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bookook's review
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
A fun and funny read. Poor Eddie Russett has had a very busy and confusing four days. He's a hapless and charming protagonist, and I think the best parts of the book are when he's realizing how weird his world is and how many mysteries are out there. His society has lost a lot of knowledge and most of their history - it's funny when Eddie talks about concepts whose meanings have been lost to time, like "Chuck Nauris" and "M'Donna," but sad when he and others wonder what arcs in a long-exposure photo are.
The world is interesting, if thinly built. In this world, most people can only see one color naturally (Eddie can only see red), I suppose excepting black, white, and gray. I found the world and rules more interesting than all the characters and their relationships. We're supposed to root for Eddie and surly Jane, but I generally dislike the trope of "person A falls in love with person B who's very mean to them." Have some self-respect, man.
The book owes a lot to The Giver. A dystopiann society where seeing color is a rare/restricted ability, and only a very small group of people know what actually happened in the past...
Overall, this was a fun read. I enjoyed it, but not quite enough to read the sequel.
The world is interesting, if thinly built. In this world, most people can only see one color naturally (Eddie can only see red), I suppose excepting black, white, and gray. I found the world and rules more interesting than all the characters and their relationships. We're supposed to root for Eddie and surly Jane, but I generally dislike the trope of "person A falls in love with person B who's very mean to them." Have some self-respect, man.
The book owes a lot to The Giver. A dystopiann society where seeing color is a rare/restricted ability, and only a very small group of people know what actually happened in the past...
Overall, this was a fun read. I enjoyed it, but not quite enough to read the sequel.
kelkelau's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
amandakh's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
durbeyfielde's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lisamchuk's review
2.0
Where do I start? Eddie Russet and his father are on their way to East Carmine, a far away outpost, and thus not really a trip they'd like to go on. As Russets, they see the world as grey, except for red colours. In East Carmine, we meet other "colourful" characters, the yellows, greens, blues, oranges and purples, including the greys - those people who can't see colour at all and are lowest on the social status system. As Fforde continues to build his world, we learn about the cult of Munsell, the social caste system, and the weird ways of the world. But all is not as it seems, and Eddie and his cranky, and somewhat violent maid Jane are on the trail to uncover details that will upset the colour balance - if they can avoid the corrupt bullies and stay alive long enough!
Bad summary, I know, but this book is hard to explain. Parts of this book are very clever. The whole colour viewing social system creation of Fforde's is super neat, and the weird slightly off throw backs to our world added to the neatness. He definitely has created an interesting world, so props for the world building. In the end, I never really knew if the people were people or robots or what. This book would probably make a good movie as it's very visual based. I might tune in.
But contrary to why we chose it, I didn't find this book funny, at least not "laugh out loud" or even "smirk" or "chuckle quietly to myself" funny. The humour is more...British I guess, very reminiscent of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker, Terry Pratchett's DiscWorld, or obviously Fforde's Thursday Next series. So not funny but peculiar. Which is good if that's what you're after. Not sure that's what I was after. Also it was quirkily gorey (lot's of dead bodies), which I wasn't expecting.
There were a few things that disappointed me about this book. First, I realized after I'd finished that it was a dystopian novel. Duh. Of course. Why didn't I realize that straight away: the clues are obvious from the beginning? The reason this is disappointing is I HATE dystopian stories. And this goes a long way to explaining why I just couldn't like the book. Secondly, I found out after that it's the first of a trilogy, which is disappointing because I didn't like the book and don't want to read more but there are unresolved plot issues, which is super annoying. Near the end I could tell he was setting it up for more. Not like reading a series is bad, but he hasn't even written the other two books (which I wont read, but might look up a plot summary on the interwebs, if I even remember this book was a thing by the time he publishes more). Finally, I hated the two twists at the end. It was that feeling where you'd read all the way through the book and then he throws a curve ball which you hate so much it made you wish you hadn't read the first 300-some pages. Just disappointing and sad. But I guess there are no happing endings in dystopia. Especially when there's still two books to come in a trilogy.
In case you can't tell, I didn't really like the book. Sure, it was clever - the whole colour viewing caste system was unique. And the parallels to our world, the inside jokes, some of those were clever as well. But overall, I found I didn't really get to love the characters, and this combined with the disappointing ending, well, yeah. I really enjoyed Fforde's Thursday Next series and will probably reread it one of these days, but I'm passing on his Shades of Grey universe.
The internet loves this book though, so you might too. If you like clever not-overly-violent dystopia, pick it up.
Bad summary, I know, but this book is hard to explain. Parts of this book are very clever. The whole colour viewing social system creation of Fforde's is super neat, and the weird slightly off throw backs to our world added to the neatness. He definitely has created an interesting world, so props for the world building. In the end, I never really knew if the people were people or robots or what. This book would probably make a good movie as it's very visual based. I might tune in.
But contrary to why we chose it, I didn't find this book funny, at least not "laugh out loud" or even "smirk" or "chuckle quietly to myself" funny. The humour is more...British I guess, very reminiscent of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker, Terry Pratchett's DiscWorld, or obviously Fforde's Thursday Next series. So not funny but peculiar. Which is good if that's what you're after. Not sure that's what I was after. Also it was quirkily gorey (lot's of dead bodies), which I wasn't expecting.
There were a few things that disappointed me about this book. First, I realized after I'd finished that it was a dystopian novel. Duh. Of course. Why didn't I realize that straight away: the clues are obvious from the beginning? The reason this is disappointing is I HATE dystopian stories. And this goes a long way to explaining why I just couldn't like the book. Secondly, I found out after that it's the first of a trilogy, which is disappointing because I didn't like the book and don't want to read more but there are unresolved plot issues, which is super annoying. Near the end I could tell he was setting it up for more. Not like reading a series is bad, but he hasn't even written the other two books (which I wont read, but might look up a plot summary on the interwebs, if I even remember this book was a thing by the time he publishes more). Finally, I hated the two twists at the end. It was that feeling where you'd read all the way through the book and then he throws a curve ball which you hate so much it made you wish you hadn't read the first 300-some pages. Just disappointing and sad. But I guess there are no happing endings in dystopia. Especially when there's still two books to come in a trilogy.
In case you can't tell, I didn't really like the book. Sure, it was clever - the whole colour viewing caste system was unique. And the parallels to our world, the inside jokes, some of those were clever as well. But overall, I found I didn't really get to love the characters, and this combined with the disappointing ending, well, yeah. I really enjoyed Fforde's Thursday Next series and will probably reread it one of these days, but I'm passing on his Shades of Grey universe.
The internet loves this book though, so you might too. If you like clever not-overly-violent dystopia, pick it up.
maximum_moxie's review
4.0
A romp, as all Fforde's books are. Witty, acerbic, and comes quite close to home at times. My only complaint--the main character becomes uncharacteristically brave in the last chapters to move the plot along, and these same chapters also suffer from a moderate case of data dumping. Even so, another great world and story by Fforde.
smelsela's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
claire_dal's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
rosalindm1's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
One of my favourite authors. This is a reread because the sequel was just released. The usual skewed version of the world - this time a society stratified by colour vision quality. So imaginative!
kimthezombie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0