Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

31 reviews

gabgeh's review

adventurous emotional reflective 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

5.0

A confusingly wonderful, overly-poetic epistolary adventure through a time war. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cursing, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Gore, and Genocide

shoohoob's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Picked this up on a whim. I can genuinely say this is one of the best books I have ever read. I read through most of this book in one sitting, and I can genuinely see myself rereading it again and again. My favorite book that I have read this year by far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Blood, and War

Moderate: Cursing

brnineworms's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

2.5

If you like this book (and I know a lot of people really do), don’t take my disappointment as an indication that you’re wrong to feel the way you do. I’m glad you enjoyed it, but I just didn’t.

Red and Blue make purple, and this prose sure is purple. Every. Single. Sentence. Is trying so hard to be poetic and deep. Metaphors are great and all but this is just too saturated with them to make any real sense. The characters and their relationship didn't feel especially substantive to me. I like the combination of spirituality and science fiction and there’s some neat imagery here and there, but for the most part I found This Is How You Lose the Time War to be a confusing mess and nothing more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Self harm

Moderate: Body horror, Grief, Murder, Suicide, War, Animal death, and Violence

Minor: Gore, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, Stalking, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

ka_ke's review

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

This is How You Lose the Time War is a beautifully lyrical piece of sapphic romance and sci-fi. Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone have truly crafted a masterpiece which pulls the right heart strands (those who have read it will understand). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Violence, Murder, and War

emisbooks's review

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Cursing

aidamaria_reads's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

This Is How You Lose the Time War is such a strange, compelling, brain-breaking and beautiful story. Just like about all other people I’ve seen posting a review about this time travelling tale, I’m pretty sure I might have to reread it (maybe even twice) to be able to grasp all things going on. However, I loved the letters Red and Blue sent each other and the way their connection blossomed over the course of their correspondence. I you like odd, character-driven stories that get you all in your feels, you should give this one a go. I’m giving it a solid ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating and I can only marvel at how the authors managed to piece this all together.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War

deideo's review against another edition

emotional inspiring sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, and Grief

manarnia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

This book had me SCREAMING (good screams) throughout. It was so good and also unique while full of familiar tropes. It rides the line between metaphor and literal SO WELL. I loved it, okay.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Grief, Violence, and War

Moderate: Torture, Murder, and Gore

Minor: Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

cobwebshelves's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

<i>"I like writing you. I like reading you. When I finish your letters, I spend frantic hours in secret composing my replies, pondering ways to send them. I can trigger any combination of chemical ups and down with a carefully worded phrase; a factory within me will smelt any drug I seek. But there's a rush in reading and sencing against which no drug compares."</i>

In all fairness, I went into it already expecting to love it. All this talk of complicated language and niche references and sapphic enemies to lovers. And it truly was perfectly written for me. I get the comments about flowery language — but the language is exactly what drew me into it. The strange worlds of it, the imagery of the war that El Mohtar and Gladstone weave together. I love the puzzle of this world, the little clues, small cracks in the wall that let us catch only a glimpse into the passage of time. I love how vivid the descriptions were, the idioms and metaphors in the letters, the embers that grew into flames between Blue and Red. I'd love to read more from both authors since their style really appealed to me.

This book made me jump on the bed. This book made me cry and scream and love. I tried to savour it as best I could but at the same time I wanted to devour it all at once, and as perfect as it is being a standalone, I wanted more of Red and Blue. For now I'll just have to go back to my favourite passages for them.

tl;dr: not to be dramatic but it's perfect

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Violence, Gore, Death, and Animal death

mothman19's review

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing