Hi, Bookworms! [insert TARDIS here]
I have never understood the appeal of The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenger, and I have understood the making a film adaptation even less.
It’s the story of Henry (our “Time Traveler”) and Clare (the Wife). Henry keeps coming across Clare at different points in her life, because he keeps hopping back in time.
It would be like the Doctor and River Song, if “Doctor Who” sucked.
I do have issues with this book. I can hear a loud “Duh!” coming from your end. No need to be so loud. I am blind, not deaf. I have Daredevil hearing now. Calm down.
First, there is Clare, the namesake of the book. I kept wanting to shake the bitch. She was a Poor, Little Rich Girl, and there was nothing sympathetic about her.
Her mom dies of Ovarian Cancer during the course of the book. My mom also died of Ovarian Cancer. Did this make me want to look on her kindly? Nope. It made me dislike her even more, because she seemed to be using her mother’s death to be even more of a spoiled cunt.
Henry is a legitimate sociopath. I am not exaggerating for affect. One of the couple’s friends comes across Henry beating the ever-loving shit out of a complete stranger, without any legitimate reason. When Henry realizes that his friend is there, he greets his friend and starts talking to him as though he hadn’t been trying to beat someone to death two seconds before.
That is something that a sociopath or a serial killer would do. His friend should not have continued standing there and talking to him like nothing had happened. He should have been running to the nearest police station to make a report (and to get the dude who was beaten some help). The fact that it happened, and it was immediately ignored (like it wasn’t anything shocking or disgusting) was not only problematic for Henry as a character, but also, problematic for the author and the story itself.
The fact that the event is treated as though it is not a big deal, and it’s never referred to again, is fucking troubling. It gives the impression that the author is completely fine with this kind of behavior and doesn’t think that it needs to be addressed as a Red Flag.
Go ahead, kids, beat the fuck out of a complete stranger for imagined insults.
Homies, completely ignore seeing someone you know attempt to stomp someone to death. Snitches get stitches, am I right?
There is a definite sense of grooming that occurs through the book. Henry keeps coming across Clare when she is a child, and she “falls in love” with him because of her experiences with him from when she was a child.
This is also not addressed. It is treated as though this is something romantic (you know, like Twilight), and we should all want a sociopath grooming us into believing that we are in Love with them. There is nothing said about the fact that a grown ass man keeps going back to this little girl, so he can “get her help.”
Kids, adult strangers never need your help. You fucking get an adult you know to help you.
There is also a character in the story that is a racist cliché, and it is super offensive. She helped to take care of Henry when he was a kid, and he goes to see her when he’s an adult, but the character is written with a thick Asian “accent,” that I can only imagine as this white woman putting on Yellow Face to create.
There was literally no need to “accent” her dialogue, and especially no need to make it as thick as it was. every word of her dialogue is something that will make you cringe until your teeth crack.
I do know someone who enjoys this book, and I could not understand why it was appealing to her. I kept wanting to throw the book across the room, and I only ended up finishing it out of spite.