A dazzling novel in the most untraditional fashion, this is the remarkable story of Henry DeTamble, a dashing, adventuresome librarian who travels ...
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reviews
Dec 17, 2009
Liz
rated it: 
I recently read The Time-Traveler's Wife and was pretty disappointed---the author somehow manages to turn such an awesome premise (the dude actually time travels!) into something pretty flat and prosaic and dull. The first hundred pages really hooked me, but after a while I started to get irritated by:
1. All the name checking of hipster-approved bands in an attempt to establish Henry's supposed "punk" cred. He liked the Violent Femmes in 1991. That's why he's so badass? Ser More...
1. All the name checking of hipster-approved bands in an attempt to establish Henry's supposed "punk" cred. He liked the Violent Femmes in 1991. That's why he's so badass? Ser More...
97 comments
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(543 people liked it)
Sep 23, 2010
I'm only adding this book because it annoys me that it popped up on the "most popular reads." People, this book is terrible. Do yourself a favor and pretend you'd never heard of it.
My short answer is that it's just no good, the long version is in the following list, which I call "The Problems I Have With The Time-Traveler's Wife."
1. The author is indecisive. Rather than accepting that this is a science-fiction novel, she tries to write a social commen More...
My short answer is that it's just no good, the long version is in the following list, which I call "The Problems I Have With The Time-Traveler's Wife."
1. The author is indecisive. Rather than accepting that this is a science-fiction novel, she tries to write a social commen More...
52 comments
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(325 people liked it)
Oct 11, 2011
i hate reading books that everyone keeps bothering me to read. first there are the gushing reviews from the media, complete with intelligent sound clips:
"it's so awesome! so titillating! the way the author captures that thing where the girl says that stuff and then they go to that cool place.. you know? even oprah says so!"
and then there are the crowds of friends who carry around their freshly bought "it" book (ok, i'm bitter, i can't afford to bu More...
"it's so awesome! so titillating! the way the author captures that thing where the girl says that stuff and then they go to that cool place.. you know? even oprah says so!"
and then there are the crowds of friends who carry around their freshly bought "it" book (ok, i'm bitter, i can't afford to bu More...
29 comments
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(179 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Silvercharmer
rated it: 
Warning: Spoilery review. Short version: Hurry up and read this.
Holy crap. Someone should have warned me about reading this book at work. I have been sitting here bawling my eyes out, tears streaming madly down my cheeks, flooding my eyes until the words swim into fields of glistening black lines. This book is so beautiful and anguishing to read I can't even be objective about it, because it was one of those stories that just burrowed a lot closer to home than you could ever f More...
Holy crap. Someone should have warned me about reading this book at work. I have been sitting here bawling my eyes out, tears streaming madly down my cheeks, flooding my eyes until the words swim into fields of glistening black lines. This book is so beautiful and anguishing to read I can't even be objective about it, because it was one of those stories that just burrowed a lot closer to home than you could ever f More...
24 comments
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(144 people liked it)
Oct 30, 2010
Emma
rated it:
If I had to define "The Time Traveler's Wife" by Audrey Niffenegger in two words they would be: poignant and excessive—two words that also illustrate my mixed feelings about Niffenegger’s first novel.
“The Time Traveler’s Wife” is about many things. Obviously time travel is an important feature, but this novel is also about librarians, artists, punk rock, and alcoholics. It’s also about love.
Henry meets his wife, Clare, for the first time when he is 28 and Clare More...
“The Time Traveler’s Wife” is about many things. Obviously time travel is an important feature, but this novel is also about librarians, artists, punk rock, and alcoholics. It’s also about love.
Henry meets his wife, Clare, for the first time when he is 28 and Clare More...
3 comments
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(57 people liked it)
Mar 26, 2008
Claire
rated it: 
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
12 comments
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(96 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Morgan
rated it:
Rating this was really hard, because I really liked it (really, really liked it) but I have such qualms with the ending, which could very possibly be a testament to Niffenegger's writing, I'm not sure. Anyway.
There were several things I wanted to talk about while I was reading it, more or less having to do with the notion of time-travel in the book. Obviously, there's always the immediate connection between Henry DeTamble and Billy Pilgrim, both of which are unstuck in time, Henry More...
There were several things I wanted to talk about while I was reading it, more or less having to do with the notion of time-travel in the book. Obviously, there's always the immediate connection between Henry DeTamble and Billy Pilgrim, both of which are unstuck in time, Henry More...
