Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

***Spoiler Alert***

So, I had high hopes for this book. Too high. I'm glad that I read it before the movie, but I hope Hollywood does a better job with the storyline than the author did. I don't know, maybe I over-analyzed it, but it was just disappointing. There were inaccuracies, parts of the story that were mentioned a lot and then never came full circle, and the end of the book was entirely too rushed.

Let's start with my first problem, the inaccuracies. The biggest one was a part where Clare is having trouble miscarrying and the book says "she was in her 8th week and the fetus was the size of a plum". Um, yeah, that's a big negativo. Try the size of a peanut. A fetus at 8 weeks gestation is not even an inch long and weighs about a gram. What?!? Then there is the part that discusses the creation of transgenic mice. I'd have to go back and re-read the passage for a more accurate assessment, but they had some things out of order/backwards. AH, I'm SUCH a nerd! LOL!!

AND WHAT ABOUT THIS BIG LIST!!!!! Throughout the entire story the talk about this list of dates that they made together in a little blue book of exactly when Henry would come and visit her and they NEVER show you the "present" when they sit down and write it together. Did I miss something? I wanted more.

Perhaps the biggest disappointment of the entire book was the fact that the last 100 pages was entirely too rushed. Theoretically, a book of this nature could literally go on forever, with all the back and forth in time. But, after Alba was born, it's like the author lost her train of thought and just rushed to finish the book. The beginning of the book was so precise and calculated, but the end seemed frantic somehow. Maybe that's what she was going for? Maybe after he read his obituary (which we never know how long he knew), he really was frantic and disconnected? I think if I could know precisely when he learned how he died, I would be able to appreciate the rushed ending more. She spent so much time in the beginning talking about this fantastically amazing relationship they had in the "present", but once we got to that part of the book, she rushed right through it. The part of the book (at Christmastime) where they are at Clare's childhood home was so thorough and read like it's own book. I felt like the whole story needed to be this way. I realize that the whole point of all this, is that part of what makes their relationship romantic is that it IS across time, but I don't know, something seemed to be missing.

I had trouble figuring out where the author wanted the jumping off point in the story to be. I wanted to feel more like the present of the book was the present. I thought the most important part of the book was the fact that he could travel to the future, but had to come back to the present and not let his knowledge of what is to come effect the here and now. Which, I guess was how the entire book was, I just never felt like I had a starting point. Was I just supposed to feel frustrated, as Henry must have felt, that I knew everything, but could never talk about it with anyone because they would never know what I was talking about because they hadn't been there yet? Was I supposed to feel disconnected with time, because I had no real sense of it? It took me awhile to figure out if Henry followed a linear timeline, but just randomly revisited past days, or if the days that he revisited he never experienced the first time around. If that makes sense. Did he live his life out of order, or simply "visit" other events that he did or eventually would, live in whatever his linear present WAS?

Here is the part that probably bugged me the most: They NEVER touched on the effect time traveling would have on his relationship with his daughter. The whole time Alba was a baby, they'd talk about Henry holding her while Clare was doing something in the kitchen, out of the house, whatever.............they never talked about what would happen if he disappeared. I seriously was screaming, "OMG, what if you disappear when you're holding her and she falls to the ground?!?" LOL!!!!! Seriously, I could NOT get this idea out of my head. I freaked out any time they talked about him being alone with her. Now, as the story went on, you realized that he could feel himself leaving, so maybe he could put her down somewhere safe, but still. This was just another example of how the author had a good idea in her head, but didn't follow through QUITE far enough.

UGH!!! I really wanted to like this book. I LOVE the concept of time travel! I eat this stuff up, but I was just really disappointed. I think maybe I was disappointed that she didn't go into more detail with the time traveling aspect of it from the science side of things. Although, I get the impression that she doesn't fully understand it herself. I know it can never be anything BUT an extremely abstract idea, but I feel like she needed to have a little bit more research under her belt before attempting a story where the main character experiences time as a circle instead of linear.

I'm so mad I didn't like this book.

Maybe if I read it a second time, I will be experiencing it just like we are supposed to feel like Henry is experiencing life. I'll know what happens, but have to wait until the characters catch up in time. Hmm, that's interesting. Maybe I WILL have to read it again.