Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

38 reviews

idk_indigo's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

4.75

The fact that Henry and Claire met when she was 6 years old made me pretty uncomfortable throughout most of the novel; I found myself struggling to accept their relationship as, like, not weird and gross for pretty much most of the story. However, towards the end I was still feeling the reservation, however, I still empathized with the relationship. If that makes sense.

I found myself comparing this book to One Day by David Nicholls. Both are a sort of disastrously troubled romance and then both end in an inevitable tragedy. Both are absolutely heartwrenching, but I think the fact that you sort of know what's going to happen the whole book makes this one just so much more heartbreaking. Definitely less of the shock factor than with One Day, but I feel like, just, jeez wow. Especially because there's lowkey a moment where you're like omg maybe it won't happen but then you're like oh never mind it probably will... then okay shit yeah it most definitely will and the fact that it's just a matter of when is so devastating anyways ...

Anyways I am sad once again

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Grief, and Car accident

Moderate: Sexual content, Medical trauma, Abortion, and Death of parent

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, and Pregnancy

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

annathirlaway's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, and Car accident

silvia_henry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Blood, Vomit, and Alcohol

abenetcarpenter's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

Minor: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Car accident, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

daisdu's review against another edition

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

4.0

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

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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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Death, Drug use, Infertility, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Gun violence

emeraldrose809's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Blood, Grief, and Pregnancy

agw622's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is such a captivating book. The time traveling is well handled. The overlaps are used to add suspense especially at the end. It can be quite intense and sad at places. While not a happy read, it's an amazing read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Miscarriage, Self harm, Suicide, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content