2025 & 2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar.

Pages: 209 pages

Length: 1 month (May)

Participants: SarahKat, Rebecca, Janine

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

I'm joining this read.

Looking forward to starting this. I'll be listening to this via audiobook so just finishing up my current read over the next few days before I pick it up. I admit I'm going into this purposefully knowing very little so I'm excited to see what it's like.

Welcome Beth!

I have this on hold on audio and ebook so it will depend on which version is available and which of my other books I finish first. It may be mid-month before I get to it. I am going in to it almost blind too Janine

I am currently listening to this, I'm up to the start of chapter 8.

Some thoughts:

(view spoiler)[I think it is very beautiful and atmospheric. I'm enjoying listening to the audio version with the two narrators bringing Blue and Red to life.

I find the setting/idea behind this book fascinating. Two rival factions manipulating time through sometimes the smallest of changes, to lead to the ending(s) they want. I wish I knew a lot more, though. I'd love some more word building about these two different agencies as they sound like polar opposites, but both so interesting. Perhaps I'm being impatient though and just need to enjoy the journey! (hide spoiler)]

I have finished! I meant to update at another point, but it's so short that it zoomed by, even though I'm usually quite slow at listening to audiobooks.

Overall thoughts:

(view spoiler)[I really enjoyed this. I usually like more explicit world building and action, but there was something beautiful about this. I was emotionally invested and along for the ride. (hide spoiler)]

My library says the ebook is "available soon" so I'm hoping I get to start this weekend!

Started this last night

About halfway through: (view spoiler)[It started a bit slow and confusing to me. I'm still not exactly sure what the goal is here other than "winning." I agree with you Janine I would have liked more world-building. But this is very atmospheric. Definitely more of a vibes book than a story one. I like the letters they write each other. And how they can apparently sense each other no matter where they are in time and what they look like. At least one of the shapeshifts apparently... (hide spoiler)]

I think you put it perfectly there SarahKat... (view spoiler)[it's very much all about the vibes of the book I think! (hide spoiler)]

Finished! Short review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

I liked the vibes. I wouldn't mind re-reading this sometimes now that I have a better feel for it. I think this is the kind of book you could get something out of reading multiple times.

I’m about halfway through. This is a challenging read for me as far as getting a hold of the setting. But im working on letting that go and focus on the letters and the building relationship.

I gotta say... I did not care for this book. It was too... I esoteric(?) for me. I enjoyed the letters themselves, but the text between them didn't catch my imagination. I'm glad it was short! :)

That's fair enough Beth. I normally like more specific world building and a clear setting so I can understand your point of view. I think this is going to be a book that either clicks for a reader or doesn't. I wasn't sure how it was going to fall for me at the very beginning but then it charmed me :)

Beth wrote: "I gotta say... I did not care for this book. It was too... I esoteric(?) for me. I enjoyed the letters themselves, but the text between them didn't catch my imagination. I'm glad it was short! :)"

Definitely a love-it or hate-it kind of book.