Reviews tagging 'Murder'

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

227 reviews

trying_ceratops's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

Wow oh wow did I love this. I didn’t understand what I was reading all the time (hence the .5 taken off) but the romance, the intrigue, the writing, the detail was all so beautiful. 

I would recommend this to most people, but would avoid suggesting it to anyone who isn’t a fan of abstract stories. There’s lots of time travel and while that’s not the plot of the book, as many time traveling books tend to be, I would describe it as the setting of the book. 

I felt very moved by this book and tabbed many lines that made my heart twist or sing. It’s just beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Murder, Violence, and War

Minor: Gore and Blood

grace33's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Torture, and Body horror

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Dysphoria, Gore, Confinement, Animal death, Death, Genocide, Grief, Violence, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and War

violerwolf's review against another edition

challenging mysterious reflective sad 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? No

3.5

This book wasn’t for me. The prose can be so purposefully opaque that it renders parts of the book barely understandable. And while I’m sure that some people enjoy that, personally I think that no matter how cerebral a book is, you should be able to imagine what the characters are doing when the author describes simple actions. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, War, Blood, Death, Murder, Genocide, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Animal death, Child death, Torture, and Grief

taryn_g's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Gore

Moderate: Body horror and Suicide

Minor: Torture

chris_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, War, and Death

Moderate: Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Body horror

Minor: Suicide attempt, Torture, Animal death, Confinement, Genocide, and Murder

rwsmith's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? No

5.0

i read this book after seeing a friend highly recommend it. i didnt realize how short it was. i listened to the audiobook - HIGHLY recommend - but this is one ill need to get a hard copy of for my shelf. the two readers of the audiobook were amazing and gave such interesting personalities to the main characters. im interested to see how differently ill perceive them when i read a physical copy. 
the story is told almost entirely through letters that two time traveling agents write each other. they start as rivals, and slowly lower their guards and begin to fall for each other, trying to keep their relationship a secret. 
i love the implications given when the story is told through their letters this way. the letters are at once straightforward and poetic. the writing of the whole novel is beautiful - tactile and soft and pointed and mysterious at the same time.
i'll definitely be reading this again.  5/5. its only a 4-hour audiobook, only a couple hundred pages. if you have an afternoon, there's no reason not to pick it up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Medical content, Grief, Genocide, Suicide, and Colonisation

han_amey's review

adventurous tense slow-paced

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

2.75

Very confusing writing style which made it hard to get into. Around half way through I actually started enjoying it, but I probably couldn’t actually describe what happened to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, and Violence

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt, War, and Grief

Minor: Stalking, Murder, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Gun violence, Genocide, Colonisation, Abandonment, and Death

pacifickat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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? No

4.25

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

"What we've done will stand, no matter how they weave the world against us."
-Red

This book is well crafted, brutal, and poetic. It also, for the most part, is not what I would have considered my kind of book, and I struggled to read past the first confusing chapters. I was not expecting the literary density and convoluted phrasing of the letters between the two main characters. It felt like work to focus and hold on to the plot. Epistolary works often require a bit of patience. But boy am I glad I stuck with it! This story has a great payoff, even if it leaves a lot unexplained in the worldbuilding and open for the reader to interpret and imagine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

Moderate: Animal death, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Stalking and War

Poisoning, sexual innuendo