Lost in a Good Book

Published: 10 November 2011
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 385
Format: Book
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
★   ★   ★   ★   ★  – 5 Stars

Only the diplomatic skills of ace literary detective Thursday Next can avert a devastating genre war. But a week before the peace talks, Thursday vanishes. Has she simply returned home to the RealWorld or is this something more sinister?

All is not yet lost. Living at the quiet end of the speculative fiction is the written Thursday Next, eager to prove herself worthy of her illustrious namesake.

The fictional Thursday is soon hot on the trail of her factual alter-ego, and quickly stumbles upon a plot so fiendish that it threatens the very BookWorld itself.

Let’s start by saying this: who knew reading could be so complex?

From the beginning chapters, and really the title and spoiler blurb on the back of the book, we find out that Thursday Next is missing. However due to the books she’s written there is a Thursday who can take her place until she is found. This instantly changes the tone of the book as the new Thursday takes over as narrative voice. Despite looking like the Real Thursday, her written counterpart has a much different personality, and this is reflected in the narrative voice. As I started reading, I had a constant feeling of discomfort as I read because I felt like something was off. It wasn’t until much later that I realised it was because it was a different Thursday altogether. I think if Jasper had tried to write using the Thursday style I had grown accustomed to in the past five books it would not be believable. Of course the tone would be different, because the narrator was a different person, despite looking exactly the same. I am not saying this is a bad thing at all, it was a little bit like going through the Looking Glass, it is very familiar, but it wasn’t at the same time. Actually, pretty much the entire novel felt like that.

With the main protagonist missing, we are taken away from the official and policing part of BookWorld, and instead we are given a civilian point of view. I do think having anything too much like the past books would have felt very out of place in this unfamiliar world. Even when written Thursday meets people from real Thursday’s world you can feel the difference. You really get the sense she is a different person trying to be someone else, and outsider looking in the window, yet still somehow participating.

I did find myself missing the old Book World, despite us never really getting an expansive description of it before. A lot of the previous books consisted of jumping from one to the other with few stable points of reference like the Great Library. There was nothing wrong with the new BookWorld certainly. it just took a little getting used to. I understand why it had to be done though; story wise I can see that the old set up probably would not have been possible considering the plot, and certainly not make half the things in the narrative possible. So in that regard I am fine with the changes, but a small part of me missed it. I think the other part is I just missed the Real Thursday, familiar characters, the Jurisfiction and official side of BookWorld. As much as I loved seeing the Book World from the civilian and written characters perspective, after five books focusing on one side, it was an adjustment seeing the flip side.

Don’t get me wrong, it was brilliant all the same. Once you take the story as it is you began to see the immense effort Jasper had gone to. The detail in this book is astounding. It is not even always relevant, but the descriptions and the minute things like street names or conversations and logic that you tend to just brush over, yet have probably needed just as much thought as the narrative itself. I can’t even begin to list the detail Jasper has put into the BookWorld and the novel itself this time around. Something that I thought was truly beautiful was the way the RealWorld is described through Jasper’s BookWorld descriptions. His descriptions of everyday life and activities are rather poetic, which considering how poetry is viewed in these books, shouldn’t be taken as an insult. The wriggling in your seat excitement returns, not entirely through the whole book, but enough and in the right places to make you grin like the Cheshire Cat filled with warm bubbles.

The fact that this book is similar yet very different to the others works well for the BookWorld’s advantage. As readers we are given a full layout and story in this world from the point of view of the characters that live in it. They are the fictional counterparts of all the books, and while there is the mystery to be solved, the reality is we are given a complete breakdown and introduction to the Book World we have only seen glimpses of in the past, and all in the name of solving the mystery. This is something Jasper is very good at, telling us what we need to know but without interrupting the story’s flow. A lot is revealed from past books that you didn’t even realise needed to be solved, but there is also a few unanswered things as well.  There were some unrelated revelations though. We have finally discovered an explanation of how there, their and they’re problems arise in the RealWorld, discover how important syntax is, and how Malapropism is funny, but also makes conversation a little trying. We get to see the dangers of comedy, realise that yes, clowns are an offset of the Horror genre, that humans in a crowd are very much like starling and fish, and the awkward back and forth shuffle between two people on the street is not as simple as it makes out to be.

