Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

10 reviews

lenorayoder's review against another edition

emotional

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Better than I thought it would be, but not as good as I hoped it would be once I got into it. It's very interesting to read a fucked up relationship develop from the perspective of the people in it. They do love each other, but they're also overly dependent, unhealthy, and don't communicate well. They are the only people who understand each other, but it is because they have both engineered it to be so. On some level they both know the relationship is doomed, but they don't want to be without each other.

I found the way the author handled time travel interesting, especially the implications of Clare's

deja vu moments, and the sketch with the trimmed date

. The underlying terror that Henry almost constantly feels permeates the book, and one of the unvoiced stumbling blocks of their relationship is that Clare never really seems to understand that fear -

evidenced by the fact that she so desires to have a child that will likely have the same terrible condition

. The way Niffenegger's chosen to depict this story and time travel unfortunately means that the reader never really gets to sit with these characters, and by the end of the book I still felt like I didn't really know them, just their relationship. I wish the book was more narrow in scope, or gave us more insight into what Clare and Henry are like apart. The Time Traveler's Wife is a compelling title, but the book is not about Clare, it's entirely about Clare and Henry's relationship with everything else serving as set dressing. 

Overall enjoyed and would recommend. Sometimes the descriptions and references get a little self-indulgent and pretentious, but seeing this complex relationship evolve from the perspective of two incredibly biased narrators was always interesting and page-turning. Also,

fuck you Gomez. Cherisse, why the fuck did you marry that man, let alone have kids with him. Yikes

. I had to list so many content warnings and I didn't even get them all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

hjb_128's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Racism

cloudbooks's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

My love for this was endless. Then I realized this was just a love story with time travel, and it all fizzled out. 

The good:
The concept of time travel as a condition rather than a power was really, really interesting.
Getting to know the two main characters was such a big part of the experience!
I absolutely loved Alba. I think this story would have been better had it followed her. 

The bad:
When you think about it, the characters grow more and more flat. They have characteristics and interests but not really personalities. Outside of Henry, we're never told what Clare is like. Her whole existence is to love him and to want him.
Henry is a bit more fledged out. He has interests beyond Clare and a work life as well. But if he didn't have time travel as a condition, he'd be a rather boring character.
Their relationships to other people are built around experiences we're not told about. Henry's best friend dislikes him the first time he meets him, then carries on being his best friend afterwards for no apparent reason. The same for Henry's father. We're never told how he makes it out of his grief, let alone how Henry manages to repair his relationship to him. 

The book, in the end, seems to try to handle too many issues at once which prevents it from going into detail about anything. I'd have loved to hear more about Henry's genetic disease, about Clare's relationship to her mother, about Alba's childhood. Instead we get excessive descriptions of music, art and books that somehow define the characters but don't give much in terms of who they are and what their life is like.

I'm glad I listened to it. I probably won't read it again though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Car accident

Moderate: Cursing, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

taylormadespines's review against another edition

This story has not aged well. Henry is a groomer through and through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

1.5

The actual writing of this book was beautiful. The content…was pretty uncomfortable at times. 
There is a moment when Clare is in distress and asks Henry to tell her something nice. He tells her about a time when they were swimming and Clare was wearing this bikini (that he describes in detail) and back then she told him about getting her period. The problem? She was 12. I know that they were going to be married in the future, but they weren’t at that moment. AND THAT IS THE MEMORY HE THINKS OF???
A nurse that is literally only in one small sentence in this entire novel is described as “a fat blond nurse”. Why? Why is that the way we have to describe her? 
I hated Gomez. He NEEDED to be cut out of Clare’s life. What a skunk. 
When Clare was growing up and Henry kept time traveling back to her he says that he was often aroused- again, she was young and he wasn’t and it just made me cringe. 
Their relationship had a lot of buildup when Clare was young and then the moment she turns 18 I feel like their relationship was built upon sex and the fact that they were always supposed to be married. I was just expecting more from a book that is touted as some magnificent love story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cursing, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Suicide attempt

Minor: Body shaming and Fatphobia

anne152's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cancer, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

uranaishi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Cancer, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Vomit, and Classism

mayacm456's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: Gore, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

buecher_und_huehner's review against another edition

emotional sad

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Terminal illness

bibliobeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I have reread this book so many times and it still manages to surprise me. It is so cleverly written, and the author manages to weave a complicated timeline together so effortlessly that it is really easy to follow and not get lost with it. Henry and Clare's love story is full of hardships, tragedy and loss but you still manage to see the love and hope shine through. 

I absolutely love this book, but have knocked a star off for what I think to be some inappropriate thoughts/actions between the characters at questionable ages.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: Death, Drug use, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Blood