Doomsday Book by Connie Willis
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is my second read.

The first time I read it, I was fascinated by CW's take on time travel and the mirroring of the plague in the future with the past's Black Death, but moreover, the characters snuck up on me and tore my soul apart. It was, perhaps, the best time-travel novel I'd ever read.

That was then.

But now? Even when I knew it was coming, when I tried to keep from loving all these characters in the past and in the future, I was unable to help myself. They're flawed, annoying, lovable, hurt, and intense. I feel their reality. And I still tried to hold myself apart from the tragedy to come.

But I failed. I failed hard.

I cried the first time I read this and it may have hit even harder this time. I held off for so long, just enjoying the everyday lives in the past and the growing unease in the future, not just Mr. Dunworthy's frantic efforts, but the epidemic that spreads there. When the past's Black Plague finally hit, however, I was undone.

This is the difference between good books and truly fantastic ones. Classic ones. Bowl me over and kill me ones.

This book has the timeless quality, the depth, the complicated emotions, and especially a complicated story that defies any easy description, or if I can describe it, such as what I've already done, then it simply cannot *really* describe it.

It's a hard book to read because it affects me so much.

But it's also one of the most memorable SF books I've ever read, too. I can easily place this in my top 100 books of all time. :)

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