Shades of Grey Jasper Fforde

Plot:

Part social satire, part romance, part revolutionary thriller, Shades of Grey tells of a battle against overwhelming odds. In a society where the ability to see the higher end of the color spectrum denotes a better social standing, Eddie Russet belongs to the low-level House of Red and can see his own color—but no other. The sky, the grass, and everything in between are all just shades of grey, and must be colorized by artificial means.

Eddie’s world wasn’t always like this. There’s evidence of a never-discussed disaster and now, many years later, technology is poor, news sporadic, the notion of change abhorrent, and nighttime is terrifying: no one can see in the dark. Everyone abides by a bizarre regime of rules and regulations, a system of merits and demerits, where punishment can result in permanent expulsion.

Eddie, who works for the Color Control Agency, might well have lived out his rose-tinted life without a hitch. But that changes when he becomes smitten with Jane, a Grey Nightseer from the dark, unlit side of the village. She shows Eddie that all is not well with the world he thinks is just and good. Together, they engage in dangerous revolutionary talk.

Stunningly imaginative, very funny, tightly plotted, and with sly satirical digs at our own society, this novel is for those who loved Thursday Next but want to be transported somewhere equally wild, only darker; a world where the black and white of moral standpoints have been reduced to shades of grey.

Review:

I highly recommend reading the plot synopsis before reading the book. It had been a while since I’d read it so I actually had some issues figuring out what was going on. The book was good, it was by Jasper Fforde so of course it was, but there were times when I couldn’t understand the world that he had created. The plot synopsis really grabs you and is very interesting and the book was good but I felt like it dragged a little. It might have been just the fact that he started out with a scene at the beginning of the book that happens near the end. So I spent the entire book waiting for that scene to happen and it was a bit annoying because there was a ton of build up before it did. There are still so many unanswered questions but the next book doesn’t come out until possibly next year.

Overall I would recommend waiting to read the series until the next comes out and definitely read the synopsis first.

3.5/5 stars