Trouble // Coldplay
This book is about Clare and Henry, who met Clare when she was 6 and Henry was 36. They married when Clare was 22 and Henry was 30. The reason of this is because Henry suffers from a time travelling condition, where he finds himself suddenly pulled into his past, present or future. He can’t control his time travelling condition or whenever he disappears magically. This causes him and Clare struggle to live normal lives.
I assume everyone has already read the book and seen the film, so spoilers up ahead!
My issue with this book is that there is a lack of character development; the author doesn’t develop the relationship between the two characters and how it grows. You know that thing authors usually write in stories on how people start to fall in love? All I know in this story is that Clare and Henry are ‘meant’ to be together as Henry visits Clare from the future and informs her when she’s about 15 [I think it was] that they are actually married. This makes a young Clare very glad because she was jealous to hear that Henry is married and is happy. So this gives her a reason to not date anyone because it is fate that she will be married to Henry anyway. Problem solved for her then.
I am surprised that Henry manages to keep his job as a Librarian at Newberry in the present, what with his uncontrollable time travelling and appearing naked! It’s strange that when he time travels, he loses his clothes. Why would you lose your clothes if you time travel? Because of this, Henry has to do what he can in order to survive, per se steal, pickpocket, and use self-defense to fight. So this makes him a criminal. Clare is a paper sculpture artist and spends her entire life waiting for Henry. Because there is no character development, I don’t know anything about Clare, apart from her being from a posh background, she loves Henry and that’s about it...so yeah.
In the story, there is a lot of talk about their love of poets’ and writers. There were foreign quotations from a poem that was written in the book, which I don’t even understand [that was helpful, no translation?] I can’t help but think that the author tried to make Henry sound ‘cool’ with his love of punk music, as this was emphasized quite clearly in an annoying way. There was this one scene when Clare and Henry were at a party, then Henry spots these two teenagers looking quite ‘punk’ I presume. Afterwards Clare introduces them to Henry and he is interested in what they are listening to. Why he even cares about what these teenagers who he doesn’t know, is beyond me. I think he wished he could dress like a punk.
The love square; it was by far the most useless thing in this story. It was Henry & Clare, and Charrise & Gomez. It kind of feels like everyone is being chased by one another, almost like a interpretation of Shakespeare’s plays A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Basically, Clare loves Henry, but Gomez is also in love with Clare! When he should really be in love with Charrise, who stays with him [married and had kids] even though she knows that he loves someone else? I wonder how that must make Charrise feel...pretty awful I assume. It’s not a nice feeling. I think the author only added in this storyline to spice things up a little, but it was useless anyhow. The book doesn’t explain why Gomez loves Clare. Where’s the development in that? It’s like random things happen in the book.
The second half of the book gets a little better. The only thing I liked about the book is when Henry travels to the future and meets his 10-year-old daughter called Alba. I thought that was really sweet and I enjoyed reading that part. They struggle to have a baby because of Henry’s condition. Clare miscarried six times, so they decided to stop trying for a baby, but when they made love, the seventh time was a lucky number for them. There’s this nice scene when Clare asks Henry who’s that girl playing with Alba and Henry would reply saying it’s 7-year-old Alba from the future.
So Alba has the same time travelling condition as her father, however, the difference with Alba is that she has the ability to travel wherever she wants and whenever she wants. Whereas Henry can’t control where he travels and when he will disappear. Alba enjoys time travelling because she gets to see her father whenever she wants. The book doesn’t mention if she loses her clothes too, she probably doesn’t.
Towards the end of the book, Henry dies on New Year’s Eve at 43, which was very sad :’( When Clare sorts out Henry’s stuff, she finds a letter by him in which he tells her to not waste her time anymore waiting for him and to live her life. I thought that was really touching. He lets her into a little secret: this isn’t the last; they will meet once again. The book ends nicely with Clare meeting Henry again many years later.
This book is a 2/5 [sorry Audrey Niffenegger]. This story is really not worth a 3 rating, let alone a 4, in my opinion. But it is a little better than Lovely Bones. I guess I don’t blame the author for not having any character development, because this book has lasted 518 pages!
I did wanted to like this book, but it really wasn’t happening. Why this was a bestseller is beyond me. It’s nothing interesting. Overall it was very long, sad and boring. This is actually my third attempt at reading this book. I’m pleased I got to finally finish it because I brought this two years ago. The first attempt, I was bored and wasn’t reading it properly. The second time was the same. The writing just didn’t click with me, nor did the characters.
If you read my long review, thank you ^_^ even though it is a negative review :/ on the more positive side I think the actors for the film was well chosen.
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There’s this book called ’50 Shades of Grey’ by EL James. It was originally a Twilight fanfiction called ‘Master of the Universe’ [I still have the pdf, have not read it yet]. I was actually going to buy the book because I hear good things about the fanfiction, but that was until the read Goodreads’ reviews [most were bad 1 star reviews] and its based around BDSM :/ I don’t like to read about cruel sadistic stories. I think I’ll pass up on that book and maybe the fanfiction altogether.
There must be a good love story on the bookshelf! I just haven’t found it yet. I have been thinking about reading one of Nicholas Sparks’ books because I know he writes beautiful stories. I’m just not a fan of crying whilst reading! I hear his books tend to have that influence. But I want to read a really good and well-written story.
