This quote completely encapsulates how I’m feeling after reading this piece of utter perfection on paper, This is How You Lose the Time War, by @amalelmohtar and @max.gladstone.

Red travels through time, visiting threads of alternate realities to carry out the orders of the Commandant, at war to secure the best possible future for their technological Agency. Her rival agent Blue does the same, working to ensure that the Garden wins this war. But when Red finds a letter, which says “Burn before reading”, these rivals strike up an unlikely correspondence. At first taunting, their letters move through an exchange of ideas and experiences, and become something greater – epic, romantic, and threatening to change both the past and the future. If either of them are discovered, it will mean their deaths – and the war is still going on. So, someone has to win – right?

Dual perspectives. Breathtaking love letters. Time travel and sci-fi, with a focus on deeply personal relationships. This novella is short (around 200 pages) but had probably impacted me more than anything I’ve read in a long time. Sending it directly to my love because I need him to read and experience it asap so we can talk about it. The fact that we fell in love over emails and messages, separated by time and distance, makes this book even more perfect and powerful. Warning, Jacob: if you don’t love this book, I’ll be very sad. But I know you will.