Ashley's Reviews > Blackout

30 Books in 30 Days, Vol. 4
Book 1/30

I've sat on this review for several weeks now and the feelings that I have for this book—despite its clear flaws—are overwhelmingly positive. So I'm rounding up to four stars!

I always enjoy a Connie Willis book, even when they are debilitatingly sad (looking at you Doomdsay Book), but they do have their flaws. She is OBSESSED with miscommunication and people being unable to find each other, and those kind of plots (which I am not interested in) proliferate in her books. I could do without them. But the other stuff she has to offer, the historical detail, and the characters, and the sense of place and time, those I love. This book is one of two, which actually should have been edited down and combined back into one book in my opinion. Blackout is literally half of a story arc, like the publisher just said okay stop now, and then a metaphorical TO BE CONTINUED sign floated over the manuscript. This does make the book feel unsatisfying in the end, and I think it would have worked better as one book.

But all that said, this is an immersive book about a period of time that has been written about ad nauseam, but Willis manages to make it feel very fresh, because her aim is not to write about the war itself, but the average people in England left behind to feel the everyday consequences of what was going on. This book takes place during the Blitz, and we have three time traveling historians who become stuck in WWII and have to figure out how to survive and how to get home. But while they're doing that, they experience life in England during the Blitz, and we get to experience it, too.

I can't emphasize enough here the lack of plot. You gotta go into this expecting vibes only, and you might have a good time. Also, just go straight into book two afterwards. I'm determined to do the audio version, but it's Audible only, and I don't get my next credit until August, and by that point I might have decided I need the third Licanius book first, so who knows when I will get around to finishing up this story, but I am glad that I finally started it.

For audiobook aficionados, this is narrated by the very talented Katherine Kellgren, who died of cancer several years back, but left behind a large body of work for us to discover and enjoy.

[3.5 stars, not sure if rounding up or down yet, will know once done with review]