rartastic's reviews
416 reviews

I thought the book was a bit too clunky. I'm fine with alternate universes, but Fforde changed so many things in Thursday Next's world that most of the story was set-up and "look at this idea I had" and inside jokes for literature folks that it felt like the plot didn't really start until the last third of the book. And while I rooted for Thursday (she was the protagonist after all, and Jane Eyre is worth saving) I didn't really feel connected to her the way I do to other heroines. Thursday seemed a caricature of a woman and flat at the same time. While the novel was written in first person, it did not convey a rich inner life that I am used to reading in first person stories. It takes more than brief, yet repeated mentions of crying to convey emotion.
I wonder why Fforde decided to write from a woman's point of view - his style seems to be more applicable to a male detective.