Off the back of the show I decided to give this a go. The time travel conceit tied to the plotting is really fun and engaging. Henry finds himself unmoored in time by way of, possibly, a genetic abnormality. As such, he ends up revolving around specific events and people—one of whom is his wife. As we follow each narrator we see her meet him at various times in his life, and her chronicle fairly linearly their story. Both have a structure to them, though. And the problems and various obstacles feel eclectic and imaginative.

It also has a healthy dose of humility and humour. How do you spend time with a child you know is going to be your wife, growing to be a woman. What does that dynamic become, evolve into? When and how can choices be altered and what is cemented, despite being terrible? What would the challenges of suddenly finding yourself in another time for an indeterminate amount of time be? The answers turn out to lean into the intricate plotting the setup benefits from.

The weakest part—which is more specific to my taste, probably—is that the conceit of when and how and where Henry jumps to is not adjudicated. It’s the way things are. Sometimes merciful, sometimes cruel. Only some of them do have structure or a pattern, of sorts. So, with that being there but the rest not being adjudicated, it shows exactly where the author has their thumb on the scale. It happens like that because it’s what’s interesting and what the plot benefits from, sure, but it also pulls back the curtain because that isn’t always the case. Otherwise the tricks pulled off with the unusual narrative structure couldn’t happen. Cake and ice cream, etc.