From the Bookshelf of Between the Lines…

The Time Traveler's Wife

Audrey Niffenegger

Start date: April 1, 2009

Finish date: April 30, 2009

Why we're reading this: Voted on by the group for April 2009 Group Read.
[close] Voted on by the group for April 2009 Group Read.

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Aug 20, 2009 Bridgit rated it it was amazing

Shelves: recommended, fall-09-challenge, look-there-s-a-movie

I absolutely LOVED this book. It draws you in from the very first page. The concept is ingenious and the delivery is magical. The intricacies of the story really give it an added depth that you wont find in other novels. Both Clare and Henry are so well developed - you watch both of them grow up and see how the change and grow as characters. It makes you belive the impossible may just maybe be possible. HIGHLY recommended.

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Apr 07, 2009 Deohannah rated it liked it

Shelves: summer-break-2009, the-movie-was-better-than-the-book

This book is one of the most difficult books I have to rate but I settled for three stars anyway, okay, my explanation goes...

I was hooked by it's storyline, which was quite impressive. And I hate to say that the following would sound very negative but I'd like to voice my negative opinions for someone to just realize the positive bits I'm not going to mention because I'm afraid I would make this review very long.

DEEP BREATH...

The characters almost sound like each other. Sometimes, it's difficul This book is one of the most difficult books I have to rate but I settled for three stars anyway, okay, my explanation goes...

I was hooked by it's storyline, which was quite impressive. And I hate to say that the following would sound very negative but I'd like to voice my negative opinions for someone to just realize the positive bits I'm not going to mention because I'm afraid I would make this review very long.

DEEP BREATH...

The characters almost sound like each other. Sometimes, it's difficult to distinguish Clare and Henry because they sound alike. I mean, there are no special characteristics except their likes and dislikes about philosophy, literature, music, etc.
And it disappointed me in a way because I hoped there would be something deeper than that.

Oh, I hate the name-dropping part! I really hate it that I skipped most of it. I know the author wants to say that he loooves punk music, or art, or literature considering his great knowledge about it, but engraving it to a character, who wants to blab and blab about it? Puh-lease, I already get the picture.

And Clare? Flat. Narrating in the first person is a good thing because it can express what the character is thinking, which makes her more like a total person, in other words, she becomes almost alive. But I can see the author has failed to make Clare the ideal character, which is bad because isn't the title all about her?

When I got to the middle part, I was panicking because I wanted to finish the book without losing my interest on it, which by the way, was starting to weaken considering the boring scenes which consists of headache-causing shifts of past, present, and future time, and conversations from two first person's point of view (Henry and Clare), which I thought wasn't really going anywhere- and I know that if I'll stop I won't be able to grasp the feel of the narratives or get something major plot turn. So I read... and read until it was already 1am... and I was sensing that finally, finally... it is starting to interest me so much, and the loose ends are going to be knot (I'm sad to tell you, it didn't) and it was breathtaking to just stop in the middle of something so I decided to read, and I finished at 4:50am which was not a good thing, considering I was obliged to wake up at 6am!

I'm about to say something off-tangent and may be a spoiler here:

Yeah, the ending disappointed me... it was just hanging there, impossible to grasp and you just kept thinking, "Now what?" and then there was something annoying about seeing someone who has died like a ghost, I mean, imagine... you're old, in a retirement home, and this person you love who has died 40 years ago just approaches you and yeah... whatever... spoiler... blah blah blah...

Read it at your own risk... but don't blame me if you would come to hate it and if you'll luuuurve it, no one's going to shoot you for that... as in no one's going to shoot me for giving this so-called "it" book 3 stars.

Maybe, one day, someday, I'm going to reread this and see it in a different light, and then I'd come to realize that this was sooo goood after all. But reading this again is remotely possible considering I have to read gazillions of books before I get back to this. Or maybe not that many, but I don't think I'll be able to find time in reading this again. I don't know why I have the urge to reread this. MAYBE it's got something to do with almost everyone loving the book and hugging it too tightly, and the crying and the almost relating- "almost" here being: they don't have partners who are time travelers.

So there, that's not all I've got to say but my fingers are already aching... Hahaha... ...more

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