Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Genocide'
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
64 reviews
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Abandonment
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.
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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Violence
Minor: Body horror, Genocide, Torture, Blood, and Murder
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Blood, Murder, and War
Minor: Genocide, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Abandonment, and Alcohol
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and War
Moderate: Body horror and Torture
Minor: Self harm
mustnotblink's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.0
If you are a sci-fi fan with any interest in romance then I would recommend this book in a heartbeat. The world that El-Mohtar and Gladstone built is ever changing as Red & Blue make their travels through time and space.
It changes so often and quickly that it can be confusing but even as the changes are confusing the settings are always beautifully described and elaborate.
I am a sucker for some good old letter writing and the increasingly elaborate ways these letters are written, delivered, & cherished are delightfully imaginative. Amid all the changing landscapes these letters & the women behind them are the solid backbone that keeps you reading until the next letter and then the next.
The twisting of Red & Blue's timelines-jumps, stops, twists, and double-passes kept me captivated and had me crying more than once. It is the kind of love story I would love to read a thousand more of.
More than anything I am left with the hope that they received their happy ending.
It changes so often and quickly that it can be confusing but even as the changes are confusing the settings are always beautifully described and elaborate.
I am a sucker for some good old letter writing and the increasingly elaborate ways these letters are written, delivered, & cherished are delightfully imaginative. Amid all the changing landscapes these letters & the women behind them are the solid backbone that keeps you reading until the next letter and then the next.
The twisting of Red & Blue's timelines-jumps, stops, twists, and double-passes kept me captivated and had me crying more than once. It is the kind of love story I would love to read a thousand more of.
More than anything I am left with the hope that they received their happy ending.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
madamenovelist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
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? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail
miaaa_lenaaa's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
stop im obsessed
the entire concept of this was perfection
the writing was urgh *chefs kiss*
<<<SPOILERS>>>
the only reason it wasnt 5 stars was i felt they fell a little fast
'When red wins, she stands alone.'
'Killing gets easier with practice, in mechanics and technique. Having killed never does, for Red. Her fellow agents do not feel the same, or they hide it better.'
'to the braided future.'
'It amuses Blue to no end that, in disabling their temple, in mounting this attack, she has, herself, performed an act of devotion to their God.'
'Do you sleep, Red, or dream?'
'Tell me something true, or tell me nothing at all.'
'Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.'
'I consulted the literature on scents and wax seals.'
'There's a kind of time travel in letters, isn't there?'
'Instead, she stirs the spoon, empty into the tea, and watches the leaves unclump, swirl, spindle into letters. Each rotation is slow, and she marks paragraph breaks with small sips; every sip undoes the letters until she swirls them into meaning again.'
'It feels harder to write than it should. It feels easier to write than it should, as well. I'm contradicting myself.'
'Adventure works in any strand- it calls to those who care more for living than for their lives.'
'I have been birds and branches. I have been bees and wolves. I have been ether flooding the void between stars, tangling their breath into networks of song. I have been fish and plankton and humus, and all these have been me. But while I've been enmeshed in this wholeness- they are not the whole of me.'
'She collects blues and keeps them'
'I keep turning away from speaking of your letter. I feel- to speak of it would be to be to contain what it did to me, to make it small. I don't want to do that.'
'To wander in the woods and think of birds and trees and colours is expected of her, is mission critical.'
'I imagine you reaching over my shoulder to correct my hand on a victims throat.'
'hints of ozone and burnt maple.'
'And we'll run again, the two of us, upthread and down, firefighter and firestarter, two predators inly sated by each others words.'
'There was, I am sure, a time I did not know you. Or did I dream that me, as I've so often dreamed you?'
'my prose purples.'
'I want flowers from Cephalus and diamonds from Neptune, and I want to scorch the thousand earths between us and see what blooms from the ash.'
'I want to meet you in every place I have loved.'
'She has won, which is not an unfamiliar feeling. She is happy, which is.'
'"We're on the brink of something" "Brinks," Garden says, with casual fondness, "are traditionally stepped back from" "They are also fine places over which to tip one's enemies," says Blue. "Traditionally."'
'I have been made a weapon, and they have plunged me into your heart.'
'how can there be more when this is done? But it will never end- that's the answer. There is always us.'
'Cities bloom and decay around her. Stars die continents shift. Everything starts, everything fails.'
'Take care by yew berry, my wild cherry, my foxglove.'
'Even an immortal can only ride the circle line so long.'
'Sometimes you have to hold a person, though they'll mistake embrace for strangulation.'
'toward the home she has betrayed, toward safety that is no longer safe.'
'I died by my own hand, and was raised by yours.'
the entire concept of this was perfection
the writing was urgh *chefs kiss*
<<<SPOILERS>>>
the only reason it wasnt 5 stars was i felt they fell a little fast
'When red wins, she stands alone.'
'Killing gets easier with practice, in mechanics and technique. Having killed never does, for Red. Her fellow agents do not feel the same, or they hide it better.'
'to the braided future.'
'It amuses Blue to no end that, in disabling their temple, in mounting this attack, she has, herself, performed an act of devotion to their God.'
'Do you sleep, Red, or dream?'
'Tell me something true, or tell me nothing at all.'
'Some days Blue wonders why anyone ever bothered making numbers so small; other days she supposes even infinity needs to start somewhere.'
'I consulted the literature on scents and wax seals.'
'There's a kind of time travel in letters, isn't there?'
'Instead, she stirs the spoon, empty into the tea, and watches the leaves unclump, swirl, spindle into letters. Each rotation is slow, and she marks paragraph breaks with small sips; every sip undoes the letters until she swirls them into meaning again.'