Which Nicholas Sparks book would you recommend? Which would you say is his best book? It would be highly appreciated, thanks :)
This book is about Clare and Henry, who met Clare when she was 6 and Henry was 36. They married when Clare was 22 and Henry was 30. The reason of this is because Henry suffers from a time travelling condition, where he finds himself suddenly pulled into his past, present or future. He can’t control his time travelling condition or whenever he disappears magically. This causes him and Clare struggle to live normal lives.
I assume everyone has already read the book and seen the film, so spoilers up ahead!
My issue with this book is that there is a lack of character development; the author doesn’t develop the relationship between the two characters and how it grows. You know that thing authors usually write in stories on how people start to fall in love? All I know in this story is that Clare and Henry are ‘meant’ to be together as Henry visits Clare from the future and informs her when she’s about 15 [I think it was] that they are actually married. This makes a young Clare very glad because she was jealous to hear that Henry is married and is happy. So this gives her a reason to not date anyone because it is fate that she will be married to Henry anyway. Problem solved for her then.
I am surprised that Henry manages to keep his job as a Librarian at Newberry in the present, what with his uncontrollable time travelling and appearing naked! It’s strange that when he time travels, he loses his clothes. Why would you lose your clothes if you time travel? Because of this, Henry has to do what he can in order to survive, per se steal, pickpocket, and use self-defense to fight. So this makes him a criminal. Clare is a paper sculpture artist and spends her entire life waiting for Henry. Because there is no character development, I don’t know anything about Clare, apart from her being from a posh background, she loves Henry and that’s about it...so yeah.
In the story, there is a lot of talk about their love of poets’ and writers. There were foreign quotations from a poem that was written in the book, which I don’t even understand [that was helpful, no translation?] I can’t help but think that the author tried to make Henry sound ‘cool’ with his love of punk music, as this was emphasized quite clearly in an annoying way. There was this one scene when Clare and Henry were at a party, then Henry spots these two teenagers looking quite ‘punk’ I presume. Afterwards Clare introduces them to Henry and he is interested in what they are listening to. Why he even cares about what these teenagers who he doesn’t know, is beyond me. I think he wished he could dress like a punk.
The love square; it was by far the most useless thing in this story. It was Henry & Clare, and Charrise & Gomez. It kind of feels like everyone is being chased by one another, almost like a interpretation of Shakespeare’s plays A Midsummer’s Night Dream. Basically, Clare loves Henry, but Gomez is also in love with Clare! When he should really be in love with Charrise, who stays with him [married and had kids] even though she knows that he loves someone else? I wonder how that must make Charrise feel...pretty awful I assume. It’s not a nice feeling. I think the author only added in this storyline to spice things up a little, but it was useless anyhow. The book doesn’t explain why Gomez loves Clare. Where’s the development in that? It’s like random things happen in the book.
The second half of the book gets a little better. The only thing I liked about the book is when Henry travels to the future and meets his 10-year-old daughter called Alba. I thought that was really sweet and I enjoyed reading that part. They struggle to have a baby because of Henry’s condition. Clare miscarried six times, so they decided to stop trying for a baby, but when they made love, the seventh time was a lucky number for them. There’s this nice scene when Clare asks Henry who’s that girl playing with Alba and Henry would reply saying it’s 7-year-old Alba from the future.
So Alba has the same time travelling condition as her father, however, the difference with Alba is that she has the ability to travel wherever she wants and whenever she wants. Whereas Henry can’t control where he travels and when he will disappear. Alba enjoys time travelling because she gets to see her father whenever she wants. The book doesn’t mention if she loses her clothes too, she probably doesn’t.
Towards the end of the book, Henry dies on New Year’s Eve at 43, which was very sad :’( When Clare sorts out Henry’s stuff, she finds a letter by him in which he tells her to not waste her time anymore waiting for him and to live her life. I thought that was really touching. He lets her into a little secret: this isn’t the last; they will meet once again. The book ends nicely with Clare meeting Henry again many years later.
This book is a 2/5 [sorry Audrey Niffenegger]. This story is really not worth a 3 rating, let alone a 4, in my opinion. But it is a little better than Lovely Bones. I guess I don’t blame the author for not having any character development, because this book has lasted 518 pages!
I did wanted to like this book, but it really wasn’t happening. Why this was a bestseller is beyond me. It’s nothing interesting. Overall it was very long, sad and boring. This is actually my third attempt at reading this book. I’m pleased I got to finally finish it because I brought this two years ago. The first attempt, I was bored and wasn’t reading it properly. The second time was the same. The writing just didn’t click with me, nor did the characters.
If you read my long review, thank you ^_^ even though it is a negative review :/ on the more positive side I think the actors for the film was well chosen.
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There’s this book called ’50 Shades of Grey’ by EL James. It was originally a Twilight fanfiction called ‘Master of the Universe’ [I still have the pdf, have not read it yet]. I was actually going to buy the book because I hear good things about the fanfiction, but that was until the read Goodreads’ reviews [most were bad 1 star reviews] and its based around BDSM :/ I don’t like to read about cruel sadistic stories. I think I’ll pass up on that book and maybe the fanfiction altogether.
There must be a good love story on the bookshelf! I just haven’t found it yet. I have been thinking about reading one of Nicholas Sparks’ books because I know he writes beautiful stories. I’m just not a fan of crying whilst reading! I hear his books tend to have that influence. But I want to read a really good and well-written story.
Which Nicholas Sparks book would you recommend? Which would you say is his best book? It would be highly appreciated, thanks :)
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