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The Woman Who Died A Lot

(Thursday Next #7)

Jasper Fforde (Goodreads Author)

4.06 · Rating details · 12,859 ratings · 1,499 reviews

The Bookworld’s leading enforcement officer, Thursday Next, has been forced into semiretirement following an assassination attempt. When Thursday’s former SpecOps division is reinstated, she assumes she’s the obvious choice to lead the Literary Detectives. But our banged-up heroine is no spring chicken, and her old boss has a cushier job in mind for her: chief librarian of ...more

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Hardcover, 366 pages

Published October 9th 2012 by Viking (first published July 12th 2012)

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Sep 08, 2020 Mario the lone bookwolf rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fforde-jasper

This series was always amazing and ends magnificent, so why are publishers afraid of giving more progressive, fresh authors a possibility to make the lives of all reading beings more delightful?

The final part gives a pretty good answer to this question, relating to the National Stupidity index that gives the Goliath corporation immense power over the already weak CommonSense party. Satire and reality are fusing more and more, sometimes it´s difficult to differentiate, remember, and realize what This series was always amazing and ends magnificent, so why are publishers afraid of giving more progressive, fresh authors a possibility to make the lives of all reading beings more delightful?

The final part gives a pretty good answer to this question, relating to the National Stupidity index that gives the Goliath corporation immense power over the already weak CommonSense party. Satire and reality are fusing more and more, sometimes it´s difficult to differentiate, remember, and realize what is what. Am I just reading a comedy or the news, it must be a comedy as I don´t read newspapers or did someone play a trick on me and mixed news together to a novel? It´s all of the same deliberate or collateral, unnoticed stupidity.

But here lies the real-life reason for why mainstream has become an ultimate mantra, forcing the producers of content to satisfy the needs of an audience used to a very small variety of genres and conventions, even including reading. The topic is too big to deal with it here, cultural imperialism and the usual stuff, but the inherent irony that the endless potential of literature is, both by publishers and readers, lead towards more monocultures and clones of running systems is to a certain part frightening and depressing.

Of course, it´s the same with music and movies, but a book is something so personal and different that I am sometimes wondering why people aren´t more interested in going new ways, exploring different ways of storytelling, breaking out of the conventions and reading restrictions one creates for her/himself without even recognizing. To exaggerate a bit and stay in the spirit of the book, there are not just genres but ways of telling that are not dying, but stagnating and not developing further because there are not enough readers to make them profitable.

Going the conspiracy road and saying that this series is a bit too close to real life and that it might offend many readers in how it describes economy, political parties, religion, and society may be an option too. In a mixture of this and the fear of publishers to fail with an ingenious work that is too ahead of time might lie the reason why even works like this one that aren´t too long, complicated, too specifically written for one audience, and general masterpieces often have such a difficult and deferred start.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph... ...more

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Sep 28, 2012 Dan rated it liked it

Jasper Fforde has built one of the most intriguing and thoroughly odd worlds in his alternate Earth within his Thursday Next series. Unfortunately, the very strengths of that fully developed world are transmogrifying into a weakness that threatens the series.

It's a case of too much. In The Woman Who Died a Lot, the wackiness of the world becomes too much for the narrative to sustain, and while the series has always felt like Fforde is barely controlling the craziness, he loses that control here ...more

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Nov 15, 2013 David Baldacci rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Another entry in Fforde’s incomparable Thursday Next series. Jasper Fforde has one of the most vivid imaginations of all time -- like J.K. Rowling on steroids.

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Nov 28, 2011 sj rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: end-of-the-world-challenge, favourites

You know, I keep thinking I'm going to be able to write this review, but I still don't know exactly what I want to say about it yet.

It's probably my favourite so far of the Thursday Next series, which kind of surprises me, seeing as how it has so little of the things I generally love the most about these books.

(view spoiler)

Now, I get that there's a reason for that, and the way it was explained made complete sense.

The thing that surp ...more

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Jan 02, 2014 Carmen rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: Book-lovers

Shelves: science-fiction, fiction, he-says, traditionally-published

Book #7 in the Thursday Next series. Not a stand-alone, I highly recommend reading the other books before this one.

