Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

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

60 reviews

carbinara's review against another edition

adventurous challenging reflective 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

4.5

Hunger is discussed so often in this book, mostly as a metaphor for wanting. In sticking with this theme, I’d describe the first 100 pages or so of this book to be like a charcuterie board- decadent, but disjointed. The language is beautiful and it allows for development of both he world and the relationship between our characters. However, I found myself wondering if it was only going to be a catalogue of one thwarting the other and leaving a letter in their wake. I knew the plot had to progress but I wasn’t sure how.

Then, the last half of the book would be either a wine or a stew. I’ll say wine, since stew doesn’t really go with charcuterie. Its fast and its ripe with plot, and we finally get both to the height of the plot and the culmination of our characters relationship. It’s still decadent, with the poetic nature of the book shining through, but this is where everything happens. I can’t say I understand it, which I suppose is why I describe it as wine. There’s still a wealth of flavours, of themes and storylines, yet I can’t fully untangle them from one another to figure what’s going on. Still, I get a pretty good idea of the whole picture.

It’s worth adding that I hate wine, I’ve always found it too sour, and I worried the ending would fund itself the same way, especially given the title and the references to Romeo and Juliet. To be honest, I would’ve accepted an ending as such, but I’m glad things turned around.

Overall, I really enjoyed and only docked half a point for the slow start. It makes sense and it worked out in the end, I’m just a bit impatient :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Genocide, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal death, War, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

melodei3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, War, Genocide, and Murder

amre23's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Grief, War, Death, Murder, Animal death, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Medical content, Stalking, Forced institutionalization, Animal cruelty, Gun violence, and Confinement

Minor: Vomit, Colonisation, and Suicide

kenzie_roonie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

Queer and tender sci-fi time-travel romance—a compelling read but at times the universe in which this book operates was a difficult to wrap my head around. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, War, Violence, and Grief

skudiklier's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

Okay, so: hmm. Wow. It took me a while to get into this book--at first, I was only really interested in the letters, and found the lead-up to them kind of boring. But eventually the book got me hooked enough that I was engaged by all of it (though still the letters held almost all the good parts imo). I wrote down a lot of quotes I liked. This book feels like one I would have loved in high school or even just a few years ago, but now I just liked it. It was written beautifully and made me cry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Suicide, Murder, Genocide, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content and Child death

books4em's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This one totally surprised me, and it’s maiming because of the ending. Blue and Red were very interesting characters to read and I don’t think I’ve ever read anything like this book. The writing was a little hard to understand, especially at the beginning. Blue’s parts were easier to comprehend than Red’s except Red’s got more clear as the book went. The last 50-60 pages is where this book shines - it’s full of twists and turns I didn’t quite expect, especially the last one. If this book didn’t have those pages and it ended differently, I’d probably be giving it 2 stars. It’s one of those books that you have to remember every little detail to see how things connect in the ending, but because of how it’s structured with the letters, it’s easy to flip back and find the parts you need clarification on. There are also a chunk of literary and academic references that aren’t the most accessible and I didn’t know quite a few of them. I didn’t quite like how the very last bit of writing leaves you wondering, I kind of wanted something more concrete for Blue and Red, but it does fit the story. Overall, loved it. It made me laugh at points and drove me crazy. Weird and twisty, but full of war and love. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Animal death, Abandonment, Confinement, Grief, and Genocide

gabgeh's review against another edition

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

bigofheartdumbofass's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

1. Prose is beautifully written, truly a joy to read through. Both the third person and first person parts are imaginative and evocative. So many beautiful quotes. I also liked the narrative structure; things are foreshadowed so well.
2. The developing relationship between the main characters is, again, beautiful and so compelling.
3. I love the main theme. This is a story about love, and the theme that

to love is to allow another person into your soul, to become them in some small way just as they become you, to carry them with you forever -- it gets me every time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Blood, Body horror, Genocide, Murder, and Torture

karambit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Murder, Animal death, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Genocide, Self harm, Abandonment, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

honeywine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? No

5.0

This book made me cry more audibly than any other book I’ve read. I finished it in a day. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Death, War, Blood, Gore, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Genocide

Moderate: Body horror and Torture

Minor: Self harm