Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Así se pierde la guerra del tiempo by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

242 reviews

hoiyan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"If we're to be at war, we might as well entertain one another. Why else did you taunt me at the start?"

each sentence i read i felt my brain melting off chunk by chunk in the best way possible. that was so viscerally beautiful and intriguing and and and WHAT DID I JUST READ???

i found myself struggling to ease into the VERY poetic prose, but i found it easier to digest as i kept going (either understanding or giving up? no one knows). despite not exactly processing everything fully, i really enjoyed reading this. the words were so raw and emotional and it was one part confusing, one part "wait, why are there real tears in my eyes right now?"

the world-building! the amazing descriptions of the two agents travelling through time, space, and... strands. time in this novella is both important and unimportant considering it's not exactly moving in a linear way here. at times, i found myself getting launched into one plot point after another right away, but it all made sense (and added so much more to the story) when you realize it may be to mimic red and blue's strand-jumping. at least that's how i'm choosing to interpret it. 
the moments in-between feel like five seconds, but in reality (or one of the many realities), an entire decade has passed. red and blue spent seconds, then minutes, then hours, years, decades, centuries together in the seemingly brief moment they got to know each other.

"I want to say, now, before you can beat me to it—Red, when I think of this seed in your mouth I imagine having placed it there myself, my fingers on your lips."

i've read others' reviews and the main criticism seems to be the two falling in love too quickly, or the readers failing to pick up why or how they came to love each other.
i took note of some important details when looking at this specific issue — the two, with red explicitly mentioning and blue being implied, have been fighting this (time) war for thousands of years. (spoiler) red having confessed she came into the war to die. she has no one. she has no attachments, no single person who understands her, nothing to lose in this millennia-long war. red's defaulted to an autopilot command up until her encounter with blue's first letter. it's like the world's most weird and twisted meet-cute of some kind... 

"I want to meet you in every place I have loved."

adding onto that, the time between each letter spans months and years. readers fortunately get the luxury of instant gratification, but red and blue breathed and lived so many hours leading up to the next letter from one another. taking red's background into consideration, these letters (most likely) became something for her to live for (also in classic sapphic fashion, they OBVIOUSLY fall in love instantly. i mean what– i mean just kidding– i mean not).
the brief imagery we were given about their younger selves, red being "alone, vulnerable, so impossibly fragile and small," and the small details of blue's

"girlmonster" form.

i thought those were pretty important to consider regardless if it amounted to anything in the end.

adding on, i think it was a really nuanced detail for el-mohtar and gladstone to force the two to communicate via written letters in a world with lush technological advancements. they've got bionic body parts, shape-shifting abilities, immortality, and yet they go back to probably one of the oldeset form of human communication—writing letters.

"But they have sprinkled bits of themselves through time. Ink and ingenuity, flakes of skin on paper, bits of pollen, blood, oil, down, a goose's heart."

the straight up poetry inside the letters made me feel as if my 20 yrs of speaking english meant nothing, but the experience was truly worth it. there's a lot of praise for the awfully romantic prose in the letters, but i wanted to draw attention to the descriptions of each location in between the letters. it painted an amazing atmosphere with rich history from known historical (in their world) locations. i wish the authors had delved more into where each region politically sided with, but i think it would've been an entirely different story. i think it would have added some more depth and reason for this mysterious time war, or maybe that paralleled red and blue's apathy towards the conflict in the first place? or it could've helped ground the setting and subplot (read: the war) a little more outside of the letter exchanges.

"...knotting grass to grackle scold, the smell of leaf mold to sun's azimuth—a tree swallow swoops near, scissors her peripheral vision, severs her from trancing reverie with its dissonance."

all in all, i really enjoyed reading this even if i was taking psychic damage for 70% of it. it took me a while to get through. it's not a book you can sit down for 4 hours and fully digest, i think. lots of great prose and quotes to pull from here, and each sentence you read is just as heartwrenching as the previous as you continue. and the title drop

being the complete opposite to the ending... ough. or is it?

maybe this was a tale to learn from? maybe this wasn't the love story we all interpretted it to be? maybe it can mean whatever you want it to mean. 

