Think twice if…
- Content warnings: Death, Violence, War, Gore, Animal death, Torture, Murder
This Is How You Lose the Time War
by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone
A love story told through hidden letters across fractured timelines - the kind of book that rewires the way you think about connection.
goodreads 3.84/5 335,554 ratings
storykind_community 3.5/5 6 ratings
Quick fit
Is this story right for you?
A decision-first view of the reading experience.
Length209 pages
Story statusStandalone
Spice0/5
PacingSlow
Story profile
What the story promises
The strongest reviewed signals about romance, fantasy, and the reading experience.
Romance promise
- Enemies to lovers
- F/F
- Slow burn
- None
- Intellectual satisfaction
- Assassin/spy
Show more
- Forbidden love
- Beautiful grief
- Morally gray
- Core memory unlocked
- Rivals to lovers
- The angst delivered
- Intellectual connection
- Book hangover
- Only one who understands them
- Star-crossed
Fantasy promise
- Sci-fi
- Other
- Space/sci-fi
- Humans only
- Secret relationship
- Multi-realm / dimension-hopping
Show more
- Rivals competing
- Time travel romance
- Star-crossed lovers
Reading experience
- Multi-POV
- Slow
- Mysterious
- Lyrical
- Heavy
- High
Show more
- Spy/thief
- Sapphic
- Intense
- Atmospheric
- BIPOC MC
- Poetic
- Outcast/loner
- BIPOC love interest (LI)
- Melancholic
- Lush
- Romantic
- Dreamy
- Bittersweet
- Ethereal
- Morally complex
- Will make you cry
- Emotional devastation
Similar stories
Similar in ways that matter
Matched by the most important shared story signals, with the tradeoffs made explicit.
368 pages Standalone
Never the Roses
Jennifer K. Lambert
Similar because
Rivals to lovers · Rivals competing · Ethereal
Different because
Spice is higher (1/5 vs 0/5). A longer read (368 vs 209 pages).
320 pages Standalone
The Unmaking of June Farrow
Adrienne Young
Similar because
Time travel romance · Outcast/loner · Will make you cry
Different because
Spice is higher (1/5 vs 0/5). Medium pacing rather than Slow.
544 pages Completed
Strange the Dreamer
Laini Taylor
Similar because
Outcast/loner · Dreamy · Only one who understands them
Different because
It is completed rather than standalone. Spice is higher (2/5 vs 0/5).
Book details
- Length
- 209 pages
- Language
- English
- Format
- Book