ssr book review

During SSR for the 3rd quarter I read a book written by Audrey Niffenegger called The Time Traveler’s Wife. This book is a romance novel mixed heavily with science fiction that has a very well put together plot that is complex and twisted. This book is 536 pages long but because it is so hard to put this book down, the read is much faster. I am not usually one to finish a 300 page book let alone a 500page book in one semester. I actually finished this book before the semester was finished to my surprise. I found this book irresistible and couldn’t wait for the next adventure or plot twist on the page to come.
Now you’re wondering what this book could be about. Well the title gives a little bit away; a 6 year old meets her future husband for the first time in a meadow by her house. The insane thing is Clare is 6 and Henry is in his forties. Henry time travels. Big problems he encounters is that he cannot take anything with him when he travels; so he finds himself randomly in an unknown time stark naked with nothing. Clare and Henry at first have a friendly relationship Henry concealing as much of the future as possible from Clare so that she may live a normal life, all the while knowing that she is his future wife and that someday they will meet in the present. The book goes on to tell how they have continued meetings in the meadow as Clare grows and matures into a teenager. And eventually Clare is no longer in the dark for when she meets Henry in the present that is around her age he is completely clueless of her existence. Their unconventional lifestyle and their undying love through all the many troubles make this book a worthy read. There are many twist and turns that I must leave out in order to not spoil the book but you will be hanging onto every one of the authors words.
This book was set up extremely different from any book I have ever read. The two main characters are Clare and Henry of course. They are the narrators. The author almost makes it like a script telling you who is relaying you a certain part f the story. What I really enjoyed is that a lot of times it would show both characters accounts, thoughts reactions to the same event. It was a very dynamic way to portray a story. And before each new event the author let you know what date and how old each character was. That was very helpful especially since Henry had a tendency to jump around in time sporadically. I really enjoyed the back and forth of who was telling the story and getting all different perspectives. It made the book a lot easier and more enjoyable to read. It also allowed for the reader to not get lost. I feel that if the author had done it any other way many readers would have gotten so lost including myself. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I highly recommend it. I think the audience that would appreciate it would be women that enjoy a love story that isn’t so mushy and more real – even though that is kind of ironic with the whole science fiction time traveling theme.