Kivrin is a history student at Oxford who has been training for two years to go back in time to the Middle Ages - the year 1320 to be specific. Her mentor, Mr. Dunworthy, isn't in favor of her visiting since it was an incredibly dangerous time, especially for women. On the day of the drop into the past, things go terribly wrong, and the tech running the drop collapses from a mysterious illness. 700 years in the past, Kivrin is also ill. The next few days are a blur in both the past and the present, with Kivrin and the Oxford crew trying to figure out how to reconnect and get Kivrin home.
Rating this book is a true challenge because there are some pretty intense strengths and weaknesses.
The main weakness of this book is its pace, as so many other reviewers have pointed out. I don't think I have ever read a more repetitive book in my life. There were certain plot points that got repeated so many times that I can probably quote 25% of this beast of a book from memory. Badri, the tech, keeps saying that "something has gone wrong (with the drop)" Dunworthy keeps asking Badri what went wrong: "Was it the slippage?" over and over with no response from the delirious Badri. The doctor keeps searching for the source of the virus and then sets about getting a vaccine. One of the archaeologists keeps talking about getting back to her dig. EVERYONE is having trouble getting in touch with people over the phones, which are all "tied up" because of the quarantine. Back in the past, Kivrin keeps trying to ask a man named Gawyn where the drop site is and keeps missing him or being unable to speak with him. All of the above events comprise probably the first half of the book at least. It's kind of a foggy mess, but it does get a little better after the first half. The pace of the last 25% of the book does somewhat make up for the rest of the book.
The technology of the book bothers me less than it does some readers. It is a little hard to suspend disbelief with their total lack of cell phones or reasonable means of communication in 2055, but it does add to the confusing/depressing nature of the book, which is a plus. If they had been able to communicate with each other, the book would have been cut in half.
One thing that bothered me throughout the book was how Americans were portrayed. The English characters kept making comments about how Americans were wasteful and selfish, which got old really quickly. The elitism of the Oxford inhabitants toward the Americans was a really unnecessary part of the book, but I know it's unfortunately realistic in real life in 2020.
I found the whole virus situation truly fascinating given the COVID-19 nonsense going on currently. They repeated a lot of the same things we are being told now about wearing masks, etc. They were able to quarantine one small area and keep it contained since it was caught quickly. The mortality rate was significantly higher than the COVID mortality rate (17%). They were very serious about finding the source and finding the best treatment and then a vaccine. So it was just interesting to have a modern pandemic to compare this with.
The other thing I found irritating was the book's obvious anti-Christian bias. The people in the 1300s were obviously very religious and prayed often. Then when bad things happened, they commented about how God was punishing them or forsaking them. Kivrin would always make snarky comments in her head about how God had nothing to with any of this because he wasn't real. Dunworthy did the same, even going so far as to compare Kivrin being lost in the past with Jesus being "lost" on earth and being crucified as a result, forgotten by his father. That was really bizarre, and it was overall just annoying to have to deal with their anti-God commentary throughout.
The book did have some significant strengths. Kivrin spends quite a lot of time in what she believes is 1320, though she is not sure if some "slippage" has occurred (that is, she knows she may not be in exactly the right time). After being brought to a village by Gawyn and the village priest, Roche, she spends a long time trying to get back to the drop site, but she ends up becoming a sort of caretaker for two little girls, Agnes and Rosamund. She is able to observe some interesting things about the people in the manor. The family has fled their home in Bath for some reason that Kivrin isn't able to determine right away. The lady of the house, Elwys, appears to be distracted and is possibly having an affair with Gawyn. Elwys's mother in law is a crotchety, cantankerous crone who hates Father Roche because he is not as wealthy/polished as the priests she is used to. The good thing about having a book this long is that it allows the readers a lot of time to develop attachments to the characters. Then...you get your heart ripped out. Things get bad, and I will avoid spoilers in this section, but there was one death in particular that had me crying for a good 15-20 minutes. I was on the edge of my seat wondering if Kivrin would ever get back home. When the book was over, I was genuinely emotionally spent. The book affected me in a really profound way. And THAT is what you want in a good book. We remember the books that make us cry or elicit string emotion with hard content.
Spoilers below!
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Kivrin finally figures out that she is in fact in 1348, right at the outbreak of the plague. Although she has had inoculations and T-cell enhancements, she has to watch people start dying all around her. In the end, literally every single person around her is dead.
I wasn't too emotionally invested to be honest in most of the adults (except for Father Roche, who was a legitimate saint that the world did NOT deserve) but Agnes was about the same age as my own daughter, so I couldn't help but imagine her with the same likeness. That make it all the more devastating when she died, small and helpless, calling for Kivrin. She was so full of life. I cried and cried during that part. It was obviously so upsetting how everyone else kept dying, but I was able to understand how Kivrin and the Steward eventually became sort of detached and desensitized after a while, as it was just all TOO much. They had to focus on helping anyone they could and digging graves while they had the energy.
By the time Kivrin was able to go home, it was hardly even happy or triumphant. She was broken (I WAS BROKEN!)
One positive aspect of the book is how it gives the reader a really in-depth look at the black plague and how much desperation and desolation there was. People were scared. They fled and spread the plague everywhere. They had no treatments. It was legitimately horrifying. We don't really get that feeling of horror when we learn about it in school. You hear that 1/3 to 1/2 of that area of the world died and think it's pretty awful, but you don't really GET it fully. This book displays that brilliantly, and I think people should read it just for that. </spoiler>