I really do not want to give any more away for fear of spoilers, but in all truthfulness there is also no time. There is just so much beautiful description, so much detail, imagination, forethought, genius, humour, absurdity, and amazement in this book that you wouldn’t even know where to begin telling you about it all. Even if I did explain them all and gush over their awesomeness, it’d take the joy away from discovering them yourselves and admiring Jasper in your own way. Not all of them even ruin plot, it’s just simple pleasures in the BookWorld life and the story itself that is being told.

A lot of the story seems rather normal for the most part, but then you come to a point where you start to doubt everything you had accepted as true. I entered into this story blindly and accepted what Jasper told me as per usual, when he starts to mess with you there is nothing else to do except try and solve the puzzle or just accept defeat and just read on in confused acceptance until he wants you to know anything. You still have no real idea about what is going on through this book, but where confusion sat most of the time in past books, now instead becomes an air of mystery to a certain degree.

Since I have given nothing out about what actually happens in this book, I suggest you rush out and read it right away. Aside from the plot there is so much more to love about this book, and so many new things that after you reset what you know about these books you will find them a rather intriguing change. A refreshing change is what I think we’ll call this, but I look forward to getting back into the writing and point of view I know and love. What this book does well is give a great insight into how reading is actually done, and received, which changes how you read yourself. Don’t resist it, just accept it and enter this world blissfully; and by the time you finish you will feel as suspicious and guilty for getting sleepy when reading a book as I do now.

Published: 26 June 2008
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 395
Format: Book
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
★   ★   ★   ★   ★  – 5 Stars

Literary Detective Thursday next is officially off the case.. Once a key figure in the BookWorld police force, she is concentrating on her duties as a wife and mother. or so her husband thinks…

Unofficially, Thursday is working as hard as ever = and in this world of dangerously short attention spans, there’s no rest for the literate.

Can Thursday stop Pride and prejudice being turned into a vote-em-off reality book? Who killed Sherlock Holmes? And will Thursday get her teenage son out of bed in time for him to save the world?

A sad day is approaching readers, there are only seven Thursday Next books currently; and we are up to five. But until then, we shan’t let this worry us as we will eagerly enjoy the immense anticipation until beloved Jasper gives us more from his grand knowledge brain in Dark Matter. I will also restrain myself from reviewing his other series for awhile, we may have over-Jaspered ourselves and I feel too much more excitement may cause injury.

There is so much more in this novel than I was expecting, it is overwhelming in the most amazing way. If Jasper does not get a knighthood or something for this series I am going to complain to somebody. As I said this is the fifth book in the Thursday Next series, and after the excitement of discovering this alternate world, exploring books in the literal sense, meeting literary characters, solving duel world issues and saving it from destruction, we see Thursday Next: the mother and carpet laying woman extraordinaire!

I was thrown initially because this story is set in 2002, long after the 1980’s adventures of the previous books. It takes a little getting used to as you adjust to this family scenario instead of the action packed and business side of the previous ones. That is not to say there is no business and action, certainly, but this time we get the added bonus of the family involved as well. Dear little Friday who we saw being adorable and swinging joyfully from curtain rods in Something Rotten is now 16 and being a teenager. It is rather nice seeing Thursday interact with her family in a semi normal fashion; as much normality that can be expected from this surreal world at least.

Having read the previous books I was initially waiting for a moment where I was told it was a dream or an alternate alternate reality, just because it seemed so different from the others yet somehow very much the same. And I suppose when you jump fifteen years or so things tend to have sorted themselves out in the missing years. This feeling did not last as you easily get involved and carried along by this new and equally detailed story, resulting in of course, you spending a lot of your time trying to remember and keep up with who is where and what is going on. The intrigue and suspense pick up their pace very quickly and when the drama begins you are suddenly flung into six different situations at once, the same wonderful sensation that previous books has offered.

We do get multiple updates on what has been happening in these missing years, and any detail that is introduced that seems confusing does get explained further on. What Jasper does well is bring the narrative detail and information into the conversations between characters. Dialogue in the kitchen can manage to explain away bald dodos and missing relatives, and it can give you insights in characters easier than standard descriptive sentences. This saves from having to read the blocks of text where readers are given the run down on everything or everyone. Jasper still has moments of information but they are woven extremely well into the writing style Thursday’s narrative voice has, especially when it comes to recapping not just new information.

