The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffeneggeris a very slow paced and unconventional love story that unfolds over the course of the book.

There were a few things that I enjoyed about this book, but unfortunately, overall, this one was not for me.

Elements I Enjoyed
Overall, I did really enjoy the relationship between Henry and Clare. Even though some bits were odd and a bit unsettling because of the time travel and fate element, and they were horrible to each other on occasion, I understood. I really loved how real the relationship between the two of them seemed. It was so refreshing to see them so in love, and apologize so quickly when things got heated. I think I really enjoyed their relationship because a lot of the more normal and positive elements reminded me of my relationship with my husband.

The scene where Clare is walking to the orchard with her grandmother was wonderful! I loved how Clare described the things around them in a level of detail that she knew her grandmother would appreciate. That was by far my favorite scene in the book.

I also loved one scene where Henry came back to the present after going back in time to learn how Clare got a specific scar. What happened when he returned was really heartwarming.

When Henry explains the car accident he and his mother were in… that was brutal. This scene actually made my stomach quite upset. I was a bit surprised by this darkness and how it seemed so out of place for the rest of the story. However, it was written in in a very powerful way, hence why it wound up in the positive section.

Beware, the negatives:
I really didn’t like the first hundred pages of the book. At that point, I considered DNFing. After that, the story got a bit better for awhile, but then I began to lose interest again.

The story was told from two perspectives, which were horribly similar to the point where I forgot which perspective I was in many times. To make this worse, some of the sections switched perspectives right in the middle of it!

I enjoyed the characters at the very start (except for Gomez, he is a total creep and I couldn’t stand him for a second), but I soon began to feel that they were a bit flat. I kept hoping to learn more about each of them, but it stayed pretty high level. This frustrated me because even though there were many very difficult situations that occurred, it felt like we only scratched the surface with these characters. I stopped caring about them toward the third quarter of the book, and it only went downhill from there for me.

On that note, there was a long section about infertility that felt horribly flat from an emotional stand point. Perhaps I know too many people that have been through this, but this section really bothered me. It seemed almost sugarcoated.

This book was also strangely long. There were many times that I found myself reading and questioning why certain bits were included as they didn’t help develop the characters, and they didn’t really add much to the plot.

Additionally, there were elements that were added in that we didn’t get any follow up on that left us hanging. Like when Henry visits his dad and sees that he’s in rough shape. And then… nothing goes back to that?! That could have been something the author went back to in order to make Henry a bit of a deeper character.

The description was way too heavy for my preference and it really bogged the story down. I found myself skimming quite a bit. I even skimmed the long lists of punk bands, and I LOVE punk! The author went into very great detail to cover the things that happened when people were in bed, what they were eating, and so on. Elements like this were just so unnecessary to me. And to be honest, they were quite boring.

This book just had too many elements that I don’t care for; a very slow-pace, a plot that seems to drag because of scenes that weren’t all that useful to the story, random lists of things that seem to be added in just to name drop, detailed sex scenes that seemed thrown in for the heck of it, various loose ends, stereotypical characters, time travel, cheating…

By the time we reached that last element, I was pretty checked out.

My Favorite Passages:
My apartment is basically a couch, an armchair, and about four thousand books.

“Would you like some cookies? I always like to eat cookies while I look around museums. It makes it more multisensory.” I offer him the package of Oreos. He hesitates, unsure if it’s all right, hungry but unsure how many he can take without being rude. “Take as many as you want. I’ve already eaten ten, so you have some catching up to do.” He takes three.

Clare complains that I don’t relax until I’m dead tired, but actually I am often relaxed when I’m with her.

My Final Thoughts
I really wish I could say that I enjoyed this one, but it just didn’t work for me. I spent a weekend trying to plow through this one, and it was a hard slog.

When I closed the book, I looked at Alex and he said “Not good? How many stars.” I held up two fingers. However, the more I thought about this one, the more I disliked it… This book is officially right up there with my thoughts on Emma.

I am still curious about the film though. I think this is a tale that would work better in a 90 minute adaptation, where all the fluff would be cut out. So I’m definitely looking forward to watching!