Reviews - The Time Traveler's Wife

8.36k reviews for:

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

3.93 AVERAGE

mystic_lucinda's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-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

jess_the_tape_worm's review against another edition

4.0

emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

The first part of this book was fantastic up to the point after Clare and Henry met for the first time. After that, I feel like their relationship plateaus. I want to like this book so much, but there are parts that gave me serious ick.

That began when 40 something year old Henry takes 18 year old Clare's virginity. The age gap was completely unnecessary. If the author couldn't write him in his 20s, at least, then she should've just waited until they met 2 years later. After that, I started viewing their relationship differently. No matter how you look at this, no matter how much you like their relationship, it can not be disputed that he groomed her. Clare waited for him from the age of six until her death. She was never presented with another true option. She was told from a young age they were going to get married, and that was that. The only other physical relationship she had was with her best friend's husband.....twice. On that point, she is not a girl's girl, which can be seen when she finds Ingrid's stuff in Henry's bathroom cabinet and says, "You may be his past, but I'm his future." Her entire life revolved around Henry. It's not really romantic. It was sad. And another thing, him losing his feet gave nothing to the story. It could have been left out completely, and nothing would've been impacted.

Overall, I grudgingly liked this book. But I did not finish the book with rose tinted glasses. This was not an epic romance.