A reoccurring issue I have found is that I read one of Mr Fforde’s books, which means I am reading about other books, which means I want to read these books, and then have to go and read them as well. Barely 60 pages in and he has me desperately wanting to read Pinocchio. I can’t be expected to control my reading habits when he makes all these books sound so alluring; and the fact that his books are so addictive means I have no time to read two alongside one another. And if Fforde’s books weren’t wonderful enough, he casually throws in a reference to Doctor Who. I can only adore you so much at a time Mr Fforde! And for the Whovians of the world, since this is set in 2002 it refers to the classic Who which made me all warm and fuzzy on the inside

As in previous books there are a range of brilliant literary characters that appear in this book: new and returning figures both friend, foe and in between. It has even more illegal cheese, Sir Leicester breathlessly ejaculating and the peach mystery has finally been answered. What else does one want in a novel? Amongst all this organised chaos and complexities, Fforde manages to offer some beautiful and true insights and observations about reading, not reading, reality television and the modern world. It suits the 2002 setting perfectly and certainly is something that is relevant today.

I am refusing to reveal anything else, despite my temptations, because anything I say will ruin something and I wouldn’t do it to you. This is a book that is so superb that you have got to read and find these surprises on your own. You will hate me if I ruin even the smallest thing for you. If you have not read any in this series you must read through the others as fast as your little eyes can take you. You should not read these out of order but you must read them, you won’t regret it.

Published: 11 Apr 2005
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 393
Format: Book
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
★   ★   ★   ★   ★  – 5 Stars

Literary detective Thursday next is on a mission – and it’s not just a mission to save the planet. if only it were that simple.

Unemployed following an international cheese-smuggling scandal, our favourite cultural crime-fighter is face with a world of problems: Hamlet’s not attending his conflict resolution classes, President George Formby is facing a coup led by dastardly Yorrick Kaine and, what’s more, the evil Goliath Corporation are refusing to un-eradicate Thursday’s husband, Landen.

Will she ever see Landen again? Is shopping the new religion? Can Thursday prevent Armageddon? And who will babysit her son while she does it?

Sometimes a small part of me hates Jasper Fforde for his brilliant imagination and attention to detail and sheer genius stories that I am overcome with jealousy. But the other 99% of the time I adore him. His character depth and histories and minute details that don’t always have a purpose but somehow make sense and make everything more believable are why I am addicted to these books. I mean who wouldn’t believe Mrs Tiggy Winkle was in your house, seems perfectly logical when Jasper explains it. Of course a gorilla can wear heels and babysit a toddler that only speaks Lorem Ipsum when Jasper explains it.

Something Rotten is just as wonderful as the previous books, and best of all they reference one another and if you hadn’t read them (why haven’t you? What is more important?), but if you haven’t, there are enough quick summaries and references that are silkily woven into the story so it doesn’t stand out as a major recap that stops the flow. It is just simply another humorous, insane and incredible Thursday Next book. I mean where else does Shakespeare, genetic cloning, inappropriate prophets and Chuck Norris get mentioned in one place, answer me that. And if you thought Hamlet wasn’t like Lethal Weapon and Mad Max then you were wrong.

With the previous book offering no real resolution I entered book number four already knowing what was going on, as much as you can anyway. And to some degree I was right. We meet up with Thursday who is still living within the Book World as the Jurisfiction Bellman, and with her child she manages to police the Book World, all the while trying to solve the issues she left behind in the real world.

I have to say this was definitely a high favourite of the series. It wasn’t just the narrative and the revelations and the questions, but there were so many lovable characters and surreal but very realistic moments as well. A lot of answers are given in this book, and a few new questions, I say a few, a lot more questions are asked. Somehow Jasper manages to make things more exciting, more complex, and add more pure and simple genius into every new book. By the end of this series I am not going to be able to control myself if things keep going at this rate. A lot of the previous book flows on into this one as we see more of the Book World life, however Thursday is beginning to tire of it but leaving the literary world does not guarantee the literature is going to leave her.

Many familiar faces return plus a range of new ones. I must say Emperor Zhark and Granny are my strong favourites, but you really can’t choose. The works of Shakespeare cause chaos as per usual, there are just never pleasing some princes; and shopping is fast becoming the new religion. There is professional croquet,  outbreaks of slapstick, minotaurs, cheese and Danish controversy, and the mysterious ovinator to delight the senses and enthrall the mind. I can go on but I won’t.

