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Reviews tagging 'Torture'
Así se pierde la guerra del tiempo by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
231 reviews
mausekuchen's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
This is one book in a million. Such an unique plot, setting and characters. I don't think I'll ever find something similar overall, but especially in tone as well.
There's nothing I would actually critique on this book. The ranking is due to my difficulties understanding the language of the book. I'd probably need to read this again/in my mother tongue to actually grasp the full complexitiy on all levels of it. Therefore I also lowkey struggled with being committed to reading it.
PS: I would have never thought I'd find such intense, all-consuming love letters in a sci-fi book. Especially written in such a way that I might consider wether I'm actually too cynical for stories with romance focus.
There's nothing I would actually critique on this book. The ranking is due to my difficulties understanding the language of the book. I'd probably need to read this again/in my mother tongue to actually grasp the full complexitiy on all levels of it. Therefore I also lowkey struggled with being committed to reading it.
PS: I would have never thought I'd find such intense, all-consuming love letters in a sci-fi book. Especially written in such a way that I might consider wether I'm actually too cynical for stories with romance focus.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Torture
Moderate: Body horror, Blood, and Medical content
anni_o's review against another edition
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
5.0
I recommend you do not read what this is about before you start.
The style is poetic, beautiful but also a bit confusing at times. This did not hinder me from falling in love with both of them pretty much from the start. The romance hit me with a club from behind (i was the whacked seal), not because I was necessarily surprised by it, I am very familiar with enemies to lovers as a trope, but more because I was stunned how much INTO IT I was. My lesbian darlings, red in blue, blue in red, I- gods.
Anyway.
I adored reading this. Admit to needing the audiobook next to the book because I had difficulty concentrating, but that is probably just me (being non-native english speaking). The audiobook had GREAT voice actors tbh, very well-chosen.
I finished and I wanted to read it again. I cried. I gasped. I was giddy at some of the references.
I recommend if you read this to read it in one sitting, just completely engross yourself in it.
Loved the world, the two mains and how their way of interaction and how they write their letters showed so much about them.
Big recommendation from me, my kinda book, five stars straight up.
The style is poetic, beautiful but also a bit confusing at times. This did not hinder me from falling in love with both of them pretty much from the start. The romance hit me with a club from behind (i was the whacked seal), not because I was necessarily surprised by it, I am very familiar with enemies to lovers as a trope, but more because I was stunned how much INTO IT I was. My lesbian darlings, red in blue, blue in red, I- gods.
Anyway.
I adored reading this. Admit to needing the audiobook next to the book because I had difficulty concentrating, but that is probably just me (being non-native english speaking). The audiobook had GREAT voice actors tbh, very well-chosen.
I finished and I wanted to read it again. I cried. I gasped. I was giddy at some of the references.
I recommend if you read this to read it in one sitting, just completely engross yourself in it.
Loved the world, the two mains and how their way of interaction and how they write their letters showed so much about them.
Big recommendation from me, my kinda book, five stars straight up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Grief, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Confinement
annamercado19's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
Definitely one I look forward to rereading, to discovering new strands in how it all braids and unbraids. So incredibly captivating. I'm amazed at how I have been torn apart and put back together and both feel so encompassing at the same time.
At first, it was hard to follow the leaps through time. It felt scattered. But I think that's part of why the authors chose that, to make the letters be not just our focus, but the characters' as well. That was what wove them together. That is what felt most real to them and what they clung to.
I will likely update this review upon reread.
At first, it was hard to follow the leaps through time. It felt scattered. But I think that's part of why the authors chose that, to make the letters be not just our focus, but the characters' as well. That was what wove them together. That is what felt most real to them and what they clung to.
I will likely update this review upon reread.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Death, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
peppypenguin's review against another edition
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? It's complicated
5.0
Beautiful writing and storytelling. It feels like a fever dream: you have a sense of the key concepts and how the characters and their relationship are developing. I could not, for my life, visualize the time-traveling and how it worked. That’s okay because the mechanics of the time traveling for each character and their factions serve more as a way to distinguish how they move about space and time and interact with the universe. It also forced me to take my time and digest the words on the page, and in turn the story.
