Time Traveller’s Wife #2 is coming… this is not a drill!!

[toomanyflatwhites]

I know it’s a bit Marmite around here but having loved the Time travellers Wife since I got my hands on an early proof in 2003 (had a publishing contact at the time, sadly I don’t anymore!) and read it regularly ever since, I’ve just found out that after many years the follow up is being published in October - can’t wait!! But… will it be any good? If anyone has any means to get to read an early copy please come and share - otherwise I guess it’s only a few months to wait after literally years! The follow up was originally announced in 2013 but I’ve seen a proof copy on Instagram so I know it really exists this time!
(I did search but couldn’t see another thread but maybe I’m late to the party on this, it’s been a while since I did a search to check!)

Oooh, interesting! Thank you.

I enjoyed it, might well read this. my main worries would be that it could repeat stuff to do with Claire and Henry, whether over the time period of the original novel or afterwards, when we already know the outcomes for the two characters, and / or that there would be equally sad stuff in this one!

Oh, interesting! I'm actually reading TTW right now for the first time in years, off the back of reading The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams.

Intriguing that since time travel forwards was established in the first book, Henry being dead is no barrier to him wandering in to a scene with Alba - we already know that we don't know about every instance of time travel, and we do know that Henry wouldn't have told Clare anything about things that may have happened if in fact he had already interacted with their daughter. The kind of thing that needs a great deal of care in the writing though, when you're dealing with a great big ball of timey-wimey stuff... ;)

I have an ARC and my colleague bought a final proof when at the Women's Prize event in June so it's definitely happening. I've not read it yet but am very excited to do some!!

Thank you - I have just pre-ordered from Amazon.

No way am I putting myself through another one of her books

Omg fantastic! Thanks for the heads up OP!

I adore the TTW and re-read it regularly. I once read another of her books and it was shite though.

Loved that book when it came out, even bought it in hardback which I never do!

This is my worry!! I have read TTW multiple times and adore it, the language feels so poetic and I just loved the story the first time I read it, and at some point I started reading it alternate years at Christmas time. Considering how much I did not love the twin one in Highgate cemetery and how high my expectations are I’m really not sure how the sequel will land with me… but then again I feel like as a bit of a super fan I’ll be happy just to be in their world again even if it’s not great, if that makes any sense?!

I got an advanced copy of this at a book event. I may be one of the only people who didn’t like TTW. I’m hoping to enjoy this more.
I loved her book Her Fearful Symmetry though.

It was on Netgalley, not sure if it still is. I have a copy on my Kindle :)

Oh wow! Didn't know a sequel was coming out. Might have to re-read the original. One of my favourite books but haven't read it for years now!

Thoughts anyone? I've just finished it.

My fairly non-spoilery opinion:

Didn't love it, unfortunately. I re-read TTTW beforehand and adored it all over again. Beautiful love story. ALOOO does not have that same amazing thread of love. I felt it was flitting from one set of characters to another. Also the first quarter felt extremely confusing, trying to work out whether she was referencing something in real life or in an alternative version of the present. I could have paused to look things up but didn't want to interrupt my own flow.

Some things she's extremely melodramatic about as well, like I think at one point Trump's election is described as "the beginning of the end" or similar. I'm as anti trump as the next person, but something like that either needs to be self evidently true or else somehow true or relevant in the context of the book, and it was neither - never gets mentioned again- so I found moments like that confusing.

I did like pretty much all the characters and was pleased that Clare was pretty central, not just Alba. And I was pretty gripped by the end... maybe on a future re-read I'll like it more.

also - spoiler alert

dont read if you don't want the spoiler

ok by the end, there's no one in a traditional straight relationship. As a bisexual woman I've read plenty of gay fiction, but that felt really performative and artificial. Particularly in the context of the book being entirely about the future / what will the future be like / how do we navigate the future, it implied to me that AN was trying to express something about "future" relationships. Which struck an entirely false note with me. Felt like the book equivalent of a teenager being in love for the first time and that self involved belief (that we all have) that no one has ever been in love like that and former generations just cannot understand. Whereas in actual fact, all these concepts have already withstood the test of time and been around for as long as humans- not some futuristic way forward.

interested to hear what everyone else thinks?