Somehow, and despite having more books in the series, Jasper has answered all the questions of the previous books. The genius plot of the previous book continues with the aftermath, but in doing so makes the narrative oh so much better. We are kept on the edge of our seats and we are set a flutter in our beds, and if we were to read this in public there would be audible gasps and exclamations as we turn each page. For all the work Jasper has put into this series so far, this is the book that ties it together. And in tying everything together he gives us the greatest ending anyone could possibly imagine. I know I say a lot of things in this book are amazing but this was so spectacular I had to go over it a few times to make sure.

I don’t want you to think anything of this though, Jasper can summerise the past four books all he likes, but he also adds in a whole new set of events and chaos. This is why these books work. Somehow in this organised chaos, that is really not as confusing as it sounds it just makes reviewing rather messy, there are strings that pull you along with Thursday and we get the sense of her urgency, her fear, her confusion and her own chaos. Alan is there in all his adorableness, there’s the ever mocked Daphne Farquitt, Old English, and a whole history of literary characters that are so much stranger than their words give them credit for. If you haven’t started this series yet I can do nothing else for you but hope that you can live with the intense curiosity of never really knowing what it is I am truly going on about.

Published: January 19th 2004
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 360
Format: Book
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
★   ★   ★   ★   ★  – 5 Stars

Pursued by a sinister multinational corporation and an evil genius with a penchant for clothes shopping and memory modification, literary detective Thursday Next is on the run. Not an ideal situation considering she is pregnant by her husband who is presently suffering a non-existence problem.

Taking refuge in the Well of Lost plots – the place where all fiction is created – Thursday ponders her next move from inside an unpublished novel of dubious merit entitled Caversham Heights. But in Thursday’s world, trouble is only ever a page away, and when a succession of Jurisfiction agents are killed, only one woman is up to the job of unmasking the villain responsible.

Will Thursday ever be able to enjoy the quiet life again, or is she about the lose the plot completely.

Inside the Book World, the Well of Lost Plots is where fiction is created. Not only the ideas, but the unpublished, rejected and snippets of stories that have ever been thought of. It is wonderful place, and it is here that we find Thursday Next, hiding within an unpublished Caversham Heights. So welcome to February, and welcome to book number three in the Thursday Next series!

We left book number two with Thursday’s great idea, and this has led her back into the world of literature. Hiding within a novel does not mean a time of rest as Thursday must play her part in the novel as cover, accompanied and with the help of her partner DCI Jack Spratt. As we follow Thursday’s story we learn more about The Great Library and the ins and outs of the Book World we know, but we also get to see the workings of The Well. Inside The Well is where the unpublished books, characters and stories exist, ever hoping to one day be published. The Well has been mentioned in previous books as part of the many sub-levels but this is the first time we get to really see what it is like.

As the narrative explores Thursday’s time down in The Well, Miss Havisham returns and continues Thursday’s training to become an agent. Woven into all the other plots and drama we follow them as they venture around the world solving everyone’s dilemmas, with Miss Havisham being delightfully fun to read about as per usual. Along with Miss Havisham there are many people I adore in this book but Granny Next is definitely a strong favourite. She joins Thursday in the Book World to help her cope, and help her remember what she needs to remember. With Granny Next we are given parts to her story as well, something I find amusing because I am sure it is offending someone in the world somewhere. Personally, I think the moments with Granny Next and Thursday are the best moments to read about in the grand scheme of things, but there is so much going on and so many funny moments you can’t truly pick one. Though Humpty’s drama gets a special mention because I was so pleased with myself when I understood something it made me feel rather special.

What I think is the most enjoyable aspects are the ongoing narratives through this series.  Of course there as probably hundreds of little things that make it wonderful as well, but the underlying story that has structure and consistency makes it that much greater. Naturally there are things that are raised and solved within each book, but by having the same stories, the same issues, and the same people pop up as the books in the background throughout gives an added sense to the real world feeling. Things take time, and ongoing political and global issues are going to still be there no matter what is happening that week, month or year. So by having these issues from past books return, along with new faces, old faces, bureaucratic issues and just plain old murder (which is never as plain as it appears), Jasper is giving us everything we would ever need to create a simply beautiful and spectacular book to read that makes life that little bit more interesting.

