This Is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar, Max Gladstone

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

I did not expect to love this book, but this is now my favourite book ever. I read it multiple times a year and fall asleep listening to the audiobook every night.

Every. Night.

It’s futuristic-sci-fi, but also a love story, and also poetry. It’s structured as a series of letters between two elite soldiers on either side of a ‘time war’.

We see the letters change from taunting, to respectful to deeply powerful and loving. “Books are letters in bottles, cast into the waves of time, from one person trying to save the world to another.”

The writing is tight, and the world building gives you just enough to understand what’s going on, but also lets you imagine and fill in the blanks. There are nods to pop culture references, everything from ‘I’m Blue’ by Eiffel 65, to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.

Each chapter oscillates between Red and Blue as they are carrying out their side’s mission to change the outcome of the future by subtly changing the past. From seal hunting, to logging, to drinking tea in London and everywhere in between, Red and Blue find creative ways to find each other through letters across space and time.

🐦 Sapphic romance
🦉 Futuristic sci-fi
🐦 Time travel
🦉 Enemies to lovers
🐦 Gorgeous prose
🦉 Short chapters
🐦 Will change your life

I recommend listening to the audiobook, it's really well done.