This is great as a novella. Because there is so much poetic prose it helps to have the story told in fewer pages, making it move a bit faster.
The letters between the characters are very well planned. You get a sense of their voices, understand their worlds, and watch their relationship bloom. They feel so real, and have so much depth, and seeing how they fall for each other and leave messages across time, as well as how their paths cross throughout the story is fantastically done.
As a lover of science fiction, this hit the right spot. The time traveling and manipulation of events as it’s done by each side was really interesting! The two sides of the war (the different futures fighting to win) are really unique and so vastly different. I love how they are explained just enough to have real depth and thought put into them.
Red and Blue are wonderful characters. You never learn their real names, but that’s the point. They are opposite sides of the same coin, and to see how they start as pure enemies but eventually come together is beautiful. The genre and unique world of the book is used as a tool, masterfully so, to tell their story.
Lovers of romance and/or science fiction should give this a go.
This is great as a novella. Because there is so much poetic prose it helps to have the story told in fewer pages, making it move a bit faster.
The letters between the characters are very well planned. You get a sense of their voices, understand their worlds, and watch their relationship bloom. They feel so real, and have so much depth, and seeing how they fall for each other and leave messages across time, as well as how their paths cross throughout the story is fantastically done.
As a lover of science fiction, this hit the right spot. The time traveling and manipulation of events as it’s done by each side was really interesting! The two sides of the war (the different futures fighting to win) are really unique and so vastly different. I love how they are explained just enough to have real depth and thought put into them.
Red and Blue are wonderful characters. You never learn their real names, but that’s the point. They are opposite sides of the same coin, and to see how they start as pure enemies but eventually come together is beautiful. The genre and unique world of the book is used as a tool, masterfully so, to tell their story.
Lovers of romance and/or science fiction should give this a go.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Torture
mikathereviewer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This was one of my most anticipated books for this month and I am so disappointed.
The following will only be a rant about the book. Nothing good I found except that we got an explanation that "Steganography is hidden writing." and that the ending was interesting.
As always; I respect opinions from others and therefore expect the same to be done to me. If you liked the book, so be it. I don't have anything against your opinion or rating to this book.
First of all the letter beginnings are so weird and cringe sometimes. Especially these references. When I understood it right the 'Dearest Blue-da-ba-dee,' is a reference of this one annoying frog song and we also get other cringe-worthy references like 'Dearest 0000FF' (colour hexcode, you all can't legit call this cute or romantic) and of course our so 'cool' flex with languages 'My dear Miskowaanzhe' which is Anishinaabemowin 'cause of course the author totally speaks that language and didn't translate this on full purpose to sound so 'cool'.
The whole writing was always the same, no matter which character wrote the letter and therefore it was sometimes hard to distinguish the two. Both therefore seemed also flat and we only get trauma dumping in the most inappropriate ways. They both also wrote almost since the beginning like they knew eachother since ages and not like strangers that form a bond over time, which made it unrealistic for me to belive that they later on fell in love.
The writing style was also unbearable to me. It was often poetically written but in either cringe or way to melodramatic ways.
Examples
1. ‘Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out?
Sometimes I think that’s what I have instead of friends.’
2. ‘I have been birds and branches. I have been bees and wolves. I have been ether flooding the void between stars, tangling their breath into networks of song. I have been fish and plankton and humus, and all these have been me.’
3. ‘I want to be a body for you.
I want to chase you, find you, I want to be eluded and teased and adored; I want to be defeated and victorious—I want you to cut me, sharpen me.’
I also never understood or rather we never got told what kind of creatures they both are. Even though it's science fiction, we barely get any of it. And we get almost no other explanations like how certain things worked like the ways with the MRI machine and stuff as that was their way of sending letter without being caught.
