The second installment in Jasper Fforde’s New York Times bestselling series follows literary detective Thursday Next on another adventure in her alternate reality of literature-obsessed England—from the author of The Constant RabbitThe inventive, exuberant, and totally original literary fun that began with The Eyre Affair continues with New York Times bestselling author Jasper Fforde’s … bestselling author Jasper Fforde’s magnificent second adventure starring the resourceful, fearless literary sleuth Thursday Next. When Landen, the love of her life, is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative of Jurisfiction—the police force inside the BookWorld. She is apprenticed to the man-hating Miss Havisham from Dickens’s Great Expectations, who grudgingly shows Thursday the ropes. And she gains just enough skill to get herself in a real mess entering the pages of Poe’s “The Raven.” What she really wants is to get Landen back. But this latest mission is not without further complications.
Along with jumping into the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter’s The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth. It’s another genre-bending blend of crime fiction, fantasy, and top-drawer literary entertainment for fans of Douglas Adams and P. G. Wodehouse. Thursday’s zany investigations continue with The Well of Lost Plots.
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Book Review
Jasper Fforde had a stroke of brilliance with the “Thursday Next” series of adventure books. Lost in a Good Book is the second release in the series and I’ve given it a very high 3 of 5 stars. As it’s a very difficult book to truly wrap your head around, it couldn’t get a 5 from me. When I compared it to the first one, The Eyre Affair, I had to give it a slightly lower rating just because I enjoyed the first one more. A few really cool things about these books:
1. Thursday is a literary detective who can jump into a book to try to solve whatever crime has occurred within the book.
2. Crimes can include changing plot lines, removing characters, introducing chaos…
3. You have to be mad or brilliant, or both, to come up with these kinds of stores. In this one, “The Raven” and “Flopsy Bunny” are major character arcs. Can you imagine dealing with that?
4. The book has footnotes on every page, but they’re not real footnotes. They are commentary or thoughts about what’s being said in the book that the person talking wouldn’t necessarily know, but the reader needs to know them. I’m sure you’re confused if you’ve never read one of these books. So am I from time to time, and I’ve read three of them.
5. It’s such a great concept, and sometimes well-executed. And it’s got your typical romance component in it too.
6. But it can get very confusing if you don’t read slowly and think about every single action. There are so many made up words, actions, histories… it’s an alternative fantasy universe and you never know what might actually happen.
7. At times, I think it’s one of the best stories I’ve read. At others, it’s still confusing me. But I focus on the little parts surrounding the realities of the characters and what they are doing.
Phew…. complicated to write this review. It can’t be a normal one without it going on for pages about what is actually going on. All you need to know is if you have a huge imagination, don’t need structure, and love books… you must give it a chance.
Read 6.12.2008
Well. I just have to say this:
I LOVE THESE BOOKS!!!!!!!!!
I think I have finally found a series of books to make-up for not having anymore Harry Potter books!!!
That said, while I LOVED this book, it is MORE confusing than the first one was. You sometimes have to go back and re-read what you just read (in some cases the whole chapter) to really get a handle on what is going on. But that just adds to it really. 🙂
AND because you NEED to read the first book to even get a grasp on what is going on here and to write ANYTHING about this book would need major *SPOILER* alerts, I am going to just write ONE thing:
GO GET THIS SERIES AND READ IT!!!!!!!!
(Yes, this means YOU Paula!!!)
Filled with action, “sorrow” and very interesting characters with the BEST names (ever)<--I just laugh-out-loud reading some of them, these books rock my world!!!
I love this series! Such a fun concept and great characters.
The entire series is great.
Thursday Next is a Prose Resource Operative of Jurisfiction, the police force inside books. Where people jump into books and a multinational corporation tries to take over the world, dangling participles are an evil to be overcome! Come with an open mind and a sense of fun…..
Highly intelligent and amusing. Read the Eyre Affair first.
Far out book fantasy. One in a series of highly original works for book lovers.
Highly recommend the whole Thursday Next series. Jasper Fforde is an incredibly intelligent writer. Great book, awesome series…lots of fun, keeps you hooked and wanting more!
I love this whole series.
I can’t resist Fford’s humor and allusions, even when they shoot over my head!
I read several of this series some years ago (in the pre-kindle days). They’re sort of a detective story/send-up of modern lit-crit. They’re done in a very witty way and amalgamate a lot of existing literature in creating the plot lines. I found it amusing for about three or four books and then I was just done with the whole thing and couldn’t stand to read any more of it.
I love the Thursday Next books. They are like nothing else you will ever read. You get to see what is happening inside the books you are reading and it makes reading every book you read better than it ever was before.
Great romp with a literary twist. It’s a fun must-read.
Jasper Fforde does it again. Quick wit and lyrical puns make “Lost in a Good Book” a must read. If Monty Python is up your ally this is a recommendation you should not pass up.
I have read many of the Thursday Next books. They are clever and a lot of fun. I am smiling writing this!
I enjoyed this series very much. It is very unusual but once you get used to it you wish it were really possible.
This is one of my favorite series and Jasper Fforde is one of my favorite authors. The story is so innovative with an unusual, creative setting. The characters are interesting, the story is so well written, and the book is well edited. I enjoy everything this author writes and highly recommend this book, the series, and the author.