Reviews

To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis

slentz97's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

This book was a surprise. I had no idea what to expect going in and ended up really enjoying it. Slow in the beginning (again, because I didn’t know what was going on) but the ending was fantastic. The style was very different than what I usually read

danoreading's review against another edition

4.0

Super fun read. I think Blackout/All Clear is my favorite of the time travel stories, but they're all so enjoyable.

rebeccafish23's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

verumsolum's review against another edition

4.0

This book didn't grab me like I had expected it to. The characters were interesting, but the plot lost me. I kept with it until the end and… it was ok, but… I didn't understand so much of the "why" of the book. Both why things happened in its world, but also why was this book written? What was the author's point? If its point or its plot had been clearer, I wouldn't have minded its length, but it felt like about twice as many pages than it actually contained.

emilyinlibraryland's review against another edition

3.0

This book isn't bad, and I can see why people like it. That being said, I could hardly get through it because every character was either completely stupid, insufferable, or both.

genteelblackhole's review against another edition

4.0

A very enjoyable time travel comedy. More chuckles and smiles than outright guffaws, but the plot is delightfully clever - and there are some nice references to classic literature, i.e. Jerome K. Jerome, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers. (Be warned, characters mention moderate-to-severe spoilers for Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone, the Lord Peter Wimsey series, and some Agatha Christie.)

The middle section could take some trimming to really tighten it up, but overall I had great fun with this book. I look forward to reading more Connie Willis in the future - although it looks like a lot of her books are Very Long, so I will still approach with caution.

holly_bolly's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

4.0

chelse34's review against another edition

3.0

Read this for Everydayreading's book club. I read the first one years ago and LOVED it. I didn't even know it was in a series. But the books are totally different and you don't need to read them in order. They are very separate stories but all involve time travel. 

That being said, this one was very wibbly wobbly time whimey. So much to the point that I was getting a little bit confused as to where they were and where they were going and how all the differences end up lining up. They have to fix an incongruity, which I'm still puzzled about. It was a lot and like I said very confusing. 

I learned from the book that I need to read "Three Men in a Boat" and I should probably learn more about the Battle of Waterloo. Those were referenced a lot. 

I did love the references to other detective books, like Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. Those little references made my day because I actually understood those ones. And the ending with that made me so happy. But I don't want to spoil it so I can't tell you what it is. I also really loved the dry humor from Ned.

Overall I enjoyed it, but it was a very slow start and took me awhile to catch on to what was going on, and then I'm still confused with the ending and all the time differences that somehow were fixed. But I will definitely recommend book one to anyone!

gwenhwyfar's review against another edition

funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Admittedly, this took me longer to finish than I expected it to, but that's mostly because life threw me a couple curve balls while reading this. The size of the book also didn't help, it's rather long considering the contents. Nevertheless, I wanted madcap time travel silliness, and that's what I got, even if we did spend most of our time in the English Victorian era with your usual cast of absolutely ridiculous Victorian people. Not my favourite era. Still, there were numerous laugh out loud moments and it wrapped itself up gloriously. The book brought up penwipers a hilarious amount of times, which unexpectedly had a bit of a payoff at the end.

The main character, Ned, is being sent back in time to look for a hideous object because it was in Coventry Cathedral the night it burned and this crazy American lady named Lady Schrapnell in the future wants to rebuild the Cathedral with as much original detail. He ends up developing time lag - symptoms include maudlin sentimentality and difficulty differentiating sounds. He's sent back to the Victorian era to rest with a minor mission that he's not entirely aware at first because of said time issues. There he meets Verity, another time traveller, and later Mr Finch, as they get embroiled in wild game of time space continuum self corrections. Victorians involved include Terrence and his dog Cyril, Professor Peddick, Tossie Mering and her mother and father and their butler Baine.

I probably should have kept notes for this one, there was a lot of foreshadowing and red herrings and other kinds of fish. Cyril is the bestest boy. 

mrsdaliborreads's review against another edition

funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25