Thursday Next remains one of my favorite fictional female characters. A 56-year-old, who is disabled, a gun-carrying war veteran, a wife and mother, and...someone who has the ability to transport into books and back out again. I adore the fact that Fforde has allowed Thursday to age: in the first book she's 36, and now (6 books later) she's 56.

Highlights: a man who has passages of L ...more

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Apr 19, 2013 Chris rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I've been reading the Thursday Next books for more than a decade, and have greatly enjoyed my travels with Thursday. The early books seemed to have four things which made them quite enjoyable--a feisty protagonist, biting satire of modern life, a wide ranging yet well written plot filled with dozens of characters, and most importantly references to an entire library full of books in Bookworld which made every in-joke you got a good laugh and every one you didn't made you want to run to the neare I've been reading the Thursday Next books for more than a decade, and have greatly enjoyed my travels with Thursday. The early books seemed to have four things which made them quite enjoyable--a feisty protagonist, biting satire of modern life, a wide ranging yet well written plot filled with dozens of characters, and most importantly references to an entire library full of books in Bookworld which made every in-joke you got a good laugh and every one you didn't made you want to run to the nearest library and start reading. Sadly, the series has slowly lost all four and this book fell flat.

In The Woman Who Died a Lot, Thursday is getting old, and Fforde seems to have something of an obsession with it, bringing up every pain, exasperation of parenting and boring old lady commentary on happily married life. Our sassy, fun heroine has transformed rapidly into a different character who happens to share her backstory. The formerly witty commentary on modern life just seems forced at this point, and coupled with a plot that seems contrived and bizarre, you almost feel at times as if the book has wandered off course and isn't sure how to get back on track. You used to encounter dozens of characters each book, but since many of them were ripped from classic literature or stereotypical genre works, it was easy to keep track of them. In this book a constant stream of people appear, some in cameos from other books, some because you feel like they have a contractual obligation to a certain number of words, and a large number wander in and out making you wonder if you've even met them before. Most disappointing, Bookworld, sort of the whole point of the series, is now totally inaccessible (although Fforde had spent the previous two books drastically changing it before abandoning the whole thing) and the main thing that set these books apart from any other satirical British mystery/action novels is gone. I'm not sure that I will give any future ones a read.

In short--I seem to recall seeing Fforde is turning out novels at a rather fast pace with several series in the works. I can only assume he's tired of this series but owes his publisher a few more (or else can't seem to give Thursday up). Either way, he should do his fans a favor, and end the series while it still has readers. m ...more

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Aug 06, 2012 Malcolm rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: alt-worlds, fiction-contemporary

I’ve enjoyed the Thursday Next series since encountering her in the wonderful The Eyre Affair 10 years ago despite my worry that Fforde had read rather too many classics, pulp police procedurals and postmodern theory which he seemed to weave together through a slightly absurd public school/Oxbridge wit. Hits his stride again here after what seems like a bit of a detour in One of Our Thursdays is Missing, despite its verve, wit, meta-fictional commentary and freshness. The last Thursday Next stru I’ve enjoyed the Thursday Next series since encountering her in the wonderful The Eyre Affair 10 years ago despite my worry that Fforde had read rather too many classics, pulp police procedurals and postmodern theory which he seemed to weave together through a slightly absurd public school/Oxbridge wit. Hits his stride again here after what seems like a bit of a detour in One of Our Thursdays is Missing, despite its verve, wit, meta-fictional commentary and freshness. The last Thursday Next struck me as creating a little too much of an absurdly parallel world, set as it was entirely in Bookworld – the series’ parallel (as in, the world of books) world – so, much as I enjoyed its wit and textual commentary, the tale did not really hold me. Now, in The Woman Who Died A Lot, despite its time bending in Kemble, pre-announced smiting by a supreme being that Expectation Influenced Probability Theory tells us only exists because we believe it to exist (I love the brief aside that the God-like supreme being may be abandoned in favour of Diana the Huntress, if for no other reason that she has better feminist cred) and toffee powered facsimiles of humans, Thursday returns the ‘real’ world of not-quite-Swindon-as-we-know-it, Fforde has returned to the Thursday Next life outside Bookworld.

