The Time Traveler's Wife in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Aug 16, 2008 Ann rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: abandoned

I didn't give this book much of a fighting chance, considering I only read about 30 pages. But it was enough for me to decide that I'd rather not waste my time. In the first 30 pages, the two lovers meet for the first time for Henry the time-traveler, but it's really something like the two-hundredth time for Clare (the one stuck in normal time). What I gathered was that he time travels because he has a genetic disorder (puh-lease!) and when he time-travels he's naked. Clare met him for the first ...more

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Jul 10, 2010 Emma rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I was unsure whether I should read this book or not. I simply cannot stand the notion of time travel. I’m just convinced that it’s not possible, or that if it is, it shouldn’t be.

However this is fiction and I think concept of time travel in this book is relatively believable. The story being narrated by both Clare and Henry as well as including the dates, time and ages keeps things organised into who’s doing what when. Also the premise of trying to keep a relationship going whilst one of you kee I was unsure whether I should read this book or not. I simply cannot stand the notion of time travel. I’m just convinced that it’s not possible, or that if it is, it shouldn’t be.

However this is fiction and I think concept of time travel in this book is relatively believable. The story being narrated by both Clare and Henry as well as including the dates, time and ages keeps things organised into who’s doing what when. Also the premise of trying to keep a relationship going whilst one of you keeps slipping back to the past or into the future without any control is an interesting one. And I enjoyed the foreshadowing, the inklings of what’s going to happen without really knowing, and seeing it all fall into place when the present catches up to the future.

However there are several things that I didn’t like about this book. One is how other characters in the novel seem so readily accepting of this outrageous situation, with Henry disappearing, turning up naked, having no explanation for it or in fact telling them straight out it’s time travel. How does he keep his job for so long when he goes missing for days without reason, or is repeatedly caught out naked? Why doesn’t at least one of his friends or family hand over the business card of a trusted mental health professional when he offers time travel as an explanation for his weird behaviour? Instead it’s casually revealed here and there that all these people are in on his secret and hey, time travel, why didn’t you just say so?

Another thing I found lacking was Clare’s character. She is apparently the wife of the title however I felt this was all Henry’s story. Clare kind of just waits around. While we see Henry’s life, backwards and forwards, sometimes even with two of him present at the same time, I kept feeling that there was a big chunk missing from Clare’s story. Before they meet in the present, her life seems to only exist in her meetings with Henry. I wondered about the gaps, especially the years where she waits for him, moving herself to Chicago and apparently just waiting it out until they bumped into each other. Didn’t she have any conflict between other things she could potentially do in her life and her apparently already mapped-out future?

Other little things annoyed me – the play-by-play pool game that seems to go on forever, the paragraphs that read more like a street directory or restaurant guide to Chicago and the lists of bands and groceries.

I did actually enjoy The Time Traveler’s Wife more than I thought I would given the title. However despite the potential in its premise I didn’t feel it was a great book, nothing too special to stand out from other book-club best-sellers.
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Feb 16, 2009 Jen Peters rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: drama

Good book. Of course the whole premise of the story was unrealistic, but I felt like some of the details could have been a bit more realistic. You didn't see much of Henry getting caught or in trouble when he suddenly morphed ,naked and hungry, into another time. Also, Although he told some people about what he did, it seemed odd that he would disappear not long after, proving his point, seemed too easy to me. Finally, with certain people knowing he traveled through time, I find it odd that they ...more

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Aug 28, 2009 Courtney rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jun 17, 2009 Danielle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookshelf, 2009

Why is it so fascinating to read a book where the past and future has already begun and been spun even before the first chapter?

Because, despite describing itself as a frustrating http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%B6b... mobius strip early on in the novel, the story of Henry and Clare and their disorienting love story and subsequent lives with and without each other is captivating.

It's not so much the romance, in effect for about half the novel they arent truly in love with each other at the rig ...more

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Jan 27, 2008 Julianne Dunn rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This book could be difficult to keep track off so read it straight. It is a great concept and heartwrenching at times. Although this is a science fiction concept, this is really a love story.

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Oct 20, 2008 Lydia Presley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, scifi, favorites

Quite a few of my friends had read this book and I finally let curiosity win me over. It was a good thing I took it on vacation because I literally could not put it down.

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Jan 08, 2010 martha rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: speculative-fiction, year-2010, 5-star-favs, time-travel

Ugh, I loved this SO MUCH. Literary, well-written scifi, with an unwavering focus on pragmatic problems? WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE, and why did I take so long to read it?

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