Reviews tagging 'Rape'

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

7 reviews

gabriella_'s review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I’m gonna be honest I found this book kinda pretentious. I don’t like a “learn on the job” approach to lore/world building when I barely have time to get a sense of what the actual setting is - and the mental mindfuck of added details made me feel even more lost at sea.

I loved the letters and the main characters’ dynamic. Some scenes had prose-writing so beautiful it read like poetry. The final quarter of the book had me in its grasp.

This book had a dreamlike quality to it, like a fairy tale. It feels like if 1984 meets Snow White meets Revolutionary Girl Utena meets Camus’ The Stranger. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Body horror, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Murder, Xenophobia, Grief, Pregnancy, Suicide attempt, Torture, War, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

bloodbrooxv's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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

this book opened my third eye, i have nothing else to say

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, War, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Self harm, Rape, Suicide, and Animal death

Representation: wlw romance

wilybooklover's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

5.0

To be honest, I had no idea what was going on for the first half of this book. The world-building just throws you right into the deep-end and never really explains anything. It was actually kind of fun just figuring things out as the story moved along, almost like a mystery. The prose was so lyrical and poetic. The picture it paints of the scenery, of Blue and Red and their infinite love was just... sublime. 

I love you. I love you. I love you. I'll write it in waves. In skies. In my heart. You'll never see, but you will know. I'll be all the poets, I'll kill them all and take each one's place in turn, and every time love's written in all the strands it will be to you. 

At heart, this was a breathtaking epistolary love story set in some futuristic time-travelling version of earth. These heroines live out entire lifetimes just to leave each other a single letter. I hesitate to call it a romance, because there isn’t a HEA as such, but the ending is optimistic. 

I was surprised that Red and Blue had such similar writing styles; given how Red was depicted, I expected a much more ascetic style of prose from her. But then we wouldn’t have had some of the gorgeous lines we got in here, so I can’t complain. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Self harm, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Animal death, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Body horror

Minor: Suicide and Rape

cemeterygay's review

emotional inspiring reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

The biggest highlight of this book is the prose. The book efficiently tells the bulk of the story and the romance as a series of letters that quickly become love letter set to an ongoing war throughout time. The tragedy and romance of this story just come through so clearly and in such a beautifully heart wrenching way. The letters are honestly the highlight of this book. You really feel for both protagonists as what starts as a cat and mouse game quickly becomes a love story that seems doomed to end consumed in flames by a war that is much older and larger than either of our protagonists. It is one of my favorite sci-fi reads and I cannot recommend it enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, War, Gore, Self harm, Gun violence, Violence, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Rape and Suicide

Additional CW: attempted murder, imprisonment, poisoning

solybugs's review

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book has left me speechless for hours after I finished reading it for the first time. It has breathtakingly beautiful writing and descriptive language, along with thought-provoking metaphors, all wrapped up into sapphic love letters that are spread throughout time and space. The words the main characters say to each other will make your heart melt, which makes it hurt even more when this book eventually tears your heart into tiny little pieces... but you will enjoy every second of it. Easy 5/5 stars. I wish I could give it a six.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief and Animal death

Minor: Rape, Blood, Torture, Gore, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Rape and suicide are only mentioned, never experienced or witnessed.

estellejacksons's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Violence, Torture, War, Self harm, and Animal death

Minor: Rape and Suicide

hazel_t23's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Rape and Suicide