Reviews tagging 'Death'

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

43 reviews

pocketbook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I read this in middle or high school the first time around, and I didn’t remember the parts that took place in the “present time.” I remember being so gutted by

Father Roche’s death

and that I enjoyed this book, but not too many specifics beyond that. I’m so happy I revisited this one. Rerated because this will be staying with me for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Physical abuse, Vomit, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal death, Sexual assault, Xenophobia, Sexism, Misogyny, Classism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, and Racism

Minor: Suicide

dananana's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

There is something incredibly breathtaking about reading a long, slow-build, incredibly detailed book such as this one. You spend so much time in the world that you begin to feel like you were there too. And in a way I WAS in the 1300s with Kivrin, with Mr Dunworthy as he tried to reach her from 2054. These characters are going to stay in my mind and heart forever and I feel so lucky to have read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Child death, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, and Blood

dark_lyn's review against another edition

dark funny informative sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

This was such a fun concept, but it moved so... very... slowly. I think it could have been shorter. The author was spot on with her prediction of how the USA would handle a pandemic! She did not grasp how mobile phones would evolve though. A major factor was characters struggling to reach each other by phone, and having to borrow a phone from whatever building they were in. Which made it feel like the story was set in the past, despite the futuristic video phones, medical advancement and time travel machines. This story was full of dry humour, but it was not lighthearted, it dealt with some very dark topics.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Child death, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Minor: Animal death

Graphic description of plague symptoms and deaths. Epidemic outbreak and reflection on a past pandemic.

iris_garden's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Vomit, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Gore, Terminal illness, Blood, Child death, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Classism, Grief, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Abandonment, Antisemitism, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, and Alcohol

fahyhallowell's review

adventurous emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Fascinating to read this tale of two epidemics in the midst of our current pandemic. Many elements ring true such as conspiracy theorists popping up. Aside from time travel, the technology is comiclly antique - phones had video screens but that's about it. I appreciated the classic British humor in the present as a break from the grimness of the past. 100% recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Terminal illness, and Blood

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Classism

rachelish's review against another edition

adventurous sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Gore, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Animal cruelty

speasyspice's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Vomit, Death, and Terminal illness

bannedfrombookclub's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

This three star review is an average between my two readings. Back in 2012 I loved it and gave it four stars, then in 2021 admists the pandemic I thought I'd re-read it and hated it, giving it two stars. It's so funny to see how my enjoyment has changed so much.

Things I still enjoyed included:
- The characters and world in medieval England
- The time-travel mechanism concept.
- The clueless/self-interested response by people to a plague/pandemic was uncomfortably accurate, now that we all know what that looks like.

Things that really irked on the second read:
- The talking in circles about the same issue (this only gets worse in Book 3, Blackout), characters just spin their wheels (noisily, into your reading eyes) while waiting for word count to tick over to the next plot point.
- Pacing
- The passivity of both main characters.  Kivrin never seemed to make a choice that impacted the plot, it would have helped me if she'd had a chance to leave and decided to stay and help/complete her drop for selfish reasons.

- Kivrin never reflects on the madness of her plan to take the priest and try to travel to safety - going against all she knows about spreading disease and her training as a timetravelling historian. I can see her thinking at the time, but the immorality of this is not addressed. Again, this could have been a choice she made - she could have considered it and decided not to. This would have made her a stronger character. 

I'm frankly afraid to re-read To Say Nothing of the Dog in case I have the veil once again lifted from my eyes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Animal death

autisticmisabel's review

adventurous dark hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Vomit

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Classism, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Infidelity

silentquercus's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Child death, Vomit, Blood, Grief, Medical content, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Infidelity, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, and Suicide