In this outing, Thursday, now in her early 50s, is recovering from her injuries sustained at the end of One of Our Thursdays – it may be Bookworld but the threat of injury/damage/death is real – while Swindon is under threat of being smitten (lightning bolts and all) from the Global Standard Deity where the solution seems to lie with her genius 16 year old daughter Tuesday, SpecOps is being reformed and Thursday is hoping to head up SO-27 which deals with crimes against literature. Meanwhile, her Mindworm making her believe she has three children (not two –the non-existent Jenny remains), Goliath Corporation continues to try to dominate the world and the nation is in crisis because years of rule by the CommonSense Party means that the National Stupidity Index is dangerously low. In short, it is a pretty standard week in Swindon a la Fforde. By the end of the week, the future has been changed perhaps, time travel still remains possibly impossible (or impossibly possible), Jenny is still around (sort of), SpecOps is back but not in the form expected, and a new adventure in the offing – bring on TN8…..

Silly and therefore just perfect for one of those summer days that isn’t quite summer. ...more

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Sep 24, 2013 Terence rated it liked it

Shelves: sf-fantasy

The Woman Who Died A Lot is the seventh book in the Thursday Next series and proves to be another enjoyable visit to the book-obsessed alternate Earth of Swindon, where the enforcement arm of the Library Service agitates for permission to conduct dawn raids to retrieve overdue books, and all of the Service’s members would die to protect any book in the library (except for “those bloody awful Emperor Zhark novels and anything written by Daphne Farquitt”). There are a number of stories going on in ...more

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Aug 29, 2012 Bettie marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: autumn-2012, series, hardback

'I think it's an episode of the Dukes of Hazzard'

Dedication:

To all the librarians
that have ever been
ever will be
are now
this book is respectfully dedicated

Everything comes to an end. A good bottle of wine, a summer's day, a long-running sitcom, one's life, and eventually our species. The question for many of us is not that everything will come to an end, but when, and can we do anything vaguely useful until it does?

5* The Eyre Affair
5* Lost in a Good Book
5* The Well of Lost Plots
5* Something ...more

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Oct 30, 2012 Melissa McShane rated it really liked it

Shelves: alternate-history, own, fantasy, humor, action-adventure

I love the Thursday Next series, but wasn't as fond of this one. Probably I'll like it better the next time I read it, but I'm not sure; the ending seemed a little contrived, or at the very least rushed. Although Fforde sets up the denouement throughout the book, the fact that it involves not only new characters but also a hitherto unknown organization makes it feel forced.

Aside from this, the storyline with Thursday's son Friday trying to change his destiny was really good. I especially liked t ...more

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Jan 17, 2014 R.S. Carter rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: series, adventure, alternate-reality, fantasy, humor, mystery, satire, science-fiction, suspense, kick-ass-heroines

As usual, loved it! This time, we are back in the real world (albeit an alternate reality) with Thursday Next, renowned literary detective, as she faces a number of complicated issues.

First, the Almighty has finally revealed His presence and resigns Himself to the destruction of wayward mankind on a regular basis. Swindon is scheduled for an almighty smiting on Friday at noon unless Thursday can stop it.

Thursday's genius daughter Tuesday is currently working on a smite shield to save Swindon. Al ...more

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Jul 02, 2012 Oriana rated it it was amazing

Shelves: read-2013

ZOMG a new Thursday Next book!! And I was lucky enough to score a proof at a teeny secondhand bookshop upstate!!!

I will tell you this right now: I just got back from a 10-day vacation. I have gallons of emails to answer, scads of laundry to do, and an entire apartment to clean before I go back to work tomorrow, yet I am still going to spend at least a half hour finishing this book with a cup of coffee before I do any of it.

***

And I did! And it was soooo worth it, even though, exactly a week lat ...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Jeff rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, signed

In my opinion, this is Jasper Fforde back at his marvellous best.

