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

challenging emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

2.5

Quite disappointed by this in all honesty. This was really talked up on various corners of the internet, and I went in blind expecting a modern literary science fiction book that would knock my socks off. It leans more literary than science fiction and suffers from a lack of concrete world building. The romantic writing is genuinely beautiful and often moving, yet the world it takes place in feels vague and unbuilt. I understand that the authors are attempting to dilate a romance story in on two characters, but the hints of a broader sci-fi world felt tantalizing rather than functioning as a backdrop for the romance. I also take issue, more generally, with time travel stories and the sort of recursive undoing that has to occur for any sort of resolution to happen. At this point, this one-trick-time-travelers-don't-tell you has been done so many times before that one always sees the twist coming.