an interesting plot. Instead, we deal with characters I couldn't care less about or at least root for. Clare’s struggles and loneliness with a husband who constantly and unwillingly disappears have an appeal as a subject. That only materialized in the second half, I should not have to fight this much to enjoy a book!

I have a bone to pick with the writing: Ingrid’s ending, Gomez’s character, but specifically Henry’s POV. I hate that he constantly tells us that he knows what will happen and that he’s a time traveler. Like okay? We know too, damn, no need to spell it out. Let the readers be thrilled too and just show us.

Also, there were too many unnecessary mentions of breasts and r*pe. Especially for the latter, as if humans do not commit a plethora of wrongful deeds for a person to cite.

I admit that there were moments I was moved, shedding a few tears here and there, hence 2.75. Still, I had to let that semi-rant out. But to be honest, I would have DNF’ed this if I wasn’t annotating it for my best friend. I have been looking forward to talking to her about this, and I can’t if I only know a small percentage of the material.

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valeria_balzan's review against another edition

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reflective relaxing slow-paced

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

2.5

This book was alright. It had an awesome setup but I think it was missing some plot. I understand the book mostly centers about Claire and Henry and their "love story" but I did not care about them or the other characters at all (or what happened to them, for that matter.)

I feel like the author had great opportunities to push the limits of time travelling and how it can impact a person's Henry's life but he is just boring and hates this ability.

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passionatereader78's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wonderfully written book! I enjoyed this exploration of time travel. I loved the relationship between Claire and Henry. There is so much heat in theses pages! I love the way the story was easy to follow. The time jumps were uncomplicated and I could follow the plot. I loved everything about this book!
This is Henry and Claire's beautifully complicated love story!

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tessa52's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious 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

3.0

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souvraya's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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

3.0

I quite liked the first half of the book up to the wedding, but then enjoyed it less and less. It's a really interesting concept, often well-executed and the non-linear storytelling worked well. It was particularly interesting to see characters interacting in a variety of stages of their lives.

Now for the problems. The second and third part of the book get increasingly depressing in a way that felt like traumatising events were being being piled on for no reason. The characters barely have time to react to each of these events so they don't feel fully developed, just added in for shock value.

It was very disappointing how little agency and personality the titular wife had. Clare was interesting to read about as a child, then she became much more bland as an adult. It was really all about Henry, so naming the book after Clare is not representative of the role she takes.

Another disappointment was that a lot of characters' shitty behaviour has no repercussions whatsoever, Gomez and Celia especially rubbed me the wrong way. It doesn't get called out, nobody reacts to it, and it often doesn't cause any problems. When that happens too often, it feels very unsatisfying to me and when it happens with the main characters it calls their romance into question.

Even worse, there was a major part of the story later on, that consumed some of the characters completely for a long time, and then it suddenly turned into an afterthought. It seems that the author didn't know what to do with Alba as a character, so she was simply turned into a Mary Sue that's somehow immune to all of the aforementioned trauma. It's very unrealistic to think of what she goes through, yet no one seems to care about her and she continues to be quite happy-go-lucky.

Some of the time traveling concepts fell apart towards the end, with several aspects that should have been relevant being swept under the table. There's no real or implied resolution to what might be causing it, whether there will be more time travelers in the future, how society treats them, etc. With these topics ignored, it only barely fits into the sci-fi genre. It's really more a romance with a quirky setting.

Finally, there was some really out-of-touch racism and social commentary at times. POC, queer and disabled characters were handled terribly and I was especially weirded out by the term "Auschwitz thin" and a character's insistence that an adopted child wouldn't really be theirs, especially because nobody offered an alternative opinion on that statement. The book really needed more editing to cut out all of that.

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