I'm a fan of time travel! There's so much you can do with it and I feel like they really did so much with it haha! I think this world is really interesting. The idea of time travel as a bunch of different "Strands" of time, where different futures occur based on what strands are crossed and interact in the past is neat! I like the (sort of) parallel universes this creates. I think the imagery of how red and blue interact with time is really cool (unpicking the braid, hearing your footsteps up/down thread, etc).
It was super easy to dive into. The characters felt very 3 dimensional and genuine. I really enjoyed the repetitive structure of each chapter

It lead to it being really striking when this repetition was interrupted. You expect a letter that doesn't come.

I like that all the characters were women. I think the characters really popped off the page. You get to see a really intimate part of them (the letters for no-one else eyes) so you really understand them as much as they understand eachother. There is a review/quote by Kelly Link (I think) at the front of the edition I read (#librarybook), "There is the pleasure of a long series, and all the details of a much larger world, presented in miniature here." Which I agree with! I think it was the perfect length to tell this story. If it had been much longer I think the repetition would've gotten to be a bit much, & I think the pace was perfect. I love how though they start out as "enemies", it's clear that there is a general respect/admiration for each other already, and the fact that their enemies is just happenstance. It's very sweet to see them getting so excited to read each letter.

And I love Romeo & Juliet as a Comedy! That's so meta!

Looking back to the start after the finishing:

I was a bit confused after the first chapter because I read it as Red returned to the first letter and re-read it. When I re-read the chapter, I realized it was the Seeker. But really I was right the first time! Ha! I'm wondering if that was a bit confusing initially on purpose or if I'm just an Idiot lmao!

 

Bumping up my rating because I just realized it’s this is how you lose the time war in sense that they shake it off / lose a tail / LOSE IT from being part of them!! Woooooahhh I love reading