Lien reviewed This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar
Beautiful words
5 stars
Beautiful poetry of language. A familiar enough story in a completely refreshing way. Strikingly reminiscent of Sofia Samatar's short stories in its focus of characters' hearts into epistolary confessions, and how the science fiction is not meant to be fully understood. Unlike Samatar, there was maybe less groundedness, lived-in feeling of the world, and connections of the characters. However, Red and Blue's personalities and changing relationship with each other shone through as powerful. There's also a nice rhythm to the book, over all the weirdness: a structure that makes it all flow and unconfusing. The highlight of this was how precise and perfect the poetic language of the book was.