while this book attempts - in earnest - to be poetic, the clunky prose hinders the plot instead of enhancing it. the world building is haphazard and abstract, riddled with metaphors that make it difficult to discern what the imagined world truly is. sentences so long you forget what they were about by the time you’re done reading. unfamiliar words and familiar words used in unfamiliar ways only muddle the story further. the very concept of a “letter” is so abstruse that I could hardly understand what the authors were trying to say. 

while I enjoy the enemies to lovers trope that is played out across time - the love comes much faster than expected, almost puzzlingly so. I found myself re-reading the letters to try and pinpoint where the affair became romantic, but I couldn’t. maybe that’s the point, but it all felt too rushed. it felt like the book was setting up a profound ending, one to tie all the loose ends together, but left too many strands in the rest of the novel. the ending did deliver, but it could’ve been more effective with less exposition. 

I wish I liked this book more, and at many points considered not finishing it. the last 50 pages or so almost make up for the rest of it; almost. I think my main issue with the book is I had difficulty picturing in my mind what was happening. I enjoy books by imagining the imagery in my minds eye; since I could not do that here, I didn’t enjoy it as much. that said, the ending was gorgeous and emotional. I only wish I could’ve been more interested from the start.