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4.0 AVERAGE
4.0 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-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:
Yes
Both characters had the same voice to me. And I was just bored.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
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:
Complicated
emotional
inspiring
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
The book began extremely heavy on flowery prose that is, of course, lovely, but almost made me put the book back down immediately.
It took a lot of sifting through words to find and contextualise the wider world and history of the novel, but I suppose that was only background anyways. The real meat was the letters and the slow reveal of intertwined strands from before beginnings.
I do think this book is genuinely beautiful, and I’m glad I gave it a chance even though I felt genuinely annoyed by the beginning and its lack of world building. The open ending sealed the deal for me, to be honest.
It took a lot of sifting through words to find and contextualise the wider world and history of the novel, but I suppose that was only background anyways. The real meat was the letters and the slow reveal of intertwined strands from before beginnings.
I do think this book is genuinely beautiful, and I’m glad I gave it a chance even though I felt genuinely annoyed by the beginning and its lack of world building. The open ending sealed the deal for me, to be honest.
I’m really surprised about the rave reviews for this book. I somewhat enjoyed the last 50 or so pages of this book, when the story contained an actual plot. Up until then, there was barely any plot or effective world building or character development. Despite being written by two authors, I actually had a hard time distinguishing the two characters (and their voices) from each other. I did not buy the love story because I had little sense of who these characters were and thus why they would be interested in each other.
Also, the writing is so drenched in metaphor, literary and historical references, and complex sentence structure (seemingly for its own sake) to the point of pretension. I felt like they really wanted me to know that they have their MFA degrees (I actually have no idea whether either of them do, it’s just the vibe I get).
That being said, it is a very cool idea and I’m glad it’s being adapted for TV because I think it could translate better to a different medium. And I’m glad to hear the authors have stipulated that the queer component is non-negotiable.
Also, the writing is so drenched in metaphor, literary and historical references, and complex sentence structure (seemingly for its own sake) to the point of pretension. I felt like they really wanted me to know that they have their MFA degrees (I actually have no idea whether either of them do, it’s just the vibe I get).
That being said, it is a very cool idea and I’m glad it’s being adapted for TV because I think it could translate better to a different medium. And I’m glad to hear the authors have stipulated that the queer component is non-negotiable.
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I was disappointed by this book. I love time travel and I love lesbians so I thought i would really like it. But I just couldn’t get invested in the characters. I didn’t find them that interesting, I thought they were pretty much the same character twice, just on different sides of the war. I enjoyed the letters they wrote to each other, but found the segments between the letters to be a chore.