Connie Willis is OBSESSED with communication.

I really, really ended up enjoying this, but it was touch and go there for a bit. Connie Willis’s writing always has this distinct, relentless tone to it, and it gets under your skin until you see where it’s going. I’ve had that same experience with all the books I’ve read by her, although the tone takes a different specific tenor every time. In Doomsday Book it was the tedium of death. In To Say Nothing of the Dog it was the farcical nature of time travel. And here it’s a relentless onslaught of information directed straight towards our narrator, whose name is Briddey Flannigan. She’s very Irish. (That’s important.)

Crosstalk is a semi-satirical, near future sci-fi, romantic comedy. Briddey and her almost-fiance decide to get a medical procedure done that will allow them to sense each other’s feelings. It’s supposed to foster connection and honesty in their relationship. Only, things don’t go as planned, and when Briddey wakes up from her surgery, it’s not Trent she’s connected to. You can see where this is going. But also, you CAN’T. The plot of this book is like a snowball. It keeps rolling and rolling, picking things up and getting bigger in scope as it goes.

The constant action meant the book was constantly verging on being TOO MUCH but I thought it managed to balance enough that I wanted to keep reading. Briddey also leans a little too far into the frustrating character department before she eventually course corrects. But overall, I highly enjoyed myself reading this. I would *really* like to see it as a movie, and I’m definitely going to be buying it for an eventual re-read, because I can see it being a comfort read in the future.