'It feels harder to write than it should. It feels easier to write than it should, as well. I'm contradicting myself.'
'Adventure works in any strand- it calls to those who care more for living than for their lives.'
'I have been birds and branches. I have been bees and wolves. I have been ether flooding the void between stars, tangling their breath into networks of song. I have been fish and plankton and humus, and all these have been me. But while I've been enmeshed in this wholeness- they are not the whole of me.'
'She collects blues and keeps them'
'I keep turning away from speaking of your letter. I feel- to speak of it would be to be to contain what it did to me, to make it small. I don't want to do that.'
'To wander in the woods and think of birds and trees and colours is expected of her, is mission critical.'
'I imagine you reaching over my shoulder to correct my hand on a victims throat.'
'hints of ozone and burnt maple.'
'And we'll run again, the two of us, upthread and down, firefighter and firestarter, two predators inly sated by each others words.'
'There was, I am sure, a time I did not know you. Or did I dream that me, as I've so often dreamed you?'
'my prose purples.'
'I want flowers from Cephalus and diamonds from Neptune, and I want to scorch the thousand earths between us and see what blooms from the ash.'
'I want to meet you in every place I have loved.'
'She has won, which is not an unfamiliar feeling. She is happy, which is.'
'"We're on the brink of something" "Brinks," Garden says, with casual fondness, "are traditionally stepped back from" "They are also fine places over which to tip one's enemies," says Blue. "Traditionally."'
'I have been made a weapon, and they have plunged me into your heart.'
'how can there be more when this is done? But it will never end- that's the answer. There is always us.'
'Cities bloom and decay around her. Stars die continents shift. Everything starts, everything fails.'
'Take care by yew berry, my wild cherry, my foxglove.'
'Even an immortal can only ride the circle line so long.'
'Sometimes you have to hold a person, though they'll mistake embrace for strangulation.'
'toward the home she has betrayed, toward safety that is no longer safe.'
'I died by my own hand, and was raised by yours.'
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War
bectothebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-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
5.0
A beautiful Sapphic love story. Sci-fi Romeo & Juliet vibes. Immaculate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Drug use and Medical content
mayab1226's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.75
God…I’M EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED.
This wasn’t the kind of book I could idly flip through at a train station—it took mental & emotional investment to parse out El-Mohtar and Gladstone’s flowery language and puzzle out the world they’d built. It took me a while to understand the Agency, the Garden, and how the Time War worked. In fact, in my opinion, it warrants at least a reread or two. But the investment I put in was so worth it—Red & Blue’s growing romance and feelings for each other, their increasing desperation, absolutely pulled me into the world of the novel and, by the end, had sent me on a full-on emotional roller coaster.
The authors weave language beautifully to show the ravages of the Time War (without disclosing too many specifics—this is much more literary than hard sci-fi) and how two agents on opposing sides of the war from backgrounds that couldn’t be more different—Red, a technologically-enhanced not-quite-human working for a collective Agency; Blue, the growth of a Garden whose workers implant themselves seamlessly into the braids of Time— satiate their hunger for connection in an uncaring universe through each other. Red and Blue’s voices and respective backgrounds are just different enough to make them unique (although I’ll admit I often had to remind myself who was narrating/writing when I began the book), but just similar enough to show how the two of them are really more alike than they are different.
As one review pointed out, I also liked how this book subtly set up a female-centric world: the ways in which Red & Blue occupy gender are many and complex, but both are referred to as she/her, and as the book progresses, nearly everyone/everything else is as well: the Commandant, the Garden, even—at one point—the concept of God Herself. It was refreshing to see, and a fantastic subversion of patriarchal, heteronormative ideals (if you’ll allow me to get liberal-college-student jargon-y for a moment).
Like The Night Circus, I predict that the parts of this book that will stick with me won’t be the plot or details of its worldbuilding so much as the feeling—a vague memory of beautiful, evocative prose and many, many emotions.
This wasn’t the kind of book I could idly flip through at a train station—it took mental & emotional investment to parse out El-Mohtar and Gladstone’s flowery language and puzzle out the world they’d built. It took me a while to understand the Agency, the Garden, and how the Time War worked. In fact, in my opinion, it warrants at least a reread or two. But the investment I put in was so worth it—Red & Blue’s growing romance and feelings for each other, their increasing desperation, absolutely pulled me into the world of the novel and, by the end, had sent me on a full-on emotional roller coaster.
The authors weave language beautifully to show the ravages of the Time War (without disclosing too many specifics—this is much more literary than hard sci-fi) and how two agents on opposing sides of the war from backgrounds that couldn’t be more different—Red, a technologically-enhanced not-quite-human working for a collective Agency; Blue, the growth of a Garden whose workers implant themselves seamlessly into the braids of Time— satiate their hunger for connection in an uncaring universe through each other. Red and Blue’s voices and respective backgrounds are just different enough to make them unique (although I’ll admit I often had to remind myself who was narrating/writing when I began the book), but just similar enough to show how the two of them are really more alike than they are different.
As one review pointed out, I also liked how this book subtly set up a female-centric world: the ways in which Red & Blue occupy gender are many and complex, but both are referred to as she/her, and as the book progresses, nearly everyone/everything else is as well: the Commandant, the Garden, even—at one point—the concept of God Herself. It was refreshing to see, and a fantastic subversion of patriarchal, heteronormative ideals (if you’ll allow me to get liberal-college-student jargon-y for a moment).
Like The Night Circus, I predict that the parts of this book that will stick with me won’t be the plot or details of its worldbuilding so much as the feeling—a vague memory of beautiful, evocative prose and many, many emotions.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and War
Moderate: Genocide and Blood
alyxinthestars's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Murder, and War