Reviews

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

Only show reviews with written explanations

rotamariz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging funny informative inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

5.0

alreadyemily's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

CW: illness, death, body horror, child death, murder, assault, sexual assault

I thought it was brilliant, subtle, funny and devastating. I don't think it dragged at all.

drbradreed's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

4.0

katiescho741's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

This book was a major letdown. The only reason it gets two stars is that the start of the book is pretty good - it's tense, exciting, and I found the sections on the process and rules of time travel to be really interesting.
Then all of sudden it's about someone's great-nephew's train journey, and a group of bell ringers from America. The same conversations about running out of eggs and bacon are had so many times and huge chunks of the book are taken up with people missing each other on the phone. Considering this is advertised as a book about The Black Death, the plague doesn't even show up until about 400 pages in. The sections on the plague may well have been good, but by the time I'd waded through all the previous bloated chapters I had very little interest in continuing. I started skimming the last third of the book.
There was some interesting stuff about life in the 1300's, such as how a time traveller might want to have their sense of small dampened while there, but even the sections set in 1348 dragged on. I think the main character Kivrin is supposed to be a fearless and independent woman but she comes across as moany and helpless.
A massive letdown of a book...I have no idea why it's in the "Sci-Fi Masterworks" set.

danoreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Sad.

sharone7's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

I don’t mind a slow pace in general—in a certain kind of book it usually means a wonderful emotional payoff—but this book really challenged my patience. It was so repetitive that I wondered at times if I was imagining things. (Do we really need to witness a character wonder on 15 separate occasions, in excruciating detail each time, what another character meant when they said a particular thing? I submit we do not.) I liked the premise but by the last third I was so annoyed that the only thing keeping me from throwing it out the window was spite. There was an emotional payoff, but I was too annoyed to appreciate it. It would probably have been amazing if it had been half as long.