Book Review: The Time Traveler's Wife

I've been talking about this book for a couple months now- You can tell I thought it was good because a. I kept bringing it up in other posts and b. I took more than 48 hours to read it. When I think a book is decent but not great I'll usually just read in as short a time as possible to get it out of the way and move on to other, better books. When I find a book I think is going to be wonderful, I savor it. I will want to keep reading, but I will put the book down and wait a couple days so that I can be a part of the imaginary world for longer.

I finally did finish The Time Traveler's Wife over winter vacay while in Mexico. At the time, I was riding a large tour bus through the jungle from Puerto Vallarta to Chacala with about 40 middle aged hippies and my family. I only had about 20 pages to read on the hour long bus ride, but I had to keep stopping after every couple paragraphs to stare out the window and will myself not to cry, because not only was I so touched by the ending, I was devastated that only 20 pages separated me from the end of my relationship with this book.

Do you think I'm a crazy person yet? lol

Anyways, I actually did a very good job and didn't cry at all (although it took me like 45 minutes to read the end), up until the very end, when my sis turned to me and asked if I finished it, and if it was good, and a couple tears leaked out.

And then she had to ask if I was crying, and that just made me burst into tears.

So close.

Anyways, I cleaned myself up and as far as I know no one else on the bus noticed... although I felt like a spotlight was shining right on me :)

Onto the book review, though.

I really did love this book. I saw the movie first, and I loved that, so my opinions are probably biased, but whatever. Most people who read the book first and the saw the movie said that the movie wasn't very good, and didn't hold a candle to the book. Since I saw the movie first and loved it, it just made the book seem even better. I already had a relationship with the characters I was reading about. I already kind of knew what was in store for them. It made all the extra details really stand out.

I will say that this book is probably not for everyone. It is a romantic novel. The plot revolves around one star-crossed but beautiful relationship. There's a little bit of sci-fi thrown in there. If that doesn't sound like your cup of tea, you're better off skipping this one or just watching the movie.

Here's a quick plot synopsis:

Henry DeTamble is a 28 year old Chicago librarian who suffers from a genetic disease which causes him to involuntarily travel through time. Clare Abshire is a 20 years old artist who has known Henry since she was 6 years old, when he first materialized in the meadow where she used to play.
Henry made frequent visits to the meadow up until Clare was 18, but when Clare and Henry meet in Henry's library, it is the first time they have ever been face-to-face in the present moment. Henry has absolutely no idea who Clare is, but Clare has been in love with Henry for many years.

The novel follows their relationship as the two get married, try to have a child, and deal with Henry's unfortunate and unpredictable condition. The novel switches between Henry and Clare's perspectives, and jumps around through time to include all of Henry's journeys to the past and future as well as all the important present moments.

I loved this book because Audrey Niffenegger, the author, did a wonderful job of devolping the two main characters. They both have so much depth, to the point that when I was done with the book I felt like I was losing two close friends. I wanted to keep on living in their story.

My only issue was that I wished for a little bit more in some areas, primarily at the end of the book. The ending felt a tad rushed, and although it did bring tears to my eyes, it left me with unanswered questions. It's one of those endings that leaves a lot to one's imagination, which can often be a very good thing, but can also be frustrating. I usually want to know what the author thinks would happen next instead of making up something on my own. I understand why people elect to use these endings (like the ending to Inception), but I'm usually more satisfied when I know that all loose end have been tied up and I know everything there is to know.

Even so, the ending is still very touching and I still deeply enjoyed this book. If you like romance novels and the concept of time travel (which I really, really, do) then pick this one up. I doubt you will be disappointed.

Next up is Eat, Pray, Love. I've already read quite a bit of it and I really enjoy it. A review will be up in the next couple of months!

Looking For Alaska

Hey guys, so I actually finished Looking for Alaska on Wednesday but I hadn't gotten around to reviewing it until now. Like I predicted, it had the tell-tale signs of a teen fiction- the characters are all 16, they're just figuring out alcohol and sexual attraction, and the chapters (although they aren't really chapters in this book I guess) are nice and short. Unlike It's Kind of a Funny Story, though, this book had plot! and character development! and some nice, potent, teenage angst.

Looking for Alaska is divided into two parts. 133 pages of before and 84 pages after. In the middle is an event that dramatically changes the lives of the characters and (obviously) is very much central to the plot.

And while the plot is interesting, I found the beauty and intricacy of the writing and planning that went into the novel even more captivating. As with many great books, when you look at just the storyline alone, the book seems almost absurdly simple. It is the additional material- the character development, the dialogues, the thoughtful narration, the well-placed droppings of foreshadowing and symbolism that make the book a piece of art. John Green did an exceptional job with this in Looking for Alaksa, especially since it is his first novel (he has written a couple others since).