I’ve just about given up trying to list all the books Fforde mentions, whether in passing or as a major contributor, so I won’t. Just know there is something for everyone. We also see a greater connection to Jasper’s other series The Nursery Crimes in Lost Plots too. Something that will, naturally, make you want to read them as soon as possible as well. The footnoterphone returns which is always a fun experience, there are grammasites, the mispeling vyrus, and BOOK V8.3 is getting an upgrade. There is also the glam affair of the 923rd Annual Fiction Awards, a mysterious trial, and a lot of waiting! There really is no end to the excitement. The Well of Lost Plots does progress Thursday’s story, but it also spends a lot of the time expanding our view of the Book World rather than the real one. We gain more understanding of how detailed and intricate this world really is, and just how simply reading a book can cause all sorts of emotional, physical and bureaucratical stress. You will never look at books the same way after this novel, I promise you.

Published: July 18th 2002
Publisher: Hodder and Stoughton
Pages: 372
Format: Book
Genre: Science Fiction/Fantasy
★   ★   ★   ★   ★  – 5 Stars

Thursday Next, literary detective and registered dodo owner begins her married life with the disturbing news that her husband of only a month drowned thirty-eight years ago, and no one but Thursday has any memory of him at all. Someone, somewhere, sometime, is responsible. Could it be the ubiquitous Goliath Corporation, who will stop at nothing to get their operative Jack Schitt out of ‘The Raven’ — the poem in which Thursday trapped him? Or are more sinister forces at work in Swindon?

Having barely caught her breath after The Eyre Affair, Thursday heads back into fiction to search for some answers. Along the way she finds herself helping Miss Havisham close narrative loopholes in Great Expectations, struggling for a deeper understanding of The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies and learning the truth about Larry the Lamb. Paper politicians, lost Shakespearean manuscripts, woolly mammoth migrations, a flurry of near-fatal coincidences and impending Armageddon are all part of a greater plan.

But whose? And why?

Time for another rave about the Thursday Next series. I am very much and a little cross with myself for not reviewing this when I finished it last year because I have lost that feeling and recall of exactly what happens and how I felt. Of course I remember a lot, not all of which I’ll tell you because it spoils the glory, but it is the little things and funny lines that make you laugh. So maybe when one has time for a reread I may find more but for now this will suffice. Lost in a Good Book takes place three months after The Eyre Affair fiasco and Thursday has become a celebrity of sorts, though slightly out of favour with the Bronte Federation, with good reason. Naturally Goliath Corp attempt to censor a lot of Thursday’s story and with a determination to repair the damage Thursday caused at the end of The Eyre Affair, they fight to get back what they want; but this time it’s personal on a whole new level. The consequences of the previous book’s actions are a strong narrative puller, but there is a lot more going on as well.

Issues around Shakespeare return in book two with a discovered lost transcript being investigated. As the best in the business regarding these matters, Thursday and her partner Bowden Cable try and determine if this really is the lost copy of the play Cardenio. This of course is connected to bigger and better things, as everything always is.

Thursday’s father makes another appearance in this book which is always fun. I do like him, you never know what is going to happen when he pops in. It messes with your head as you try to figure out what  is going on, but it is just too fun to be bothered by any of it. The literary world also plays a much larger role in this book than The Eyre Affair. We discover more about the Book World, about the Great Library and we learn about Jurisfiction – the police force of literature (both fiction and non-fiction division).

What was wonderful about this book was not only the range and imagination of this world and the mass of literary knowledge and complex genius that just works (don’t ever question it), but it is also the fact that Fforde can do this with mystery and twists and unexpectedness that can be masterful when you deal with a world as surreal and insane as this. What seems odd to us is normal for them, so when strange things happen to them, you know it is going to be wonderful.

You really get to see that the characters in a book are as real as any of us, and are people who have their own lives to lead. Entering Jane Eyre showed us that but Lost in a Good Book takes it to a whole other level, which isn’t even every level, not even close. Reading about all these books: Shakespeare, Dickens, Kafka, it just makes you want to rush off and read them as well, but you can’t because you can not put down what you are reading.

There are hints and clues through these books as Fforde prepares us for the future and what we need to know. We don’t know it at the time but when we find out something clicks and we realise we already know. It is very much like getting the answer before the question is given, and you don’t even get told which answer goes to which question, but somehow you know.

Once again Fforde uses brilliant literary characters and insight to create yet another fantastic story of surreal but highly believable reality. There are new threats and enemies in this book, revenge, shoes, laughs, and more dodo than you could want (which is never enough). Just simply another great display of this alternate world of theirs, which even without the literature would be just as fantastic. There is more SpecOps, more Daphne Farquitt, lethal coincidences and the oncoming apocalypse, what more do you want? I applaud you Mr Fforde.