You know what bothers me? When authors shorten certain words ("temperature" and "contemporaries," specifically) for the purpose of sounding futuristic, but include so much filler that their readers are tempted to give up. Doomsday Book could have been about 300 pages shorter, if only Connie Willis had had enough foresight in 1992 to give her characters cell phones! That being said, the last 1/3 or so of this book was so compelling that I sped through it in one sitting. I have mixed feelings on this one for sure.

Beautifully written and frustrating as hell and kind of genius??

WOW. I’m floored by how much this series grew on me. The final volume is breathtaking and mystical. It's set on an incredible scale, and yet every moment matters. Read this series if only to get to this book.

When her mother died in a car accident, Alysia and her openly gay father settled into a non-conforming life in San Francisco, where Steve could be a part of a queer community of poets and Alysia could be surrounded by many different kinds of people, for better or worse. Alysia tells the story of her childhood and relationship with her father with sometimes painful honesty, never glossing over the difficult moments, but imbuing the entire recollection with so much love.

I think it accomplishes what it sets out to do very well, but it just wasn't my speed.

I started this book a while back and couldn’t get into it, but this time it clicked. The bleakness of the wilderness is offset by the warmth of the characters’ family bonds. Ivey tells her story simplistically, but the style matches the setting and the fairy tale genre. I really enjoyed this one.

Don’t hate me!

I did not get along with this book at all. I found the characters flat, the dialogue stilted, and the plot incredibly disjointed. I like to know WHY things are happening, and it seemed to me that there was very little cause-and-effect in this book. It was like—here we are NOW.....NOW...and NOW with no connective tissue in between. That applies to the way the characters interact with each other as well as to the plot points and succession of settings. I’m also not a fan of the heavy-handed God’s Mission stuff. I don’t really get why it’s in here, and I resent how we’re supposed to just take it for granted. Overall, I finished this book feeling confused as to why everyone adores it so much. Not for me.