7 comments
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(59 people liked it)
Jan 18, 2008
Danielle
rated it: 
Why can't there be a negative star rating? I hated, hated this book. And yes, I did finish it. All way-too-many pages of it. But, in my defense it was (foolishly) the only book I brought with me when I was hospitalized for 24 hours after wisdom tooth surgery, and when your options are daytime soaps or this wretched book...well, at least I got to read the ending and conclude definitively that it wasn't worth it. Okay, now that I've gotten a bit of a rant out, let me be a little more organized abo
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38 comments
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(203 people liked it)
Dec 16, 2009
Katchoogranger
rated it:
Before Audry Niffenegger wrote The Time Traveler's Wife, she was a art teacher at a Chicago university. Thankfully, Niffenegger believes that art should imitate life, so we get a rip-roaring tour of her life passions: punk music, the Chicago art scene, the Newbery Library, and Chicago itself. These are the core elements that add ambiance to the love story of Henry Detamble - librarian and reluctant time traveler - and his wife, artist Claire Ashbury.
Henry has crono-displacement diso More...
Henry has crono-displacement diso More...
Apr 07, 2008
Lara
rated it:
I am conflicted about this book. Do not let my 4 stars fool you, they are an emotional rating.
I'll start with the things I really liked about it:
Loved all the foreshadowing. The knowing something was going to happen, and maybe even a little bit of what it was, but never knowing or understanding fully until both characters had experienced the moment. And then all the foreshadowing of the tragic end. Once I started putting the puzzle together I really couldn't put it do More...
I'll start with the things I really liked about it:
Loved all the foreshadowing. The knowing something was going to happen, and maybe even a little bit of what it was, but never knowing or understanding fully until both characters had experienced the moment. And then all the foreshadowing of the tragic end. Once I started putting the puzzle together I really couldn't put it do More...
10 comments
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(71 people liked it)
Jan 31, 2011
Annalisa
rated it:
I loved this book. It's not perfect, but it made me feel and think and want. It's one of those stories that pulls you into the characters' lives and leaves you wanting more, mulling over the scenes and premise for days after you've reluctantly turned the last page. Rarely is such an original idea portrayed with such vivid language so you believe the time travel possibility and the characters are almost people you know.
It's about a guy who involuntarily travels time. He can never predi More...
It's about a guy who involuntarily travels time. He can never predi More...
Sep 01, 2008
Laura
rated it:
Just because something is popular does not mean it's good. Mass "taste" is often incredibly bad. Such is the case with this book, only it's not incredibly bad, just not worth the hours it takes to read it.
It seems like every fiction book I've read in the past couple of years is highly depressing, this one included. My life is full enough of it's own challenges and disappointments that I'd like to read to escape. Yes, if novels are full of heartache and struggle, they are re More...
It seems like every fiction book I've read in the past couple of years is highly depressing, this one included. My life is full enough of it's own challenges and disappointments that I'd like to read to escape. Yes, if novels are full of heartache and struggle, they are re More...
8 comments
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(62 people liked it)
Mar 09, 2008
Shan
rated it:
Let me start this by saying I was very excited to read this book. I thought it was going to be good. It is not in any way good. It could have been good, the idea could have soared but in Niffenegger's hands it was destroyed by laundry lists of grocery bag contents, street directions, and punk bands until I even said, out loud, more than once, "okay, I get it." He bought groceries, he knows how to get around in Chicago, Clare likes to clean her studio, he is not just a punk rock pos
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5 comments
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(90 people liked it)
Mar 30, 2008
April
rated it:
I adore this book. I love it with all my heart. The first few pages were a delight, a surprise, and from then on it was a sweet love affair. I wanted both to have read the book all at once and also to have it all yet unread so I could savor it. I simply didn't want it to end.
The story is about two people, the time traveler and his wife. On the surface, they are like any two people who love each other in modern times, except for the fact that he travels through time. You'd think that More...
The story is about two people, the time traveler and his wife. On the surface, they are like any two people who love each other in modern times, except for the fact that he travels through time. You'd think that More...
