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I landed on a 4-ish stars (maybe 4.25?), partly because of things that aren't exactly the book's fault, like how aspects of it just feel adorably dated. I also find that even when I love a Connie Willis book, there is a distance with character feelings especially when it comes to romance. Which is fine! But I find myself filling in a lot of the gaps, re: the shipping and man the books would just be perfect with more depth to character feeling/romance...

I actually started this two years ago and then got waylaid by book 2 revisions. I came back to it last week determined to finish it, as the whole reason I picked it up was I heard it had a Titanic plotline. My historical catnip! Indeed, the Titanic bits were delightful, though also funny as a few small bits of scholarship have shifted... as have opinions about the movie (Willis was clearly kneedeep in late 90s Titanic backlash when she wrote this!). That is a thing to know if this book intrigues you: it is adorably, almost laughably entrenched in the late 90s. A major aspect of the plot is video tapes/Blockbuster video. Everyone has a pager and oh how cell phones would have solved several plot issues. There's no internet search engines for the main character to use to look up information. Indeed, it's a long book that could have been effectively trimmed with said shortcuts (instead of Joanna spending 50+ pages waiting for Vielle, Kit or Maisie to look something up in a book, imagine if she'd used Google!). It was a fun blast from the past, though, given I still very vividly remember the period.

But beyond the superficial funny bits: it's an interesting character-driven sci-fi that ends up getting REALLY intense and deep and real in the third act. The last half hit me like a bag of bricks to the face, as it explored and stated things about death, dying, and grief that resonated with me intensely. I cried several times. It was painful to push through at times, it got so real. I looked up who Willis had lost because I just *knew*, and indeed: it was her mom, when she was 12. This is a tricky one if you are grieving, or generally having big, morbid thoughts about death/dying/and the afterlife. Ultimately, it was cathartic for me, but also difficult.

The basic gist is doctors Joanna and Richard are studying NDEs--near death experiences--by inducing them chemically and then taking detailed reports of what people see, looking for similarities--and hopefully a key to what NDEs are. When it becomes clear they don't have enough reliable subjects, Joanna volunteers to go under. She does, and is thunderstruck--why is she seeing the Titanic? A huge component of the book is the "life of the hospital"--we only really see Joanna's life there, and when it's in Richard's POV (it's third person that sometimes shifts back and forth between them)--and all the quirks of that world. The maze of the hospital, crazy things going down in the ER, a quack religious zealot doctor harassing Joanna about "proof" that NDEs prove the existence of heaven (if you're super religious this book won't be for you, btw), a few wacky patients, and finally Maisie--a young girl dying of heart failure who is obsessed with disasters (and ends up helping Joanna with research). There's also a major subplot where Joanna seeks out her former high school English teacher (b/c of a clue in her NDE), but he has Alzheimers so she becomes friends with his niece, Kit.

It's very character driven book, with a low simmering sci-fi undercurrent. Honestly just the way I like it. That said, because it's in third person and not super close third person, there are stretches that feel more distanced than others--very effective in some sections, less so in others. Probably the biggest deficit for me overall, as I mentioned, was the lack of deep connection, romantic chemistry, and build up between Richard and Joanna. I wouldn't care if the book wasn't trying to have any romance... but then in act 3 Joanna says she loves Richard? And there are indications of his similar strong feelings for her. Me: WHERE THO? There's a mini-thread of Tish, one of the nurses, trying to "hook" Richard and failing because he's oblivious and she says to Joanna "He's all yours," so clearly the book was trying to establish some kind of thread... I felt the same way about Black Out/All Clear, a duology I adore... but man did I want more shipping in it. Willis requires a lot of reading between the lines, whereas if you're going to have romance, I prefer it to be a more forward part of the arc. Could have cut some plotty back & forth to have some more meaningful character interactions with Joanna and Richard, IMO. BUT... I mean ultimately that quibble doesn't diminish that gut punch of a third act.