I will, however reluctantly, admit that I found the previous Next tale - One of Our Thursdays is Missing - just a little flat. I'm not sure even now that I can quite put my finger on why and it's not as if it was a poor effort; it just didn't meet the expectations that JF has caused me to have.

This book, though, places any loss of form firmly into the past. The Bookworld is, this time, of peripheral interest only; it's not giving t ...more

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Oct 16, 2012 Kyrie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, humor, adventure

I think this is the best Thursday Next novel. Clones in tupperware. Armed library agents (better make sure I return my books on time). Libraries named like football stadiums. It made me laugh - a lot.

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Oct 13, 2012 Jaylia3 rated it it was amazing

It’s 2004 in the alternate Britain of the now semiretired literary detective Thursday Next, and she’s getting older—54—but as her husband Landon tells her, when weird comes knocking gray hairs count more than the lost physical prowess she’s mourning. Weird, ironic, and mind-bendingly wonderful is of course exactly what you get in a Thursday Next novel. I’ve loved just about all of Jasper Fforde’s books, but the Thursday Next series is my favorite by far and even in that group this new one is ste It’s 2004 in the alternate Britain of the now semiretired literary detective Thursday Next, and she’s getting older—54—but as her husband Landon tells her, when weird comes knocking gray hairs count more than the lost physical prowess she’s mourning. Weird, ironic, and mind-bendingly wonderful is of course exactly what you get in a Thursday Next novel. I’ve loved just about all of Jasper Fforde’s books, but the Thursday Next series is my favorite by far and even in that group this new one is stellar.

The last book featured the fictional version of Thursday from Book World, but here we are back with the original Thursday. When the book opens, Thursday is still struggling with the mind worm planted by one of her enemies which makes her believe she has a daughter who doesn’t exist. Tuesday and Friday, her actual daughter and son, are moving towards adulthood. Tuesday alternates between high school high jinx and cutting edge invention—she’s trying to create a giant shield capable of warding off pillars of fire the newly invigorated and angry universal deity is bent on smiting Earth with. Friday is at loose ends. He had been destined to become the most renowned leader of the ChronoGuard, a sort of time traveling police force, and he’d even met his time traveling older self in earlier books, but when it was discovered that time travel hadn’t actually been invented in the future the ChronoGuard was disbanded.

Thursday herself is in a career slump, or thinks she is. She is hoping to be put in charge of the re-formed SpecOps Literary Detective Division, but that job is given to a younger woman and Thursday is forced to accept a head librarian job. Adding insult to injury, the mega-corporation Goliath has engineered a series of synthetic Thursdays who combine superhuman capabilities with the ability to download the real Thursday's memories.

Meanwhile, a deadly asteroid may or may not be on a collision course with Earth, and something strange is going on in the newly discovered but very little understood field of Dark Reading Matter. Intriguingly, it looks like Dark Reading Matter may be the setting for the next Thursday Next Novel. Can’t wait!
...more

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Nov 01, 2012 Kathleen Lenihan rated it liked it

I love Jasper Fforde and Thursday Next, otherwise why would I have read this book? That said, the last two books in the series have left me less than satisfied. In One of our Thursdays is Missing, the plot takes place almost entirely in BookWorld with the protagonist being the written Thursday. In TWWDAL, we have a book that takes place entirely in the "real" world. In the former, I missed the real Thursday, and in the latter, I missed the whimsy of BookWorld. Something in the recipe of each is ...more

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Oct 14, 2013 ✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013, ffordalicious, favourite-series, absolute-favourites, fantasy

I am so glad I decided to re-read the whole Thursday Next series instead of directly diving in The Woman Who Died a Lot! By the time I started reading this last instalment I was completely immersed in Thursday's world and felt like it was my own:)

Some reviewers seem to think Fforde has gone a bit overboard here as (they say) there is too much craziness and too much wackiness. Well, that is exactly why I love this series so much and why it is so different from other series/books. I actually think ...more

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Mar 24, 2020 Peter Tillman rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, humor, at-bg-pa, stalled, did-not-finish, friend-recos, lost-interest, not-for-me

No idea how I missed this one. Here's my pal Susan Stepney's take:https://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/susan...
"This is the usual wonderful lunacy we have come to expect and love. Everything is tied up together --- the imaginary friends, the dodos, the toast, the car, the tattoo, and Thursday's multiple deaths --- in a big temporal paradox bow. What I love is how everyone treats the bizarre events as down to earth normality --- because for them it is all normal. Barmy, and brilliant."

