This is an expertly woven story. The constant time shifts could easily have made the story difficult to follow, but I was amazed at Ms. Niffenberger's skill at keeping the reader involved and in the moment. I thought about the characters long after I read the last word. ( )

Brilliant!

Here's another original idea of time travel. The story is fresh, humorous and yet sad. This is a love story I never want to end. Magical and dark, moving and bright.

I tend to be really wary of books that everyone says you have to read because it's the best ever. So I avoided picking this one up for quite awhile. I found I was really interested in her second book and I figured I should read the first one first, so I did.

This book was just okay for me. The device (the time traveling guy and his long-term relationship) was really really cool. The way the time traveling was handled and the sort of universal breaking of lots of the established rules about time travel (thou shalt not meet thyself or thine world will end kinda thing) was original and handled with lots of verve. She writes well and I liked how well she established time and place through mention of bands of the time period and clubs and whatnot. I think some people should get over themselves when they complain about "name checking."

Now, on to what mostly didn't work for me - Henry and Clare. How wonderful that they had this great big mythic love. How awful that the author couldn't manage to make me believe in it, mostly because Clare is so poorly written that it is almost impossible to differentiate her from any other random character. I'm okay with the main narrator having the most fully fleshed voice and other characters being, well, less. But if a mythic romance is at the center of your time traveling story both halves of that romance ought to feel real and Clare just doesn't work for me.

Ultimately, there were big chunks of this book that I really enjoyed, but I think the coolest thing about it - the time traveling device - was also its downfall. I'm still interested to read Her Fearful Symmetry (I'm a sucker for a good ghost story) and more interested now that I've read the first book. Niffenegger is a writer with a lot of interesting promise - let's see if she lives up to it. ( )

Touching and poignant. This book made me laugh and cry. ( )

An exceptional story. The interweaving of the timelines just in itself is incredible. But I also found the story line and the telling of the story to be very engaging. A definite page turner. ( )