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

Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

28 reviews

beatrizdizon_'s review against another edition

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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val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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potsnpots's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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cloudbooks's review against another edition

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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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taylormadespines's review against another edition

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

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ejoymiller11's review against another edition

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emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I am not usually a tough critic, but I did not love this for several reasons.

1. This story (in my opinion) was told backwards, and would last the test of time better had it been told the other way around. Being about time travel, the story bounces around quite a bit. However, I would argue the story more closely follows Clare’s linear timeline. Before we actually get to know the two main characters as a couple, the first half of the book is about how Clare knew Henry as a child and teenager. We learn about Henry’s lustful thoughts about her even when she is underage, even when she is prepubescent, which made me very uncomfortable. In my opinion, had we learned about their adult relationship first by strictly following Henry’s timeline, and had Henry just straight up not had inappropriate thoughts about a CHILD, I think the relationship would seem less creepy (but let’s be honest, some of what happened would be creepy, inappropriate, and sick regardless).

2. About 200 pages of the 536 pages I read weren’t relevant. I don’t understand why certain scenes were necessary as they didn’t contribute to the plot, character development, or context of the story. The whole infidelity thing? For what.

3. INCONSISTENCIES. And inaccuracies. Some of this book just straight up didn’t make sense. I found myself wondering SO many times, “did the author do literally ANY research??” Yes, probably with certain art pieces and music mentioned in the story, but certainly not how pregnancy, miscarriage, birth, hypothermia, and other medical things work. Furthermore, so many times the book would mention something like “they decided to leave the kids at home!” And on the next page, “the kids were playing quietly in the corner.” Like did no one proofread this? I’m lost.

4. Sometimes it was really hard to understand who was speaking. The book bounces between Henry’s and Clare’s perspectives, but in sections of the dialogue there are long stretches with no indication of who is speaking. Several times I had to go back and reread to understand the context of what was happening and what the characters were feeling.

I felt like this was a great concept that was so poorly executed. This could be a fantastic, timeless love story, but it just fell flat for me. The writing combined with the characters who weren’t just flawed, but horrible people, ruined it for me.

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