Wow, $12 Kindle! ...more

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May 16, 2014 Paul rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: books-read-2014

Back in the real world, Thursday Next is recovering for the injuries that happened at the end of the previous book. The GSD (Global Standard Deity) has threatened to smite Swindon, and the only person capable of stopping this is her daughter Tuesday. Her arch enemy, Aornis Hades has escape from the time loop she is stuck in and has planted a mind worm in the family that makes them think that they have a third child, Jenny.

The Goliath company now control the police and Spec-Ops, and are looking ...more

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Nov 12, 2020 Ashley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: murder-most-foul, mysteries, speculative, wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey, addictive, lgbtqia, satire, alt-history, humor, anglophilia

This wasn't supposed to be the last book in the Thursday Next series, but it works as a good finale anyway. (Someday we might get Dark Reading Matter? Who knows what Fforde will do next.)

I liked this much better than the last one. Actually, I think it's my favorite in quite some time (not really sure, though, since it's been so long since I've read one through five). I was very relieved at the small presence of the Bookworld. I much prefer Thursday's adventures in the real world, and getting to ...more

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Apr 30, 2018 Stephen Richter rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, sword-challenge-2018

This one was completely crazy. Thursday Next is exited when she learns her old job may be reinstated but then everything goes haywire. Plus God has decided to bring back some good old
"Old Testament" smiting. It is best to just go with the flow on this one because as I wrote previously, it is crazy. ...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Kyle rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Very impressed, as always, in fact 25% more impressed! Although no meet-ups with fictional characters, just like how One of Our Thursdays... was entirely set in BookWorld, the richness of RealWorld is no less enthralling. The Next family deals with very unique problems that could only happen in a Goliath-influenced world - thank Google we don't have any issues like that in ours ;-)One of the greatest aspects of this novel was the moral tone it takes while avoiding preachiness - a hard thing to p ...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Simon rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This reached my home three weeks before going on holiday, and it took a lot of self control to leave it alone for that period. Worth the wait - both that short one and the much longer one since Thursday Next's previous outing. Jasper Fforde has lost none of his ingenuity, and none of his power to entertain. Inevitably there is a familiarity with the characters which the reader is assumed to have, but if you have that you will be delighted. He's just as funny as ever.

The plot is just too intricat ...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Moira Russell rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-50-new-books-challenge

For some reason this didn't irritate me nearly as much as all the other ones did. Maybe I'm slipping.

This installment also felt more like sf than literary fantasy; and a lot more like a kind of stopgap between the frantic adventures of the last one and the no doubt frantic adventures of the upcoming Darkest Matter exploration. Lots of explanation, lots of theories, lots of wrapping-up. A lot fewer literary in-jokes, a lot more earnest overexplaining of how stuff works, more satire, more time tr ...more

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Oct 04, 2012 Kathy Davie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy

Seventh in the Tuesday Next fantasy series about a secret agent-type librarian willing to take on megalithic corporations intent on ruling the world through books. Greed. Money. Power. Books.

MY TAKE
I really don't recommend diving into this without having read at least a few of the earlier Thursday Nexts. (Start with The Eyre Affair ---Jane Austen lovers may riot or embrace its nonsense, but y'all won't be bored!)

The first half was bloody confusing. And it's totally fantastical, odd, crazy, an ...more

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May 20, 2020 Geertje rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reading-challenge, fantasy, mystery-suspense, science-fiction, time-travel

I truly love this series so much. The Jenny storyline was very well done. It's a serious bummer that Fforde hasn't written the final book yet (though I saw on his website that it is a project he plans to get to relatively soon). ...more

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Sep 11, 2019 Sparrowapril rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-science-fiction, audio, kindle-own

He needs to hurry up and write more.

