I feel like this book took out all of my stress from real life and decided that I should care more about time jumping beings(?) that just want to love and live.

“There is a kind of time travel in letters.”

It's short but it hits-- even though I barely had any idea what was going on the first time. I was just jumping through time portals with the characters and watching their story unfold. And there's nothing more beautiful, I think, than reading about characters that make you fall in love with falling in love.

If there's something you should know, it's that I am a total sucker for writing letters. Both in the real world and as a plot device in books. There's something so rewarding and timeless about receiving/sending letters to someone which I think the book brought to life, both literally and metaphorically. The prose is written so beautifully (I'm not even exaggerating) and in a way that even though my thoughts were all over the place, I couldn't help but care for whatever the heck was going on.

If you were following, you know that I had to reread this book twice to grasp what was going on and even now... I'm still not quite sure about the details (lol) but I understand the ending better.

“She supposes even infinity has to start somewhere.”

This book is basically about Red and Blue (yes, those are their names) who are on opposite sides of this, kind of, time war that's going on at some point in time, at some place that both exists and doesn't exist. Then they send letters to each other and... in comes the angst. At least that's how I got it because you need a bucket of braincells to get what's going on. Which isn't a bad thing, me and my 2 braincells were just hanging on by a thread. I probably would have given this 5-stars if I had more braincells to spare.

But you guys, the character dynamics. in this book. The letter interactions and "physical interactions" were so well balanced that it felt so real and alive. Not to mention the SAPPHIC REALNESS that I didn't know I needed.


This book felt like hope and love in the midst of chaos and in this pandemic.... I think that's all we need sometimes

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

THAT QUOTE. THAT. QUOTE.
AMAL EL-MOHTAR WROTE THAT.
*screams*

If someone ever talks to me like that, even I would fight a time war for them. We truly need more romantic sci fi books.

↣ So if you are in the mood for some time paradox-y and time travel romance that's action-packed, hits you in the feels, and makes you want to start a cross dimension war all on your own... I welcome you to read this. I get what the hype is all about. ↢

Again, my main critique was that it took me so long to comprehend what was going on but that is on me and the mood that I was in when I read it first. The second time was a different story but I still think I need to reread it a third time for me to fully appreciate all the details. I'll probably reread this book again (I swear all the time references in this review is unintentional) and hopefully will love it.

— 3.5 —
⇢ content warnings//

Spoiler

Animal killing, Gore, Rape (mentioned), Self-harm, Suicide (mentioned), Torture, War/Violence

--------------------
AAAAA. I HAVE. literally no words.

excuse me because I am going to reread this book right away. <3