A wonderful read. World-building- and character-driven in a nice a laidback way. ( )

A reluctant 4****. On the positive, it is inventive, imaginative, clever. This distopian colour-obsessed future made me reflect on the many nonsensical rules we have to live by today. But on the negative, I don’t appreciate sentences like ‘the perpetulite spalled at the centre of the bridge where the organoplastoid had been cut’. The writing reminded me of Terry Pratchett, loved by many, but I’m not a fan. This took me tedious ages to plough through. Not a fan.S ( )

I know I started this when it came out, remember it being weird and hard to get into, but during this re-read/listen I suspect I abandoned it unfinished. John Lee's performance is terrific, and i think it's easier to get into this knowing the basics of the chromatic social structure up front.

I'm looking forward to "Red Side Story." ( )

I was thoroughly entertained by the quirkiness of and clever satirical social commentary within Jasper Fforde’s The Eyre Affair and Early Riser. So, I have had this novel on my wish list for some time. Plus, the upcoming release of its long-awaited sequel, Red Side Story, gave me the extra push needed.

Shades of Grey lacks a little momentum in its early stages – for me its only noteworthy weakness. But, this novel’s latter half is a real page turner. There were two clear contributing factors to the slow start, which oddly, turn out to actually be strengths in the long run.

The first is Jasper Fforde’s detailed focus and time spent on world-building. To an extent, one could argue this is a necessity for readers to get their bearings in dystopic fiction. But as we know, there are numerous fantasy authors such as Mark Lawrence penning fast-paced openings to epic sagas. Ultimately though, it was not long before I was enthralled in the mysteries of this chromatically challenged world. In some ways this dystopian society is a larger ‘character’ than all those contained within it. Continue reading: https://www.bookloverbookreviews.com/2024/01/jasper-fforde-shades-of-grey.html ( )

Jasper Fforde always brings something out of the box to the reader, and the politely dystopian future based on color perception is precisely that. Looking forward to the next (snerk) book, as our main character realizes he's only scratching the surface of repressed knowledge. ( )