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A review by emmaisnotavampire
This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
emotional
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? No
3.5
Truly a beautiful writing style to portray an even more beautiful love story, nothing else can be said about that. However, all of the surrounding elements to this lovely romance are so interesting that I can’t help but be a little sad that they are not explored any further!
When I started reading, I was so excited for what seemed to be a forbidden “Romeo and Juliet”-like love set in a world that heavily reminded me of “The Umbrella Academy” and “Loki”, with their agencies working towards preservation of canon events in one or more timelines, except this sounded even cooler, for this once there were two rival agencies fighting for control over… well, that’s the point, we don’t know. We don’t really get to know what their intentions are, how they behave, why, how they came to be, why, what is going on, what the world is like etcetera etcetera. Now, I totally agree that sometimes worldbuilding is not the focus of the story, sometimes it is not needed to know how things are and the reasons behind them, but what a missed opportunity! To have such interesting dynamics already, so mysteriously complex, so unique-sounding, and simply leave them aside. To not tell the reader anything at all.
While I absolutely loved the epistolary romance, one of the most wonderful I have ever read, so sweet and poetic, a way of loving as hyperbolic and extreme as the way I personally love my partner, that made me feel understood and touched my heart despite my non being a romance person at all, I continuously had this thought at the back of my mind that I wanted to know more, I wanted not the feelings, but the intricate plot that I could spot going on underneath them. I kept thinking I wished the book had more pages, the narrative chapters were longer, that more context was given in order to appreciate not the focus of the story itself, which was already perfectly captivating, but its entirety.
However I did undoubtedly really really like the book, loved the twists, the imagery, the genius and creativity behind each letter, each name, each alternative form of writing… it’s just that I spent the whole time wishing for more! Everything I wanted was already there, but out of reach, and the frustration kind of distracted me from simply consuming all of that mere poetic love.
When I started reading, I was so excited for what seemed to be a forbidden “Romeo and Juliet”-like love set in a world that heavily reminded me of “The Umbrella Academy” and “Loki”, with their agencies working towards preservation of canon events in one or more timelines, except this sounded even cooler, for this once there were two rival agencies fighting for control over… well, that’s the point, we don’t know. We don’t really get to know what their intentions are, how they behave, why, how they came to be, why, what is going on, what the world is like etcetera etcetera. Now, I totally agree that sometimes worldbuilding is not the focus of the story, sometimes it is not needed to know how things are and the reasons behind them, but what a missed opportunity! To have such interesting dynamics already, so mysteriously complex, so unique-sounding, and simply leave them aside. To not tell the reader anything at all.
While I absolutely loved the epistolary romance, one of the most wonderful I have ever read, so sweet and poetic, a way of loving as hyperbolic and extreme as the way I personally love my partner, that made me feel understood and touched my heart despite my non being a romance person at all, I continuously had this thought at the back of my mind that I wanted to know more, I wanted not the feelings, but the intricate plot that I could spot going on underneath them. I kept thinking I wished the book had more pages, the narrative chapters were longer, that more context was given in order to appreciate not the focus of the story itself, which was already perfectly captivating, but its entirety.
However I did undoubtedly really really like the book, loved the twists, the imagery, the genius and creativity behind each letter, each name, each alternative form of writing… it’s just that I spent the whole time wishing for more! Everything I wanted was already there, but out of reach, and the frustration kind of distracted me from simply consuming all of that mere poetic love.