4 comments
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(36 people liked it)
Jan 09, 2008
Tung
rated it:
There’s a reason I hate Oprah’s Book Club, and the reason is that I think she does a disservice to the millions of American women who adore her by recommending terrible books. Oprah’s problem is that rather than directing her legions of fans to classic books (or ones destined to become classics) with complex plots and fine writing, she directs them instead to crap like The Notebook. The Notebook and The Time Traveler’s Wife belong to the same genre – you’ve heard the term “chick flick”? These
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10 comments
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(39 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Mariya
rated it:
i feel there is a special circle of hell reserved for authors who make a fortune by blatantly ripping off better--but less mainstream--authors from the past and passing the ideas off as their own. I therefore will not review this book but instead re-direct the curious to a 1976 novel called Kindred by Octavia Butler, ostensibly a sci-fi novel but in fact a lean, precise and totally imaginative book for any alert reader.
Avoid bloat, trashiness, sexism, predictability and slowness: d More...
Avoid bloat, trashiness, sexism, predictability and slowness: d More...
10 comments
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(28 people liked it)
Apr 03, 2010
Miss Kim
rated it:
4 1/2 stars
This is one of those books that everyone reads and you love it or hate it. I am not sure if I loved it, but it is a very good book! For me, it was a bit hard to follow at first, because I didn’t understand all the popping back in forth in time, and what was ‘the present’ and why it was happening.
Henry spontaneously time-travels. He seems to only travel to places in his past that he is familiar with. He meets his future wife when she is six, and he is middle ag More...
This is one of those books that everyone reads and you love it or hate it. I am not sure if I loved it, but it is a very good book! For me, it was a bit hard to follow at first, because I didn’t understand all the popping back in forth in time, and what was ‘the present’ and why it was happening.
Henry spontaneously time-travels. He seems to only travel to places in his past that he is familiar with. He meets his future wife when she is six, and he is middle ag More...
10 comments
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(16 people liked it)
Oct 23, 2007
Kristy
rated it:
I wish that this book was a Choose Your Own Adventure, so that when Henry starts yapping off at the jib about seventies punk to that high school kid at the Christmas party, that you could choose, instead of having the kid listen in rapt gratefulness while Henry lists off all the bands this schmuck has to find out about, to have the kid kick him square in his unbelievably pretentious punkrocklibrarian balls.
People like this book???!
I know I threw my credibility out the win More...
People like this book???!
I know I threw my credibility out the win More...
5 comments
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(21 people liked it)
Jul 22, 2008
Shannon
rated it:
Very few books have ever made me cry. Off the top of my head, only two really stand out: Charlotte's Web and Thunderwith. I am now adding The Time Traveler's Wife to the list, and to the list of books I can't get out of my head for days after.
This is a highly ambitious debut novel. That doesn't mean it doesn't work. I had my doubts, I truly did. And I can never read a book without also noticing typos, editing errors etc., but although they're distracting they can't ruin a good book. More...
This is a highly ambitious debut novel. That doesn't mean it doesn't work. I had my doubts, I truly did. And I can never read a book without also noticing typos, editing errors etc., but although they're distracting they can't ruin a good book. More...
8 comments
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(34 people liked it)
Jun 30, 2008
Liza
rated it:
I want the option of 1/2 stars. I give this one 4 1/2.
I’m always afraid of two things when I’ve been as captivated by a book as I have been this one. The first is that no one else will feel the same way I do about it. What if it’s actually horrible, and for some reason I love it? I’m no literary genius, after all. But I suppose we are all entitled to our own opinions, and there are certainly plenty of “great” reads out there that I am sure I did not love, or would not love if I ever More...
I’m always afraid of two things when I’ve been as captivated by a book as I have been this one. The first is that no one else will feel the same way I do about it. What if it’s actually horrible, and for some reason I love it? I’m no literary genius, after all. But I suppose we are all entitled to our own opinions, and there are certainly plenty of “great” reads out there that I am sure I did not love, or would not love if I ever More...
2 comments
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(17 people liked it)
Jan 15, 2011
Francine
rated it:
I am not a linear book-reader. That is, I rarely ever read a book contiguously, from start to finish. I have a very bad habit of reading the last dozen or so pages first, just to see if I will like the story. (It's a bit irrational; I don't know what I'm looking for, but somehow, reading those last words gives me an impression of what to expect, of whether I should buy a book or pass on it, or even if I will like a book or not.) Personally, I don't think that reading the end first takes anyt
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2 comments
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(12 people liked it)
Nov 04, 2008
Palsay
rated it:
Hm, bagaimana rasanya?
Bagaimana rasanya jika baru semenit yang lalu kau bersama-sama suamimu di dapur, memasak makan siang, dan suami mu sedang memotong-motong bawang, dan tiba-tiba..zapp! dia menghilang, secepat itu, meninggalkan dirimu sendirian bersama irisan bawang dan pisau tergeletak di atas meja dapur?
