You can read this book quickly, but don’t. Take your time. This book calls for attention. There is so much wordplay, sometimes intricate and subtle, which calls for re-reading sentences or paragraphs. I’m sure that I missed quite a bit both because of the depth of wordplay and because I only have so much patience, but the authors are just so skillful in their use of language (e.g., “Who’s infecting whom? We know from our hoarse Trojans, in my time”).
The novella follows Red and Blue, two women (though I use that word loosely as they aren’t precisely human) on opposite sides of a war across time and space. There aren’t a lot of details about the war or much world-building, but that’s not the point of the book. The point is the relationship that develops between Red and Blue, through the letters they send each other and the ways that they connect with each other in spite of their differences. Each short chapter starts with some action Red or Blue is taking in various points of time to influence the future – which may be confusing, but again, it doesn’t really matter because it’s just backdrop – and ends with a letter, which is nearly always sent in an obscure way: written in the flight of a bee, in the rings of a tree, carved on a fish inside a seal. The backdrop does matter because Red and Blue are taking risks by communicating with each other, but you don’t really need to know much about the world they live in to understand that.
In the beginning, Red and Blue taunt and praise each other, which is easy to do because their abilities are so well-matched. Each has a lot of personality with a distinct voice in her letters. However, the book seemed to lose momentum in the latter half as Red and Blue realized their love for each other. Their voices became less distinct in their gushing letters, and I missed the tension of their rivalry. I also thought the relationship developed a little bit too quickly.
I genuinely enjoyed the book. The language was interesting, and I liked the story, and I appreciate the originality, but ultimately I don’t think that much of it will stick with me. I’m not entirely sure why this is. Perhaps the language is too complex and I’m missing something, perhaps it’s that there isn’t enough of an emotional connection to characters because we really only learn so much about them. Regardless, it is still a worthwhile read. 3.5 stars rounded down to 3 because while it was well-crafted, it’s not going to be all the memorable.