The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
When I go walking I strut my stuff and I'm so strung out / I'm high as a kite; I just might stop to check you out.
No matter what, people seem to love The Time Traveler's Wife, but I had really split opinions regarding its pages. I started out think I was going to love it, ten pages in I could hardly stand it, and a hundred pages later I was back to liking it again. I just didn't have the same level of love that everyone else does, and I feel bad for not liking it all that much. Mind you I didn't hate it either, my love just fluctuated as I was reading, neither a resounding "LOVE!" nor an all-encompassing "HATE!"
In a nutshell, Henry has an unheard of genetic mutation which forces his life on an unconventional path through time, and Clare is his (spoiler alert butnotreally) eventual wife whose life takes a sequential "normal" route.
The back of the book tags it as "a most untraditional love story." I agree with this statement wholeheartedly, as Henry actually time travels. Way cool. I guess it's kind of a sci-fi romance-type thing, but Audrey Niffeneger does a great job of keeping the plots down-to-earth and extremely believable. And I really like that the struggle part of Henry and Clare's relationship is intermittent time travel and not something cliché like popularity, distance, or incompatibility. I found myself more attached to Henry's version of things by the end of the story, not so much Clare. I'm not sure Clare was really developed as much as Henry was, which is okay.
I'll start with the things I didn't like, first, just to get them out of the way. There were a few petty things that bugged me as I was reading it: the incessant name-dropping, that both Clare and Henry could read and memorize poetry in multiple languages, etcetera. But those things didn't really detract from the actual story. In terms of story telling, I liked most of the story, but there were also some chunks in the middle that I snoozed through, thing that are eventual next steps for any couple and that I really had no interest in dwelling on.
Once I got on track and wrapped my head around the time traveling, I began to like the story a lot more. I loved the first quarter of the book. In the second half Niffenegger struck with a somber tone. You knew something huge was coming. The ending twists were amazing. The last hundred pages were absolutely the best.
In a nutshell, Henry has an unheard of genetic mutation which forces his life on an unconventional path through time, and Clare is his (spoiler alert butnotreally) eventual wife whose life takes a sequential "normal" route.
The back of the book tags it as "a most untraditional love story." I agree with this statement wholeheartedly, as Henry actually time travels. Way cool. I guess it's kind of a sci-fi romance-type thing, but Audrey Niffeneger does a great job of keeping the plots down-to-earth and extremely believable. And I really like that the struggle part of Henry and Clare's relationship is intermittent time travel and not something cliché like popularity, distance, or incompatibility. I found myself more attached to Henry's version of things by the end of the story, not so much Clare. I'm not sure Clare was really developed as much as Henry was, which is okay.
I'll start with the things I didn't like, first, just to get them out of the way. There were a few petty things that bugged me as I was reading it: the incessant name-dropping, that both Clare and Henry could read and memorize poetry in multiple languages, etcetera. But those things didn't really detract from the actual story. In terms of story telling, I liked most of the story, but there were also some chunks in the middle that I snoozed through, thing that are eventual next steps for any couple and that I really had no interest in dwelling on.
Once I got on track and wrapped my head around the time traveling, I began to like the story a lot more. I loved the first quarter of the book. In the second half Niffenegger struck with a somber tone. You knew something huge was coming. The ending twists were amazing. The last hundred pages were absolutely the best.
All in all, overall, essentially, especially, I think this is a good book. I'm not sure if the beginning and the end fully made up for the middle chunk I didn't enjoy, but I think I would recommend you read it if you're someone who likes a little romance. I feel bad giving this a star rating because I felt so split about it, but here it is all official-like. (Airplanes because of the traveling.)
✈ ✈ ✈ - 3/5
✈ ✈ ✈ - 3/5
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