Shades of Grey: A Novel by Jasper Fforde

I picked this up because I like Fforde. I stumbled onto his books through his Nursery Crimes Series on one of the buy 2 get one free tables at Barnes and Noble. I like rewrites of fairy tails/nursery rhymes/classics/etc. so I decided to give it a whirl, and it was fantastic. Did the same with the Thursday Next series, which is lovely in all of its literary dorkiness.

I cannot say the same for this book.

The first strike against the book was the print. I couldn't even read the paperback version of it, thanks to bad leading (spaces between the lines - too small), kerning (spacing between the letters - too small), and paper (bad color and bad quality). I had to buy the Kindle version because it was so unreasonable. That didn't really set me off on the right foot with this book.

The premise of the book is that the society is based on colors and color perception. The society is somewhat dystopian as there is oppression based on your color as well as lack of supplies. People are also "branded" with their code and expected to fulfill certain jobs based on their rank and ability to see colors. The conflict centers around the fact that the world is slowly becoming monochromatic, which results in some of the characters having to go on color quests.

However, I could have cared less. There wasn't the world play as there has been in previous Fforde books (although one of the "Greys" - the lowest class possible - is named Dorian Grey, ha ha ha) , and it was just kinda boring.

I think the key sign that this book wasn't that great is how long it has taken me to read it. Typically, I'll finish a book in a few days. It's been a week, and I can't read this book for more than 20 minutes without wanting to fall asleep.

I suggest just skipping this one and picking up the next Thursday book - One of Our Thursdays Is Missing.