Katrin B. (mum2gabe) reviewed on 7/1/2010 + 16 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 2

I have to say I really enjoyed this book. From the first page I was hooked and couldn't put it down. I read it in record time and truly didn't want it to end. I loved Henry and found him to be charming, funny, witty, and of course tragic. I thought the story flowed well, and I enjoyed the flip flopping of traveling back and forth in time. Only a handful of times did I get confused and needed to back track to keep on top of dates etc. I enjoyed the love story portion of the book between Henry & Clare but honestly that wasn't my favorite part. For me, the parts where Henry would vanish and end up in weird & exciting places (like naked in the library & especially naked in the cage) and he'd have to scramble to avoid being arrested, or stranded etc was where I got the most enjoyment. Henry was so likeable a character that I found myself sad not to know him in person, in real life. TTTW is an incredibly entertaining & fairly well written, fast paced book that for the most part you will thoroughly enjoy. That being said there were definitely areas that could have been better:

The character development of Kimy, Gomez & Charisse was lacking. I wanted to know more of Kimy. And certainly Gomez had huge holes in development. I picked up early on his feelings for Clare (when all 4 were in the book store together and he looked at her longingly and Clare `chose Henry'). Why didn't the author explain more about his feelings? Why wasn't there more conflict between the dynamics of the group? I find it hard to believe that all 4 were so close when most everyone at one time or another knew of Gomez's desire for Clare?

Henry talks a lot of his angst at having to return and watch and re-watch his mother's death. Not once is this explored in the book, given how often he time travels why do we not get to go and explore this and delve deeper into how this affects him?

The author goes over and over in mind-numbingly boring detail descriptions of a game of pool, how she designed and made wings for Henry, or directions from one street to another. I really had to skip over these parts. These annoyances were not enough for me to rate this book 1 star, the way others have but they were certainly enough of a distraction that they propelled me to skip pages which is something I really don't like to do when reading a book.

Lastly I'm not sure how to explain this part, or put my finger on exactly why I feel this way but the ending was anticlimactic for me. I felt the beginning and middle and of the book was very well thought out, fast paced and kept me wanting more. As the book neared the end (especially the portion where Henry gets thinner, older and is near the end) I found the book was moving too fast and didn't allow the reader the respect or time we deserved. The last few chapters and the end all fit a little too neatly into a perfect box with a perfect ribbon. I wanted to know what Henry was feeling as he was getting older and thinner. What was each time travel experience like in comparison to his previous younger years? How did he feel about having a daughter that had the same issues/problems as him? How did he feel beyond the predictable anger of losing his feet? And how did he feel about his end coming so soon? Why was all this not explored enough? While I enjoyed the book immensely and rank it as one of my top 5 favorites and I would recommend it to anyone who asks, I still feel it wasn't 100% there and given the talent of the author I would have expected a little more effort with these small details.

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