The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

Synopsis (from Goodreads)

Great Britain circa 1985 has ChronoGuard time travellers. Thursday Next, Special Operative SO-4 Literary Detective is promoted to secret SO-5 because only she has seen and survived "differently moraled" killer Acheron Hades. He has kidnapped her Uncle Mycroft and his Prose Portal, killed guards to steal original manuscripts, and kills characters to get ransom money. Now he has taken Jane Eyre.

But hero Rochester is a childhood friend. Next's father is a rogue time agent who pops in fortuitously. And her future self tells her where to find the wanted criminal - Swindon, where her ex-fiance Landen still lives. They have not spoken since he disgraced her brother Anton, killed in Crimea, the Charge of the Light Brigade they both survived. This blend of mystery, action, satire and romance takes Next inside Jane Eyre for the solution.

My Thoughts

After seeing several people raving about Jasper Fforde and his books I started thinking that I should check out some of his work and see if it was worth all the hype. So, when I saw The Eyre Affair with an incredible price, I took it as the perfect opportunity to read something by this author.

The world created by Jasper Fforde is mesmerizing! I had never read anything like this before. I loved how his characters would get themselves lost  in literature and debates about books and how they could actually contact with the characters of the novels. Who, as an avid reader and book lover, wouldn't like to be a part of a book and meet his favorites characters? Stroll on the same streets and fields described on the story? I would love that so .... where to I sign in??

This book also had interesting characters but the one that definitely stood out was Thursday Next, not only for her peculiar name but also for being so smart and determined, for her sarcasm and for being so good at what she did. I also loved the fact that she had a dodo as a pet. As for the other characters, I also liked her father - lost in time, literally - and her brother Joffy, who was probably the funniest one in the book.

However, I have to admit, the beginning wasn't as engaging as I was hoping it to be. It wasn't that easy to get into the story, there were a lot of elements and subplots to keep up with and it all seemed to go a bit faster than it should. Also, the Jane Eyre part was concentrated on the last third of the book and even though it was my favorite part I thought (and hoped) there would be more to it.

Overall I really enjoyed this book and I was quite impressed by Jasper Fforde's imagination and writing style. The world in this book is fantastic and the interaction between his characters and the ones from the great classics of literature is amazing. Even though, at times, I was somewhat overwhelmed by all the elements and subplots of the story, I really enjoyed it and loved the connection to Jane Eyre.

I'll be checking out the rest of the series and also Shades of Grey, which seems to be amazing as well. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.