Kau mencoba bersikap seolah-olah itu hal yang wajar, dan berusaha melewatkan hari itu sendirian, menunggu dan berharap ia akan pulang untuk makan malam.
B More...
Bagaimana rasanya jika baru semenit yang lalu kau bersama-sama suamimu di dapur, memasak makan siang, dan suami mu sedang memotong-motong bawang, dan tiba-tiba..zapp! dia menghilang, secepat itu, meninggalkan dirimu sendirian bersama irisan bawang dan pisau tergeletak di atas meja dapur?
Kau mencoba bersikap seolah-olah itu hal yang wajar, dan berusaha melewatkan hari itu sendirian, menunggu dan berharap ia akan pulang untuk makan malam.
B More...
40 comments
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(14 people liked it)
Jun 20, 2010
Jennifer (aka EM)
rated it: 
It's been a long time since I've stayed up late into the night, reading just another chapter ... and then another ... and so what if it's 3 a.m., and tears are streaming down my cheeks, and all that's left to read are the acknowledgements at the end and I do, because I'm as unwilling to let these characters go as they are to let each other go.
The themes of this novel are as complex as you want to make them: freewill versus determinism; genetic abnormalities, relativity and evolution More...
The themes of this novel are as complex as you want to make them: freewill versus determinism; genetic abnormalities, relativity and evolution More...
14 comments
like
(13 people liked it)
Aug 12, 2008
HappyHippo
rated it:
OK, to be honest, I'm having a hard time reviewing this book. I had a mixed feeling that sometimes I like this book and sometimes I dislike this book. There were moments when I just want to throw this book and moments when I suddenly realized that I'm having a hard time putting it down. It's difficult to write the review cause somehow I want to tell you everything.
Henry has chrono-displacement disorder, and he will be sucked backs and forth in time (mostly when he was stressed). He More...
Henry has chrono-displacement disorder, and he will be sucked backs and forth in time (mostly when he was stressed). He More...
36 comments
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(18 people liked it)
Dec 17, 2009
Anne Valerie
rated it:
This book is a debut for Audrey Niffenegger. And being a first-timer herself, i think she made the complex timelines with ease. The Time Traveler's Wife is a love story concealed inside a suspense novel but is far from a science fiction exploration of the space-time continuum. The book is about the two characters - Henry DeTamble and Clare Abshire whose passionate love affair endures across a sea of time and captures themselves in an impossibly romantic trap. Henry is a time-traveller; a genetic
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0 comments
like
(9 people liked it)
Nov 24, 2011
jzhunagev
rated it:
A Love to Defy the Rules of Time
(A Book Review of Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler’s Wife)
Right from the beginning of Audrey Niffeneger’s famed debut novel, The Time Traveler’s Wife, the reader is already thrown terrifically off-balanced. Here’s a scenario of a man meets woman that’s anything but, and a love story, while on the surface conquers the test of time, challenges its tenets as well.
On the day that Henry DeTamble, a librarian, meets Clare Anne Abshire, an a More...
22 comments
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(7 people liked it)
Sep 17, 2008
Melissa
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
3 comments
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(30 people liked it)
Jun 11, 2009
Bells
rated it:
Considering I grew up on Stephen King novels, I'm not sure why I had such a hard time with the sci-fi/time travel aspect of this book. It was hard for me to follow. Could be I'm ADD and in need of medication.
There's no denying it's a clever story. While I had a difficult time with the time travel, I still kept reading because I wanted to know what happened. The ending pissed me off, yet I restrained myself from throwing the book. (yay me! Where are those meds?)
The thing More...
There's no denying it's a clever story. While I had a difficult time with the time travel, I still kept reading because I wanted to know what happened. The ending pissed me off, yet I restrained myself from throwing the book. (yay me! Where are those meds?)
The thing More...
21 comments
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(12 people liked it)
Aug 16, 2011
Joyzi
rated it:
Awesome book in my opinion especially that I have a thing for time traveling. I love it the story is interesting even though it's confusing at first because the story is not chronological and the author would just arrange each story by any timeline (past, future, present).
I also love the characters Henry (librarian, time traveler) and Clare (artist) and of course their daughter Alba (also time traveler). It's just sad though and I'm not expecting it that in the end the s More...
11 comments
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(7 people liked it)
Sep 09, 2010
Darby
rated it:
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers.
To view it, click here
2 comments
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(7 people liked it)
