Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde

June 29, 2024

Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde

Following the death of a prominent Orange, Eddie Russet and his lover Jane Brunswick are about to go on trial. Since Eddie tested at 87% red, he has been forced into an arranged marriage with the awful Violet DeMauve, whose family wants to strengthen their color line with his strong red genes. Even though he is married to Violet, Eddie has no intention of giving up Jane. The village is competing in the upcoming Jollity Fair, with Jane being one of the star athletes, provided she is not found guilty during the trial. But Eddie and Jane are more interested in finding out the truth about their world, as well as following clues about what Eddie's mother was up to, and what really happened to her.

Return with me to Chromatacia where your existence is controlled by your limited color vision in the long-awaited sequel to Shades of Grey. Really delightful, clever and creative world building. Life is ruled by the color-tocracy with all of its bizarre rules (residents cannot wear gloves no matter what their job is or how cold it is, spoons cannot be manufactured, linoleum is the major produce even though no one wants it, etc.) which begins to make sense as our star-crossed lovers Eddie and Jane go digging for answers. The ways in which the villagers subvert the rules and the rulers is very entertaining. Read the first book before this one - it will make a lot more sense. Recommended for fantasy readers, especially those who enjoy world building.

The color spectrum

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

April 10, 2020

The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

Irene is a Librarian with the Invisible Library, which houses copies of all books ever created.  Her latest assignment is to secure a copy of Grimm's fairy tales that includes a previously unknown tale, from an alternate Victorian London.  She is accompanied by a new trainee, Kai, although she's not sure if he is there to assist her or watch her.  The assignment seems straight-forward at first, until the Librarian-in-Residence in the alternate world advises them that the book's owner was a vampire who was brutally murdered, and the book has vanished.  What seemed a simple "get in and get out" task becomes much more complicated by the occult residents of the alternate world, and Irene and Kai find themselves in mortal danger from unknown enemies.

I usually gravitate toward any book that has "library" in the title but it took me a while to get into this one.  I actually started it once before but put it aside.  The characters are decent but the plot is kind of hazy with too many characters and types (vampires, Fae folk, dashing detectives, clockwork animals, etc.).  There were also characters who were introduced, like the elder Miss Olga Retrograde, who seemed like they were going to add something interesting to the story but then were never referred to again.  This title is the first in a series so maybe some of these characters will recur later.  While the story was okay, it definitely had a YA feel and I'm not sure I found it engaging enough to continue with the series.

I haven't been reading as much as usual lately.  I do a lot of my reading on my commute to work, and with being at home so much, I've been doing other things.  Also, my sweet little dog Asia died in her sleep on Monday night.  I adopted her when she was 10-1/2 so I knew there was a chance she wouldn't be with me for long, but I hoped it would be more than 18 months.  Asia was just the best little girl, so peaceful and unfussy, and she left me the same way she lived. 😥