Line #4 YMMV/TheTimeTravelersWife


1	* EsotericHappyEnding: Alright, so the ending is more bittersweet than flat-out happy given [[spoiler: Henry dies, leaving Clare a widow and Alba without a father]], but Henry makes it clear to Clare that she will see him [[spoiler: one last time when she's an old woman and he time-travels to see her.]] Clinging to this hope, Clare then spends the majority of her life as she's ''already done'' waiting for Henry instead of ever attempting to move on and have a romantic relationship with anyone else. She denies herself possible happiness and the chance to have anyone else be a father figure for Alba purely because this faint hope of seeing Henry eats up decades of her life instead.
2	* GeniusBonus: And just in case you couldn't understand the reference, Niffenegger is happy to spend a few paragraphs explaining.
3	* NightmareFuel: The hunting that results in Henry's death is being done in an area where a very young Clare is near enough to see her future husband (but from years before appearing there to be shot at the end of his life... [[LogicBomb time travel is such a headache]]) talking with her father and brother.
4	* {{Padding}}: The middle third of the book goes into a lot of detail about (1) Henry and Clare's sex life, and (2) Clare's family. You could skip 100 pages in the middle and lose very little in terms of actual plot.
5	* {{Squick}}:
6	** Aside from the ScrewYourself above, the {{Squick}} that will stay with you is the reason given for why Clare has so many miscarriages. [[spoiler: [[FetusTerrible The fetuses]] time travel. When they get back to the present, [[NightmareFuel their aim tends to be off]].]]
7	** There's also the equally 'wonderful' fact that [[spoiler:Henry is ''forty'' when he and Clare have sex for... well, first time for Clare... [[TheirFirstTime their first time]]... Anyway, Clare is ''eighteen'']].
8	*** [[spoiler:He just happened to appear to her on the night of her 18th birthday. And at least she was legal.]]
9	*** [[spoiler:In fairness to Henry, Clare had spent the past two years of her life actively trying to get Henry to take her virginity, to the point of hiding the clothes he wore while in her past.]]
10	* TheWoobie: Henry, Henry, Henry.
11	** Clare. Let's look at her life in detail, shall we? [[DysfunctionJunction VERY dysfunctional family and childhood]], at one point finding her mother after her suicide attempt. Having an unusual and confusing relationship with a man who is very rarely ever there. Teased all through her adolescence for never dating. The one time she DOES try to date someone, she ends up BEATEN, ''BURNED'', and physically and emotionally scarred. She has around ten years of wedded bliss with Henry--which is STILL intercut with his constant comings and goings, and the repercussions of said comings and goings, the miscarriages (at more than one point [[spoiler: finding the fetuses outside her body]]), her wacky homelife and the death of her mother. And then, she has to deal with [[spoiler: her husband dying in her arms and living a life of single motherhood, never getting into another relationship again.]] Ow.
12	** So she spends about three-quarters of her life alone. Ow indeed.
13	** Ingrid. Paired with FridgeLogic (if not FridgeHorror): why doesn't she get over Henry and always desperately hoped to marry him? It is revealed that Alba time-traveled to them when they still were a couple. While Henry in his twenties is totally oblivious who that weird, bare-footed kid who follows him around is, Ingrid is implied to figure it out.
14	** However, given that the girl says she was looking for her daddy, but basically ignores Ingrid, Ingrid eventually figures out the girl isn't hers, which she makes clear to Henry [[spoiler:just before she kills herself right in front of him.]]

Context YMMV / TheTimeTravelersWife