what a trip to get through this novel... read this during my transit to and from work, and it stayed in the back of my mind as I wanted to uncover what was being left under wraps. I didn't even realize I was hooked until I kept flying through the pages!

it's very difficult to describe what this novel is and very easy to describe the experience it was. first: fantastic translation, I didn't even realize this was an originally Spanish novel until I read the author description in the back! second: the fact that it's a Spanish story made everything hit all the more harder once the connection was made in the ending. in a post apocalyptic world, where climate change has destroyed even basic survivability, a young woman is deep into a religious group that shelters her away from the horrors while also giving her even more horrors. the unraveling of this fragile peace is so interesting, and the twists burn more deeply to me as I know very well how religion is both safety and a cause for danger for Latinos, as a Hispanic woman myself.

I don't really wanna provide spoilers, because the fun of this story is in learning slowly, but every aspect of this novel worked so well for me. sapphic romance, brutalization, the devastation of climate onto humanity, hope in change despite how far gone you are, and the way this is so compellingly character driven through the use of narration being more diary than anything else is simply all up in my alley. this is absolutely a novel that is gonna work for whoever it works for, it's not a novel that compromises for the reader and I enjoyed the challenge it gave me. I'm glad it worked for me, and glad I confused this one with The Starving Saints LMAO.

I came into this book with many expectations about what I should expect to feel, and nothing matched up with what I experienced while reading this.

it was a very abstract read at first, hard to really grasp the specifics of the scenarios we get before each letter. it was beautiful prose, but I felt limited, at first, in what I could take away from them. the world is so vast and feel like it could be expanded so much more than what's explored in the novel. however, it makes use of the limited page count (below 200 pages) to the best of it's ability to relay the most important information of the world without sacrificing it's beautiful prose and imagery. you feel an understanding of the world Red and Blue navigate through, of the main enemies, and how these two come together to build something entirely new. it does take some patience, and you have to read the novel in such a specific way where you only focus on the vibes rather than the details, but it's clicks together once you do.

Red and Blue's relationship development here through just simple letters is one of my favorites that I've had to read this year, and it's way and natural in a way that nothing else in this novel is. on reread I'll probably love all the extra details I didn't catch on first read, but overall I'm glad I took a chance on this one!