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A review by spiritwave
This Is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Torture, and War
Minor: Pedophilia
It's extremely difficult to discuss this without spoiling the entire book, but I feel like an explanation for the inclusion of the minor pedophilia warning is needed. As it is both extremely brief but also has a very weird explanation and I just want to get my thoughts out.
So it's eventually revealed that Red and Blue are in a stable time-loop in each others lives. They first encounter each other as adults and they each encounter the other once as children. Blue mentioned that she once became very sick as a child as the result of enemy action and this fundamentally changed something about her. Eventually Red realizes that to save Blue she needs her to take part of herself into her just as Red had taken in a part of Blue. Now Red did this on her end by eating the letters Blue had written her across the time lines. Red realizes they are in a stable time-loop and that she is the one who made Blue sick in the past. After she's been fundamentally changed by taking in so much of Blue via the letters she goes to Blue's home in the past to give her part of herself as she had already done so. The problem is that this involved Red kissing child Blue so that Blue would bite her, draw blood, and then swallow it. I get the context of the why it happened, but it's still an incredibly weird and uncomfortable moment. It definitely could have been handled some other way. So points off for that.