Life Out of Order

*Life Out of Order* is Audrey Niffenegger's sequel to her much loved *The Time Traveller's Wife*. Just as in the original book Henry had Chrono-Displacement Disorder, causing him to travel forwards and backwards in time, in the follow-up, his daughter, Alba, and one other character have the same rare Chromosomal abnormality and engage in time travel. Life Out of Order seems to have divided opinion strongly, with average ratings around 3.5 stars on most of the sites I see at the time of writing (late October, 2026), but a good number of high and low readings, with some very negative reviews. I can see why this is, but I love it. I don't think it is quite as good as *The Time Traveller's Wife*, but it is close, and a highly worthy successor in my view. Whereas *The Time Traveller's Wife* is probably best described as a love story set in the context of time travel, and generally a very feel-good book, *Life Out of Order* is much darker, with climate change and oppression as major themes, though it also has a significant love-story component. In fact, I think the first hundred pages or so are darker (or at least, more unrelenting) than later parts of the book (which has over 500 pages)