I should just give up on popular books
I almost never like them. I don't know if I'm just wired that differently from the general population, or if I'm more critical (likely) or if most readers like it more than they otherwise would because they're riding some sort of zeitgeist that I don't jump on. But most books that are wildly popular, I find somewhere on the spectrum between Bland and Bad.
So, massive spoilers for The Time Traveler's Wife, first 350ish pages.
A very nice lady in my knitting group loaned me this book when the movie came out, because I've been wanting to read it and all 17 of the library's systems copies were checked out.
After this, I am never borrowing books from people again.
Don't get me wrong, it was a very nice thing to do. But if this had been a library book, I would have bailed 50 pages in. Henry's a big huge TOOL who's never thought anything through for himself in his entire life, and Clare's a stupid little girl in a woman's body who's trying to live out a fairy tale.
But, I knew when I gave it back I'd be asked "So what did you think of it?" I'm not one to lie, and I hate to tell someone who liked it enough to loan it to me "I bailed 50 pages in."
So I kept going. Not long after that there starts to be hints that maybe it's going to start heading in the direction I'd like to see. I know it won't get where I want it to go because those sorts of stories don't get published as first novels, become wildly popular, and have movies made of them. But it was getting better.
Well, 350 pages in I am bailing.
Don't get me wrong. The writing is good, the premise is excellent, the story itself is pretty good. But I can not stand any of these characters. Everyone in this story is either an asshole or needs a good swift kick to the head.
What's really killed me is Clare's baby fever.
First, she's desperate to have a baby so she'll have a little miniature Henry to keep her company when real Henry is gone.
*eye roll* Yeah, that's a great reason to have a kid. They'll come out well adjusted.
Next. Now, what I am about to say is not at all to be extended to any real women who experience multiple miscarriages. I am only talking about this one particular impossibly extreme fictional situation.
Clare's husband has a genetic disorder so extreme that it screws up the time stream. This is no secret by this point.
One miscarriage you can dismiss as one of those tragedies that unfortunately can happen to anyone.
Three consecutive miscarriages when you know one of the parents has a severe genetic abnormality, your body is sending a very clear message that "look, I'm sorry, these genes are just too messed up. I can't do anything with this."
But at the same time, when someone emotionally shares that they've gone through three miscarriages, anyone who answers this with "You know, one is an accident; three is carelessness" deserves to be punched in the mouth right that second. As I said, everyone in this book is an asshole.
But it gets worse. After 5 miscarriages, Clare rejects the idea of adoption because it's "cheating" and "pretending". For this she deserves to be kicked in the teeth, to return the favor she's just given to every adopted child and parent out there.
Finally, the doctor who has identified Henry's messed-up genetic code splices it into mice so he can figure out how to cure it. The problem they had was that the mommy mice were either miscarrying, or dying during the pregnancies. Turns out the fetuses were time-traveling outside the womb and back and causing internal bleeding, or else the mouse's body went "These genes are too messed up. I can't do anything with these."
Well, immune suppressing drugs fixed the miscarriage part.
Clare hear's this and immediately goes "OMG, we can use immune suppressing drugs to have a baby!!!1!"
Where do you even start here? Obviously she's missed the "lucky it hasn't killed your ass" part. But also, let's think about some huge ethical implications here. This pretty much confirms that if she does have a baby, it will be a time traveler. Let's ask Henry how spiffy that's been. Oh, wait, it's been miserable, what with seeing his mother's horrific death over and over a few hundred times, and the constant threats to his life as he ends up God knows where/when buck naked, or even just the facts that he can't drive due to the risk of just popping out without warning and that the only reason he's able to hold a job is because the Newberry Library apparently doesn't mind if their librarians run naked through the stacks.
Frankly, I also don't think that these two will be able to raise a time traveling kid to be any less of a tool than Henry is. Probably worse, actually. "Look, you're destined to be a tool. Just embrace it."
Henry's no better. All he thinks about here is that Clare could die. The issues of passing on a huge genetic defect just to make his selfish spoiled brat of a wife happy, never occurs to him.
Oh, and here's another wrinkle. The characters know that Henry stops time traveling at age 43, which is 7 years away in real time. They don't know why. It might be because he was cured, or it might be because he died -- cause the time traveling close to that age was taking on a scary dangerous aspect.
Henry's 8 years older, so at that point Clare will be 35 and you can still have kids at that age without too much trouble. If they have a kid now and Henry dies, then they're leaving the kid without a dad at age 6 or 7. With the advance warning, that's really unfair -- especially if death comes because of the huge genetic defect that they're jumping through hoops to have a kid that will share it. If he's cured, then holding off means they can have a baby either without that huge genetic defect, or with it taken care of before it becomes a problem.
