This Is How You Lose the Time War Paperback – March 17, 2020

I don’t even know where to begin? This might actually be a very thorough review and not my usual short snippets. This book has altered my brain chemistry. The book is about 200 pages and I did it on audio but finished it on my kindle & audio together. I also already bought the physical because I want to reread it. I can’t explain how deeply intricate and beautiful this story was. It is poetic and lyrical. The world building and plot are both amazing but it goes beyond that…. It’s about a feeling. The feelings this book give you are so powerful. I definitely think it’s a book that as I read it more, I’d likely find more things to love about it.The best way to describe this without giving away too much is that it is a sci-fi sapphic romance. It has time travel. Enemies to lovers. No spice. Slow burn. That being said, it is beautiful, complex, emotionally poignant, a little weird but just perfect in every way. Just read it. Don’t look into it anymore than you have to. It is a book that must be experienced. I can’t wait to read the physical.

Giving it a 4 for its unique and weird fantasy. When you pick it up you won’t know what’s happening for awhile but stick with it for the satisfying ending. Beautiful prose carries you away.

This book is phenomenal. I just finished reading it, and I already want to start it again.It’s sci-fi. It’s poetry. It’s philosophy. It’s a love story. But no matter how hard I try, I won’t do it justice by trying to describe it, because it’s unlike anything I’ve ever read.Two immortal agents travel through time and across different threads of existence, altering historical events and weaving realities to further their cause.Along the way, they begin sending letters that start as taunts but become so much more. And when I say “letters,” I don’t just mean emails or notes on paper. My favorite was a message etched into the rings of a tree over centuries meant to be read only once the tree was cut down.I listened to this on audio while reading along, because the prose was so rich, dense, and beautiful. I needed to fully immerse myself just to have a chance at understanding it.Extraordinary. Exquisite. Delightful. Delicious. Thought-provoking. And a thousand more words I could use.Spice: 1/5Plot: 5+/5Writing: 5+/5My Enjoyment: 5+/5

A book club choice brought this into my read pile. Unprepared, I rebelled at early readings. Respecting the choice I pushed on. Not really understanding, I found it at times lyrical, clever and confounding. I stopped trying for logic. Instead I floated along taking what landed and releasing what did not. For me, love was always there. Glad I made it through. A bit sad it ended. Now looking forward to book discussion next week!

The prose is stunning and the storyline, though baffling, sucks you in and leaves you spinning with your heart aching. Best sapphic love story out there I think. Highly recommend.

Context: I’d suggested this for book club and it was selected. I finished it in just a few days.Review: I think the length was perfect for this story. It felt slow at the beginning because it has a pretty steep learning curve - there’s a lot to adjust to with the world building and the writing style - but it really picks up speed at the end. Once I got used to it, it was beautiful and at a couple of points pricked tears in my eyes. The tone is more ponderous, romantic, and melodramatic than I expected a war story to be, and I ate it up. The sappy and over-the-top love confessions played my heartstrings like soulful harp, and felt very fitting for our characters because they would have to be so insanely in love with each other to betray their respective sides, and because everything in their life is extreme - from the bodies they live in, to the leaders they serve, to the jobs they carry out (how much more extreme can you get than to literally manipulate time to win). It was impressive that the focal point of the story was on Red and Blue’s relationship, yet it didn’t pull any punches with the scifi elements. Most of the book is their letters and them thinking about each other, with the scifi elements coming into play with how they travel through time and space, how they leave the letters for each other, how their bodies have been made into hyper efficient weapons, their different sides’ cultures, and how their leaders kept tabs on them. It packed so much into barely 200 pages and I’m glad it did. I was really satisfied with how everything wrapped up and where Blue and Red left off. This was a challenging read, and so I wasn’t quite able to enjoy the story to its full potential - yet! I think this will have incredible reread value when I reread it, and it’s a safe bet I’ll love it even more.- Sofia

This is just a beautiful book.A few sentences in the book will force you to "google" wordsand "famous" people you've never come across before.But I didn't find any of those limited occurrences to affectreadability at all.I first read this in 2020 and just reread again in 2025.