The story follows Miles Halter, a 16 year old boy who decides to follow in his father's footsteps and move to Culver Creek Boarding School in Alabama. He makes friends with his roommate- a short but built boy named Chip (although he goes by The Colonel) and a sometimes moody and often reckless (but incredible) girl named Alaska. Alaska seems a bit old for her age, chain-smoking cigarettes, downing bottles of strawberry wine bought with a fake id, and reading melancholy books which question the meaning of life. Miles falls for her almost instantly, and the novel carries on from there, documenting the 3 student's activities, traumas, and adventures over the course of the year.

It's a short read, but a good one. It definitely appeals to a broader age range than It's Kind of a Funny Story did. I don't know if I would recommend it to anyone older than myself to read, but I enjoyed it and I consider myself to be more mature than a lot of my peers (at least the ones I see walking around campus discussing their latest wine cooler/frat boy/dance party debacle and wearing wildcats T-shirts cut to reveal as much skin as possible without showing enough to get arrested), so who knows. Maybe someone older could read it :)

Like I said before, it was mostly the writing that grabbed my attention. Margaret told me to highlight anything I particularly liked (several who had read this copy before me had done so as well), and while the whole 36 hours I was reading it I didn't have a highlighter on hand, I did find several passages that I enjoyed. I'll only share one, for the sake of time, and also because it's the one I first stumbled upon on the computer (it was just a blank page with this quote and the name of the author and the book at the end) which prompted me to ask Margaret if I could borrow her copy all those months ago.

"Just like that. From a hundred miles an hour to asleep in a nanosecond. I wanted so badly to lie down next to her on the couch, to wrap my arms around her and sleep. Not fuck, like in those movies. Not even have sex. Just sleep together, in the most innocent sense of the phrase. But I lacked the courage and she had a boyfriend and I was gawky and she was gorgeous and I was hopelessly boring and she was endlessly fascinating. So I walked back to my room and collapsed on the bottom bunk, thinking that if people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane"

(sometimes I think about how writers think when they are in the process of writing a book. And while I love that last line, I can just see John Green coming up with it really early in the writing process, or maybe even before he thought of the book, and loving it and waiting for the perfect moment to slip it in. I mean, c'mon. It rhymes!)

Anyways, overall 4 stars. Maybe 4.5. I liked it a lot, but I've pretty much lost my taste for high school literature because I'm no longer in high school and I'm finding it more difficult to relate to the characters. It was the writing and some of the brilliant quotes that are spread throughout the book that really got me. I would recommend this to anyone above the age of 11 and under the age of 22, depending on reading level and maturity.

In other news, the day after I finished this I got The Time Traveler's Wife!!!

I've read 107 of its glorious 536 pages and I'm absolutely in love with it. Excellent writing, captivating story, amazing characters, and really interesting style. I already dread the day that I will finish it and at the same time I can't seem to put it down... I just want to stay in the little world it creates for hours on end.

I look forward to reviewing it for you guys in a few days! Hoping your weekend has been lovely <3

It's Kind of a Funny Story

So I posted yesterday about how I had just picked up a new book, It's Kind of a Funny Story. And then I finished it at 3 am last night. I have mixed things to say about it.

Obviously it captured my attention because I finished it in two days... but it was also incredibly easy reading and had a very large font. It's quite clear to me that this book is meant for young teens, probably those who have struggled with stress or depression because it's all about a young boy who gets into a very difficult high school and then finds that it's too much for him and ends up clinically depressed. It wasn't that it was a bad book, just that it was a little below my reading maturity level.

It had some amusing parts to it and for the most part I enjoyed reading it, but I was bummed that there was pretty minimal character development and really not a whole lot of a plot line either. The climax of the book seemed just a little too high-school-drama for me. I do understand that it was based on the author's own experiences though and is supposed to send a message of hope and life, which was evident at the end. Kind of. It was no Rent, though.

Another thing was that I kept looking for the zach galifianakis character that is shown a lot in the trailer. There were a couple people that could possibly be him but no one in particular and that was a disappointment. It also gives me the feeling that the movie version is going to add in a whole lot of plot that was absent from the book. It's rare that I think this, but I'm pretty sure the movie is going to be better than the book.

[Ok, I just watched the trailer again before I put it on this post and now I know who Zach G is supposed to be. He's playing a character named Bobby, which I suspected as I read the book- but instead of Bobby being one of numerous secondary characters, they actually make him an important character in the movie. I wish the book had done that.]

That said, this is not a bad book. It's just definitely more appropriate for early teenagers who are just beginning to deal with real problems, become interested in the opposite sex, and figure out who they really are. If I read this when I was 14, I bet I would have loved it. And I still enjoyed it now, just not as much as I wanted to.

Oh, and the author threw in this 2- page weird almost-sex scene in the last 30 pages of the book that was kind of like a "wait... wtf?" moment, but I forgive because I think he's a young author and somewhat inexperienced in writing novels.

Anyways, I give this book a rating of 3 stars and an overall "meh". I wouldn't recommend it to any of my friends, but I would probably recommend it to a bunch of 9th graders.

Here's the trailer for the movie, which I now want to see even more (to see how those crafty film-makers make it better!)