Most book reviews just tell you the plot. I want to show you how I envisioned, hear it and would cast it now. This week on Top of the Aixs we reimagine, The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger.

Visual Book Review: The Time Traveler’s Wife

I have read the The Time Traveler’s Wife and seen the 2009 movie a few times. Published in 2003, the book is the science fiction romance novel of your time traveling dreams. We follow Henry, a librarian with an acute rare genetic disorder that causes him to involuntarily time travel and his wife Clare, an artist who has been benefactor and the victim of Henry’s ailment. While the book has moments of joy, immense surprise, and unlikely endings, it always feels to like a long-exposure photograph, or one of my childhood photographs from the late 90s and early 2000s. You’ve got blurry edges, focused in the center, and a deep sense of realness. No fuss, no filters, no AI or skin retouching. Just the truth. Just Clare waiting and Henry appearing through the shadowed trees of the meadow, Just love and longing and just the mystery of coincidences, soulmates and love through time.

I think the book is enchanting it has. A melancholy sentiment with a hopeful reminder that love is timeless. Love comes in unexpected ways and love can also be incredibly cruel. I think the reading style of the book is fun to.The time travel is never spectacle. It shows absence, the weight of waiting, the fragile miracle of reunion. Henry disappearing is loving someone who is always slipping through your fingers. Clare’s waiting isn’t weakness; it’s devotion stretched across decades and really the only consistency of their lives together. The meadow, the library, the snow, the wind through the trees, the music, the singing set the scene and they hold the emotion of the characters most formative moments. We see everything from Clare's life with out Henry, and vice versa. The loss of a parent and its profound effects on a young child. The fear of who you are also being the one thing that saved you and how love can feel predestined and unfair at the same time. I'd give this non-linear structured story a 4.2/5 stars and I read it every few years to remind myself of the magic.

The Mood Board

Colors: Newberry Library gold, Chicago pavement grey, strawberry blonde hair, and desaturated green of a 1970s meadow

Textures: Dewy damp grass, and the rough wool of a stolen coat, and snow.

Sound: Strings of violins and operatic singing, laughter, melancholy melodies, and the wind.

Favorite Songs: To be read along to while sitting by your window with tea as you open your book to enter the meadow and wait for Henry.

• Build a Home: The Cinematic Orchestra- played while Alba is being born
• Invisible String: Taylor Swift – Clare and Henry’s cosmic, unexplainable bond
• On the Nature of Daylight: Max Richter - Clare moving through life waiting for Henry to return and Henry trying o get back.
• Bloom: Paper Kites- Clare running to the meadow and meeting henry for the first time
• First Day of My Life: Bright Eyes – Claire and Henry reuniting in the library 5 years later.
• Daydream Believer: The Monkees- Henry and Clare living happily together.

Here's a full playlist to read along to.



The 2026 Dream Cast: (Even though the 2009 Movie is PERFECT)

Top 3 for Clare Abshire:

Sadie Sink ( Stranger Things, The Whale)

Cailee Spaeny (Priscilla)

Chase Infiniti ( One Battle After Another)

Top 3 for Henry DeTamble:

Dylan O Brien ( Teen Wolf, The First Time)

Max Minghella ( The Handmaid's Tale)

Mamoudou Athie (Archive81)

All of these actors in my opinion have given memorable performances and captivate in a way that stands out, but haven't necessarily broken the ceiling of household names yet. However, If I had to pick my top 2 I would choose...

Chase Infiniti and Dylan O Brien.

 My first impression of Chase was her recent film, One Battle After Another. With the powerhouse of Leo and Sean Penn I believe she stole the movie. Her eyes were the performance. Her genuine fear and her quiet, loud, and fighting spirit in my opinion carried the film. I think she could play the intricacies of Clare's love and heartbreak so beautifully.  I secondly choose Dylan O'Brien because since his Teen Wolf days I've been mesmerized. He is funny and a clear comedic genius. He also play someone who is a believable to 20, and 40 the next. Most importantly, he is an  incredibly present actor. There's a scene in Teen Wolf where his best friend is at a very low point. His lines are, " Scott, you are my best friend, okay I need you. Scott you are my brother".  It was heartbreaking and over 10 years later it still pops into my head because it is one of the few times I've completely 100% believed an actor. There's always a little bit of doubt, but not in that scene.

I think they both have great stillness, a deep ability to show longing and vulnerability which is the only way a remake of the 2009 movie could ever touch the perfect work of Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana

SOOOOO after all that I hope you read it. Linked at the top!