Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis

There are, for me, a couple of reactions that tell me if a book is good.

1: Periodically stopping in the middle of reading to shake the book in the air and cry, “THIS IS SO GOOD!”
2: Feeling angry and depressed when it’s over, and scoffing at the next book you pick up for not being as good.

Doomsday Book, by Connie Willis, made me do both of these things. I know I waved the thing at my husband at least twice, and I also threw in an emphatic “You HAVE to READ THIS.” Although that last part is kind of useless, seeing as how long it takes him to read books I recommend. I reacted in exactly the same way to Laurie King’s Mary Russell series two years ago, and he’s just now finishing the second-to-most-recent one.

ANYWAY. Doomsday Book. The story centers around a group of Oxford historians in the sort-of-distant-but-not-too-distant future, historians who happen to have the ability to travel through time to do first-hand research on particular eras. Some periods, however, are off-limits for being too dangerous. So obviously someone in the book travels to one of these dangerous centuries.

Main character Kivrin, an undergraduate history student, gets sent back to the 1300s, smack dab in the middle of the Black Death, and ends up stuck there. Back in the (future?) present, her professor and mentor Dunworthy struggles to get her back, all while battling a mysterious epidemic that has broken out in Oxford.

Sounds awesome, right? THAT’S BECAUSE IT IS. Not only is the story tense and absorbing, but the way the setting is presented is vivid and amazing. It was one of those books where the main character tromps through snow, and you feel the snow, and they hear bells, and you hear bells. Amazing amazing.

I do have to confess, though, I was far more invested in Kivrin’s story than Dunworthy’s. I actually groaned every time the book moved back to present (future?)-day Oxford and the Death Epidemic of Great Death. I can understand why Willis wanted Dunworthy’s story there, and obviously the plot wouldn’t have really worked without his side of it, but ugh. I actually counted pages until it went back to Kivrin’s side, like how parents tell their children that if they eat x number of green beans, they can eat all of their dessert. IF I GET THROUGH ALL OF DUNWORTHY’S PART, I CAN READ ALL OF KIVRIN’S BEFORE BED.

Anyway, read this book. It is technically sci-fi, but it’s not overwhelming in the slightest, and that’s coming from someone who can’t stomach sci-fi at all. But be prepared to wave it in the air and get angry when it’s over.

And also, expect to sniffle at the last few pages.

Up next, A Northern Light, by Jennifer Connelly Donnelly.