Pretty sure this was recommended by my Spanish penpal, but my memory is kinda hazy. But if I’m right, feels very fitting that it’s a book about writing letters.
This is one of the few books where I’ve carefully read every word. I admit I often can be a skim reader, especially if it’s setting descriptions. But because this was a book about time travel, I had to pay attention in order to imagine the surrounds of that particular chapter. As well as the two characters being non-human and sometimes being in non-human form. Plus it used a couple of words I actually had to look up. One phrase I couldn’t figure out the meaning of – “knotting grass to gracket scold”. Apparently a scold is a mask that used to be used on women to punish them for not keeping quiet? So was Blue creating one out of grass? I don’t know what gracket is though. The ways the letters manifested were also really interesting to read.
I admire this book for the way it goes from almost internet-ish one-upping and letters full of snark to something really heartfelt and vulnerable. Letters really are awesome. I liked how Blue had to contain her rage at Red’s ‘letter of betrayal’ because it sounded nothing like Red. I also adored how almost all the non-historical main characters were gendered female.
There were a couple of points where I had a feeling that I was missing an in joke because I’m not up-to-date on pop culture or internet memes, but it didn’t really take away from the experience.
This was a really enjoyable read and I appreciated how it was easy to read a chapter (or a letter) and then leave it to pick up again later. Definitely a book designed to complement today’s busy modern world.
Categories: Book Reviews
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