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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
sad
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Amazing. I loved tearing [read: tare-ing] through (and at the end, tearing [read: teer-ing] through) this one. I so fell in love with the characters that I all but cried my eyes completely out at the end.
more like 2 1/2 stars. would have been 3 if i didn't have such a broken heart at the moment.
(Also made into a movie, wich was surprisingly not awful)
Well, Audrey gave us the ultimate love story with time travel and we thank her very much. Read it.
Well, Audrey gave us the ultimate love story with time travel and we thank her very much. Read it.
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I get why this book is such a modern classic! The writing is beautiful, yet accessible. The characters and their world are drawn in such lifelike detail it’s hard to believe they’re made up. Despite some problems I have with them Clare and Henry are really charming. I would talk to them at a party.
It’s crazy to think this is someone’s debut! It feels like it had to have taken a super worldly and experienced person and writer to write.
I love a soft sci-fi that uses sci-fi elements to dig deep into themes in a world much like our own. This scratched that itch pretty perfectly.
My main issue comes with pacing. The first part of the book the stakes felt low, and while it kept me entertained and there were intriguing threads to untangle, the real punches all came in a flurry towards the end. I can see now how things were building up to that, but I could have used with some more even pacing!Especially since this left Henry’s death feeling a little under-explored.
Some points also must be deducted for how insufferably pretentious Henry and Clare can be lol, and how the women of colour supporting characters felt pretty tokenized. OH and how the way the age difference and Clare’s childhood were handled definitely toes the line between acceptable and creeeeeepy. Not sure the books’ self awareness of this line made it any better lol.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around what this book is trying to say about time and fate and love and all the rest!I’m overall getting “We can’t change our destinies but that makes it all the more important to use our free will when we can and make the most of every moment” vibes. With the cure storyline, maybe some “We can’t always make things better in our lifetime but we can plant the seeds of a better future.” It feels hopeful yet brutal and grounded in reality. Idk I feel like I gotta go on sparknotes to really get it.
I’m left questioning some of the side plots and if they were needed.Ingrid’s death made sense thematically but felt shoehorned in without much exploration at the last minute. And what was the deal with Celia? Why did we explore her so much early on only to later make her Clare’s friend off screen? The cure storyline felt like it went almost nowhere. Also Gomez’s feelings for Clare and their last minute tryst??? Did we need that???? Could we at least have tied it up a bit? Justice for Charisse…
It’s crazy to think this is someone’s debut! It feels like it had to have taken a super worldly and experienced person and writer to write.
I love a soft sci-fi that uses sci-fi elements to dig deep into themes in a world much like our own. This scratched that itch pretty perfectly.
My main issue comes with pacing. The first part of the book the stakes felt low, and while it kept me entertained and there were intriguing threads to untangle, the real punches all came in a flurry towards the end. I can see now how things were building up to that, but I could have used with some more even pacing!
Some points also must be deducted for how insufferably pretentious Henry and Clare can be lol, and how the women of colour supporting characters felt pretty tokenized. OH and how the way the age difference and Clare’s childhood were handled definitely toes the line between acceptable and creeeeeepy. Not sure the books’ self awareness of this line made it any better lol.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around what this book is trying to say about time and fate and love and all the rest!
I’m left questioning some of the side plots and if they were needed.
Why are the best love stories so painful? This book was heartwrenching and creative. It read like a fairy tale (not the watered down Disney versions, but the gritty original stories).
The book had so many layers, and so much going on in the past/present/future it is an impressive author that can tell a more or less linear story with all that baggage.
The book had so many layers, and so much going on in the past/present/future it is an impressive author that can tell a more or less linear story with all that baggage.
I did enjoy most of this book and i did shed a tear at the end but a lot of it also just felt like filler at times. And there was a lot of humour in this book as well. Incredible this was her debut novel though. A movie and a tv series later, it is still popular.
I did a part physical copy / part audio read, and the two narrators did a great job in the audiobook.
I did a part physical copy / part audio read, and the two narrators did a great job in the audiobook.
Super boring characters, weird racial dynamics, and obviously the age gap relationship are the big issues with this book. But the way violence was handled in the story was so strange. In the first part the main character experiences a pretty extreme SA and then she just has her bf duct tape him naked to a tree and then that’s the end? No police or anything else and it’s never mentioned again, just a super odd thing to include and then handle super poorly.
And her bf has major anger issues and spends the first half of the book breaking people ribs and smashing their heads in but it’s ok! Because they were probably homophobic or racist (so the author thinks being a racist is worthy of being beaten to death, not arguing, but then the main characters white family has six black servants? Who are all just totally in love with the white family and have no bad feelings about that dynamic at all and who all are written with the same stereotypical ‘uneducated’ accent)
Anyways one star for the interesting premise and one star for the ending.
And her bf has major anger issues and spends the first half of the book breaking people ribs and smashing their heads in but it’s ok! Because they were probably homophobic or racist (so the author thinks being a racist is worthy of being beaten to death, not arguing, but then the main characters white family has six black servants? Who are all just totally in love with the white family and have no bad feelings about that dynamic at all and who all are written with the same stereotypical ‘uneducated’ accent)
Anyways one star for the interesting premise and one star for the ending.
Amazing. The movie doesn't do this book justice at all.
Though this book was a little hard to get into at first due to the whole time travel thing, once I was into it, I was really into it. The fact that it was set in Chicago and that one of the main characters is a librarian at the Newberry of all places, didn't hurt either. It's a story of friendship and love, which can be at times funny, at times touching and at others agonizing and though the ending leaves something to be desired, I still love it!