But no, Clare wants her baby Henry Mini-me now now now, dammit. *eye roll*
I give up. I'm giving the book back.
So, massive spoilers for The Time Traveler's Wife, first 350ish pages.
A very nice lady in my knitting group loaned me this book when the movie came out, because I've been wanting to read it and all 17 of the library's systems copies were checked out.
After this, I am never borrowing books from people again.
Don't get me wrong, it was a very nice thing to do. But if this had been a library book, I would have bailed 50 pages in. Henry's a big huge TOOL who's never thought anything through for himself in his entire life, and Clare's a stupid little girl in a woman's body who's trying to live out a fairy tale.
But, I knew when I gave it back I'd be asked "So what did you think of it?" I'm not one to lie, and I hate to tell someone who liked it enough to loan it to me "I bailed 50 pages in."
So I kept going. Not long after that there starts to be hints that maybe it's going to start heading in the direction I'd like to see. I know it won't get where I want it to go because those sorts of stories don't get published as first novels, become wildly popular, and have movies made of them. But it was getting better.
Well, 350 pages in I am bailing.
Don't get me wrong. The writing is good, the premise is excellent, the story itself is pretty good. But I can not stand any of these characters. Everyone in this story is either an asshole or needs a good swift kick to the head.
What's really killed me is Clare's baby fever.
First, she's desperate to have a baby so she'll have a little miniature Henry to keep her company when real Henry is gone.
*eye roll* Yeah, that's a great reason to have a kid. They'll come out well adjusted.
Next. Now, what I am about to say is not at all to be extended to any real women who experience multiple miscarriages. I am only talking about this one particular impossibly extreme fictional situation.
Clare's husband has a genetic disorder so extreme that it screws up the time stream. This is no secret by this point.
One miscarriage you can dismiss as one of those tragedies that unfortunately can happen to anyone.
Three consecutive miscarriages when you know one of the parents has a severe genetic abnormality, your body is sending a very clear message that "look, I'm sorry, these genes are just too messed up. I can't do anything with this."
But at the same time, when someone emotionally shares that they've gone through three miscarriages, anyone who answers this with "You know, one is an accident; three is carelessness" deserves to be punched in the mouth right that second. As I said, everyone in this book is an asshole.
But it gets worse. After 5 miscarriages, Clare rejects the idea of adoption because it's "cheating" and "pretending". For this she deserves to be kicked in the teeth, to return the favor she's just given to every adopted child and parent out there.
Finally, the doctor who has identified Henry's messed-up genetic code splices it into mice so he can figure out how to cure it. The problem they had was that the mommy mice were either miscarrying, or dying during the pregnancies. Turns out the fetuses were time-traveling outside the womb and back and causing internal bleeding, or else the mouse's body went "These genes are too messed up. I can't do anything with these."
Well, immune suppressing drugs fixed the miscarriage part.
Clare hear's this and immediately goes "OMG, we can use immune suppressing drugs to have a baby!!!1!"
Where do you even start here? Obviously she's missed the "lucky it hasn't killed your ass" part. But also, let's think about some huge ethical implications here. This pretty much confirms that if she does have a baby, it will be a time traveler. Let's ask Henry how spiffy that's been. Oh, wait, it's been miserable, what with seeing his mother's horrific death over and over a few hundred times, and the constant threats to his life as he ends up God knows where/when buck naked, or even just the facts that he can't drive due to the risk of just popping out without warning and that the only reason he's able to hold a job is because the Newberry Library apparently doesn't mind if their librarians run naked through the stacks.
Frankly, I also don't think that these two will be able to raise a time traveling kid to be any less of a tool than Henry is. Probably worse, actually. "Look, you're destined to be a tool. Just embrace it."
Henry's no better. All he thinks about here is that Clare could die. The issues of passing on a huge genetic defect just to make his selfish spoiled brat of a wife happy, never occurs to him.
Oh, and here's another wrinkle. The characters know that Henry stops time traveling at age 43, which is 7 years away in real time. They don't know why. It might be because he was cured, or it might be because he died -- cause the time traveling close to that age was taking on a scary dangerous aspect.
Henry's 8 years older, so at that point Clare will be 35 and you can still have kids at that age without too much trouble. If they have a kid now and Henry dies, then they're leaving the kid without a dad at age 6 or 7. With the advance warning, that's really unfair -- especially if death comes because of the huge genetic defect that they're jumping through hoops to have a kid that will share it. If he's cured, then holding off means they can have a baby either without that huge genetic defect, or with it taken care of before it becomes a problem.
But no, Clare wants her baby Henry Mini-me now now now, dammit. *eye roll*
I give up. I'm giving the book back.