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bumblemee 's review for:
This Is How You Lose the Time War
by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I am very glad I finished this book instead of DNFing it halfway through. I knew before starting this that I wouldn't be a fan of the writing, since I tend to not like overly "beautiful" writing. But I wanted to read it, because it was one of the first sapphic books I was aware of. So yeah ...
Exactly as predicted, I had a very hard time with the writing style - for the first 50% of the book, I struggled so much to understand what was going on, because the writing made it hard to pinpoint what was happening. I guess this is a me problem and maybe people who don't get confused by too many pretty words have a different experience, but I sometimes felt like I was not intellectual enough to understand this book (was not helped by English not being my native language, but most of the time I have no problem reading in English). It was such a weird experience, because I understood the individual words and sentences, but in sum they didn't explain anything to me.
Somehow that changed halfway through and I started to get things. The second thing that this kind of writing does for me is it keeps me at arm's length from the story. While it might make it more emotional to other readers, for me it just makes it harder to feel for the characters. While I was interested to see how everything developed and what route Red and Blue were going to choose, I didn't connect with their yearning in a way that made me emotional. Still, I got somewhat invested.
And then came the twist and I was like "omg, this is SO well done and clever!!"At first I thought the "seeker" consuming all he letters was the one watching them. But that seemed like such a weird choice, because why would you simply tell the reader that they're in danger this whole time without doing anything with it.. like, it doesn't feel more dangerous with each time it happens, at some point I was like "yeah, I know they're watching them, I don't need the reminder, thank you". And then it all made sense.
I didn't care that a lot of the surrounding world stays very vague - the war, the time travel mechanics etc. This is not the kind of book that wants you to understand its world well, so if you seek that from a story, you might be disappointed.
Exactly as predicted, I had a very hard time with the writing style - for the first 50% of the book, I struggled so much to understand what was going on, because the writing made it hard to pinpoint what was happening. I guess this is a me problem and maybe people who don't get confused by too many pretty words have a different experience, but I sometimes felt like I was not intellectual enough to understand this book (was not helped by English not being my native language, but most of the time I have no problem reading in English). It was such a weird experience, because I understood the individual words and sentences, but in sum they didn't explain anything to me.
Somehow that changed halfway through and I started to get things. The second thing that this kind of writing does for me is it keeps me at arm's length from the story. While it might make it more emotional to other readers, for me it just makes it harder to feel for the characters. While I was interested to see how everything developed and what route Red and Blue were going to choose, I didn't connect with their yearning in a way that made me emotional. Still, I got somewhat invested.
And then came the twist and I was like "omg, this is SO well done and clever!!"
I didn't care that a lot of the surrounding world stays very vague - the war, the time travel mechanics etc. This is not the kind of book that wants you to understand its world well, so if you seek that from a story, you might be disappointed.