Book #1 of 2016:
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
So much better than I was expecting it to be. I remember seeing a trailer for the movie adaptation way back in the day, which made me think this story was going to be really Nicholas Sparks-y. And it was, to some degree, but it was all-around a really enjoyable read. (Well, actually, a really enjoyable listen. But I decided that I’m no longer going to differentiate between books and audiobooks.)
The author did a good job of un-creepifying the potential consent issues that necessarily arise from a grown man meeting his future wife while she’s still a child – it helps that they’re both meeting out-of-order, like River Song and the Doctor (although yes, I know this book came out before the Library episodes of Doctor Who). Also that the time traveler has no control over where/when he shows up and that changing history is demonstrably impossible in this narrative: if one character has lived through something, nothing can possibly change that even when the other character later goes through it for the first time. The book raised some really interesting philosophical ideas and was more or less a sweet love story.
★★★★☆
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