[BOOK REVIEW] This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone

Rating: ★★★★☆ 4.00 stars

Genres: Science Fiction, LGBT

Trigger warnings: war, violence

“Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading. Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future.

Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There's still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.”

─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───

This is How You Lose the Time War is a creative and lyrical love story between two rival agents that spans multiple time periods. Red and Blue are time traveling spies from two rival factions, the Commandment and Garden respectively, that are involved in a time war. They make their way through this time-war-ravaged world to carry out their faction’s wishes and eventually make contact with one another. They exchange letters, and what initially is a game of cat-and-mouse soon turns into something more: love. Red and Blue later face the consequences of their forbidden romance and decide for themselves who is truly worth fighting for.

“I want to meet you in every place I have loved.”

The novel has a very distinct writing style: most of the interactions between the characters take form in the letters they write one another, letters that are laid bare to the reader. The lyrical and poetic writing of the letters are full of Red and Blue’s emotions, longing, desire, survival, and freedom. What I found most interesting about this book is how Gladstone wrote Red’s letters and El-Mohtar wrote Blue’s letters, with either unaware of the content of each other’s letters before writing their response. This unique and innovative approach definitely added much to the emotional response and sincerity laced in Red and Blue’s letters. 

This book is essentially a time travel adventure with some science fiction elements and a beautiful love story, and I love it. I enjoyed much of the lyrical prose that gave way to immersive sensory experiences as well as the emotions of the two female protagonists. I loved seeing the intimacy and trust build between these characters and I found myself screaming and crying over their letters and their eventual confession letters (i might be still crying over them now). Reading this novel brought upon a whirlwind of emotions within me, from confusion to excitement and to shock, I was absolutely immersed in Red and Blue’s letters and their love for one another.

I must note that This is How You Lose the Time War is not a light read. The lyrical (and in my opinion very beautiful) prose can be tackling to read, especially if one is not used to reading works such as this. There are times where the lyricism was difficult to read through and had to be read over a couple of times to understand its meaning. Given its structure, the novel can also sometimes feel repetitive or filler-like (though I didn’t mind that much since I was so invested in the letters themselves). The setting of the novel was also very confusing to me, even after I was 50 pages in. I wished there was better world building to better understand the setting, what Commandment and Garden are, and the nuances of time traveling. But this is just my personal preference, since I realize that this may have been a deliberate choice by the authors to keep most of the world shrouded in mystery to bring more attention to Red and Blue’s letters and their romance.

“Dearest, deepest Blue—

At the end as at the start, and through all the in-betweens, I love you.

Red”

Overall, This is How You Lose the Time War is an innovative, lyrical, and well-written story about forbidden love and time traveling mainly in the form of letters. The letters were fun to read and I became immersed in them and the budding romance between the characters! If you like rivals-to-lovers or lyrical writing, I would definitely recommend this book!

-lian