If the writing style would have been different and we would have got more explanations of things I might would have enjoyed the book more. But the whole book felt like a sketch that wasn't supposed to be published yet.
Wasn't for me, but perhaps someone else would like this story and its characters.
July 17, 2024
The following will only be a rant about the book. Nothing good I found except that we got an explanation that "Steganography is hidden writing." and that the ending was interesting.
As always; I respect opinions from others and therefore expect the same to be done to me. If you liked the book, so be it. I don't have anything against your opinion or rating to this book.
First of all the letter beginnings are so weird and cringe sometimes. Especially these references. When I understood it right the 'Dearest Blue-da-ba-dee,' is a reference of this one annoying frog song and we also get other cringe-worthy references like 'Dearest 0000FF' (colour hexcode, you all can't legit call this cute or romantic) and of course our so 'cool' flex with languages 'My dear Miskowaanzhe' which is Anishinaabemowin 'cause of course the author totally speaks that language and didn't translate this on full purpose to sound so 'cool'.
The whole writing was always the same, no matter which character wrote the letter and therefore it was sometimes hard to distinguish the two. Both therefore seemed also flat and we only get trauma dumping in the most inappropriate ways. They both also wrote almost since the beginning like they knew eachother since ages and not like strangers that form a bond over time, which made it unrealistic for me to belive that they later on fell in love.
The writing style was also unbearable to me. It was often poetically written but in either cringe or way to melodramatic ways.
Examples
1. ‘Have you ever had a hunger that whetted itself on what you fed it, sharpened so keen and bright that it might split you open, break a new thing out?
Sometimes I think that’s what I have instead of friends.’
2. ‘I have been birds and branches. I have been bees and wolves. I have been ether flooding the void between stars, tangling their breath into networks of song. I have been fish and plankton and humus, and all these have been me.’
3. ‘I want to be a body for you.
I want to chase you, find you, I want to be eluded and teased and adored; I want to be defeated and victorious—I want you to cut me, sharpen me.’
I also never understood or rather we never got told what kind of creatures they both are. Even though it's science fiction, we barely get any of it. And we get almost no other explanations like how certain things worked like the ways with the MRI machine and stuff as that was their way of sending letter without being caught.
If the writing style would have been different and we would have got more explanations of things I might would have enjoyed the book more. But the whole book felt like a sketch that wasn't supposed to be published yet.
Wasn't for me, but perhaps someone else would like this story and its characters.
July 17, 2024
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War
Moderate: Suicide, Stalking, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Abandonment
idesofmarch's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Torture and Blood
Minor: Confinement
kastix's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Confinement, Torture, and Blood
roseandivy's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-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? Yes
4.5
Holy shit. This book is so amazing. It took me a second to figure out exactly what was happening in the beginning since the structure is a bit unorthodox, but once I got into the groove of it I was hooked. Red and Blue's love story is so beautiful, and despite how short the book is the romance doesn't feel rushed. The concept of the titular time war was executed very well-- a lot of time-travel media I've consumed either disregards the consequences of the characters' actions entirely, or spends an outsized amount of time explaining what's happening in a way that just makes things more confusing, but this doesn't fall into either trap. I wish we had maybe gotten just a little more background into the factions Red and Blue came from and what was really driving the conflict between them, but with how short the book is, I understand why those things weren't included. I devoured this in less than two days and couldn't put it down. I was reading it on three minute bus rides to the grocery store, under the desk at work, while I was doing dishes-- that's how captivating and tightly executed this is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, and War
Moderate: Torture
itsheyfay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical content, and Abandonment
isaacalaister's review against another edition
dark
emotional
inspiring
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I love this book so damn much. The prose is so beautiful and so funny. Sometimes I would feel totally lost in the settings of each century/dimension, but even that was enjoyable.
I wish I could read this again
The ending is hopeful enough to not give me severe depression por a month.
I wish I could read this again
The ending is hopeful enough to not give me severe depression por a month.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, and War