My favorite of her books so far

Doomsday Book - Connie Willis

I first got introduced to Connie Willis through some of her more light-hearted, humorous books.  This is absolutely not one of those.  This book was much more serious, frustrating, and heartbreaking.

 

Without getting into spoilers, this book portrays characters experiencing the worst bad luck imaginable.  One bad thing happens after another.  Simple things that need to get done do not get done, due to things constantly going wrong.  Connie Willis seems to enjoy writing books about one or two reasonable people in a sea of ridiculousness, and this is not an exception to that.  So many of the characters and the circumstances were incredibly frustrating.  

 

If all that bothers you, this may not be the book for you.  I was glued to it, though.  I let some chores fall a little bit behind and was nearly late for some obligations because I was so absorbed in this book.

 

The main characters are complex and sympathetic.  There is a lot of death in this book, so expect this book to be painful, emotionally.  A lot of the story was so incredibly tragic, and it was just about perfect.