"But maybe this is how we win, Red. You and me. This is how we win.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Suicide, Suicide attempt, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, and Torture

dani794's review against another edition

3.5

I feel like if this book wasn't as confusing as it was then I would enjoy it a lot more. I know the book doesn't want to focus too much on the plot of the war, but I wish there was more establishing information so the narrative is more concise.
Their letters of love was really sweet to read and a moment of calm among the madness.
I'm personally not the biggest fan of the ending, it felt like a big stretch, even in a book with time travel lmao.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and War

kaneebli's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and War

Minor: Animal death and Torture

twistykris's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A beautiful novella that tells a love story through letters over time travel. So much of this left my brain feeling like it was melting- I'm not super familiar with reading this genre of like, "poetic, high sci-fi", but the love story was just so captivating to me.

This will definitely require a re-read in the future, so I can really absorb the setting the next time around.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Self harm, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Torture, and War

vhispas's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I loved this book! The ambiance and ideas are so interesting and the prose is so enjoyable! The first thing that gripped me was how language is portrayed. It was so interesting. And it's epistolary which I love!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Torture and War

fr0gsonmushrooms's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This books is now one of my top favorites

If you haven't read it yet don't look too much into it and just dive in.

The beginning was a bit slow because you're being introduced to the characters and their worlds. However, after a bit the book speeds up and it personally put me through an emotional rollercoaster.

I consider it a tad bit predicable but I still loved it and may need to reread just to pick up some of the "breadcrumbs" the authors left throughout the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and War

Moderate: Torture

xta_07's review against another edition

emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This story is something I can only describe as a beautiful fever dream.

The prose are extremely lyrical and deeply felt. I wouldn't say this particularly has a vivid world or mind blowing plot points. But, it's was some of the most beautiful language I've ever read, and incredibly heart-felt. This story is about finding someone that understands you, even if they are on a different side of a multidimensional time-war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Torture and War

spiritwave's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Torture, and War

Minor: Pedophilia

It's extremely difficult to discuss this without spoiling the entire book, but I feel like an explanation for the inclusion of the minor pedophilia warning is needed. As it is both extremely brief but also has a very weird explanation and I just want to get my thoughts out. So it's eventually revealed that Red and Blue are in a stable time-loop in each others lives. They first encounter each other as adults and they each encounter the other once as children. Blue mentioned that she once became very sick as a child as the result of enemy action and this fundamentally changed something about her. Eventually Red realizes that to save Blue she needs her to take part of herself into her just as Red had taken in a part of Blue. Now Red did this on her end by eating the letters Blue had written her across the time lines. Red realizes they are in a stable time-loop and that she is the one who made Blue sick in the past. After she's been fundamentally changed by taking in so much of Blue via the letters she goes to Blue's home in the past to give her part of herself as she had already done so. The problem is that this involved Red kissing child Blue so that Blue would bite her, draw blood, and then swallow it. I get the context of the why it happened, but it's still an incredibly weird and uncomfortable moment. It definitely could have been handled some other way. So points off for that.

joensign's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Torture, Violence, and War

arbitrary_convenience's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I had such high hopes for this book. I’ve been waiting so long to read it. But it didn’t deliver the way I was hoping. 

The story it was trying to tell was great. I love how it tied together at the end. The story itself was so so good. 

The writing is what’s holding it back. Especially in the beginning, the sentences are clunky. They’re choppy and it makes the book a struggle to read. There are parts where the sentences are all very short and staccato. There are parts where the chosen words sound like they’re chosen to sound fancy and sophisticated rather than actually chosen to carry the pint. It’s hard to follow simply because of the word choice. Which is frustrating because the story was so fascinating! 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, and Murder