Allan insisted I had to read this book, his favorite book by his favorite author. With a lot of anxiety in my own life, I almost stopped reading this early on, as Briddey’s extremely intrusive family was driving my anxiety over the top~ but I persevered and am very glad I did!

Releasing into the science fiction only book box, which will hopefully shoot off into the universe sometime in the next week.

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Chose from the Science Fiction Bookbox.

As this book is a wishlist book, I quickly snagged it! Thanks!

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A wonderful read, thanks for sharing!

Willis has a way of making you feel the fear, frustration, and the feeling of being overwhelmed. It can almost feel tedious at times, but you are right there with the character and able to empathize with what is going on.

And I agree with C.B., telepathy would be a bad thing for anyone to have.


And I agree with erishkigal; I also had a hard time with Briddey's intrusive family, but glad I kept reading anyway. :)

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One of the starting books for the To the Stars: A Science Fiction Bookbox 3.0!

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Description:
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Science Fiction (2016)

Science fiction icon Connie Willis brilliantly mixes a speculative plot, the wit of Nora Ephron, and the comedic flair of P. G. Wodehouse in Crosstalk, a genre-bending novel that pushes social media, smartphone technology, and twenty-four-hour availability to hilarious and chilling extremes as one young woman abruptly finds herself with way more connectivity than she ever desired.

In the not-too-distant future, a simple outpatient procedure to increase empathy between romantic partners has become all the rage. And Briddey Flannigan is delighted when her boyfriend, Trent, suggests undergoing the operation prior to a marriage proposal - to enjoy better emotional connection and a perfect relationship with complete communication and understanding. But things don't quite work out as planned, and Briddey finds herself connected to someone else entirely - in a way far beyond what she signed up for.

It is almost more than she can handle - especially when the stress of managing her all-too-eager-to-communicate-at-all-times family is already burdening her brain. But that's only the beginning. As things go from bad to worse, she begins to see the dark side of too much information, and to realize that love - and communication - are far more complicated than she ever imagined.

I'm claiming this hefty hardcover from the To the Stars: A Science Fiction Bookbox 3.0.

Later: I've enjoyed many of Willis' works, including Doomsday Book, her delightful mix of historical-drama and time-travel. This book's... rather different!

At first I didn't think I was going to finish the book at all, as it opens with main character Briddey being deluged with texts, phone messages, and in-person confrontations from a number of co-workers and her entire extended family. It was exhausting to read, and I kept wanting to refer her to advice columnists specializing in boundary-setting just to make it all stop! (Which, it turns out, is part of the point of the book - and I see is echoed in the JEs of previous journalers {wry grin}.)

Briddey works for a company that's developing new tech for smart-phones, and is about-to-be-engaged to its charismatic boss Trent - but he wants them both to undergo a popular new operation first: it's a brain modification that supposedly allows people "with a strong emotional connection" to merge their emotions even more closely, in a not-quite-telepathy-but-sensing-each-other's-feelings manner. Yeah, that'll work.

Early on we get plenty of hints from the plethora of messages and other conversations that Briddey's family members don't care for Trent (though they can't say why beyond 9-year-old - and technologically precocious - Maeve saying "his hair's too smooth") and are very much against the idea of the brain procedure, no matter how many celebrities praise it to the skies. We also meet a scruffy techno-geek named C. B. who hangs out in the server room in the basement, a cell-service dead zone, and comes up with most of the best ideas the company has - if anyone can prise them out of him. (Given the kind of story this is, the snarky banter between Briddey and C. B. will immediately tip the reader off as to the romantic probabilities of the story - also, his hair is definitely NOT "too smooth".)

Anyway, Briddey has the surgery, but things don't go as expected. I won't say too much about the details, but it turns out that Trent's reasons for wanting the surgery in the first place are... suspect, and Briddey needs a lot of help in coping with the fallout from her new condition. It's often extremely unnerving - though not more so than those opening pages of massive, overwhelming communication and interruptions, which (again) is largely the point of the book.

There's a lot of humor - think the kind of romantic comedy where the fated-to-be-together couple bicker at top speed the whole way through - and quite a bit of tension, with sections of out-and-out terror; a typical Willis mix, come to think of it.

I left this book in this new-to-me Little Free Library (with its handsome wooden bear standing guard); hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

Released for:

** 2024 Heads Shoulders Knees Toes challenge, for the embedded "os" in the title **

** 2024 Science Fiction challenge. **

** 2024 Keep Them Moving challenge. **