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Sep 22, 2017 Mimi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2017

Time spent with Thursday Next is always enjoyable and the plus is that there was an Eleanor of Aquitaine joke. Be still my heart.

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Oct 09, 2012 Christina (A Reader of Fictions) rated it liked it

Shelves: finishedreviewcopy

Thursday Next and I have been on quite the journey in the last week or so. As I've mentioned, I have generally either not much liked or nigh loved all of the prior Thursday Next books. The Woman Who Died a Lot finally proves that I can actually like two Thursday Next books in a row, so huzzah for that. While this one did not entertain me quite so much as 1, 4, and 6, I found it a solid read without any slow spots.

This Thursday Next book starkly stands out from the rest. The entirety of this book Thursday Next and I have been on quite the journey in the last week or so. As I've mentioned, I have generally either not much liked or nigh loved all of the prior Thursday Next books. The Woman Who Died a Lot finally proves that I can actually like two Thursday Next books in a row, so huzzah for that. While this one did not entertain me quite so much as 1, 4, and 6, I found it a solid read without any slow spots.

This Thursday Next book starkly stands out from the rest. The entirety of this book takes place in the real world. Of course, it's Fforde's version of the real world, which reaches high levels of ridiculousness on a slow day. Seriously, there is no BookWorld in this novel, by which I mean the reader doesn't get to go to the BookWorld which does still exist. Since the BookWorld has generally been my favorite part of the series, I was really bummed when I figured that out, but, surprisingly, it worked out.

The saving grace here was that The Woman Who Died a Lot successfully weaves together a few overarching plots, something that failed to happen in First Among Sequels. Rather than feeling like a bunch of jokes welded together artificially, this felt like a story. I will say, though, that there seemed to be a bit less humor in this one overall, as well as less of the literary references, so, if that's what you loved, you will perhaps be disappointed.

Thursday Next is not her usual, gun-slinging, hardcore self. At the end of the prior book, she was discovered injured and her wounds have not yet healed. To walk, she must lean upon a cane and she's developed a Dr. House level addiction to painkillers. Our girl does not have all pistons firing. Because of her physical torments, she doesn't have the strength to read herself into the BookWorld. On the plus side, Spec Ops is reforming, so there will be plenty of work to do. Unfortunately, the job she gets offered is not head of the literary detectives but head librarian.

My favorite bits had to do with the library. Fforde certainly nails some aspects of library service, but I think the librarians of our world would love to live in his. In Swindon, librarians receive huge salaries (and get chauferred to work where a chef cooks the meals) and the libraries get huge budgets. On top of that, librarians have huge political sway and are among the most respected and intimidating people in the community. Librarians, what say you? Shall we decamp to Ffordelandia posthaste?

Another delightful plotline deals with the imminent smiting of Swindon by God, pissed off by Joffy's insistence upon a meeting. A good smiting always proves who's the boss. To prevent this, Tuesday races to complete her Anti-Smite shield, while Goliath Corporation offers a backup that is, of course, nefarious. One fun litte nugget of info to come out of this is that this is an alternate universe from our own likely, since Joffy references that in some alternate realities people are stupid enough to think homosexuality is a sin. Never have I been prouder of my home universe. (Hint: heavy sarcasm)

The final arc involves Friday, who, along with the rest of the people who would have been in ChronoGaurd, receives a letter informing him what his life would have been and what it will be. He discovers that in a few days he will murder one of his classmates, go to prison, and get out just in time to be murdered with a baseball bat. Even with ChronoGuard shut down, it still manages to mess with lives and event lines in rippingly confusing ways.

The Woman Who Died a Lot is perhaps the most mainstream and accessible of Fforde's books, though, of course, trying to pick up the series here and understand anything would be like trying to understand LOST without watching every single episode. The ending makes it clear that at least one more Thursday Next book is in the works, and I suspect there will be lots of BookWorld action. Holla! ...more

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Jun 29, 2012 Hanna rated it really liked it · review of another edition

First published on Booking in Heels.

The Thursday Next novels have to be my all-time favourite series - what's not to love about a kick-ass woman who can jump into books? The last installment, One of Our Thursdays is Missing was a little bit of a let-down, but this latest installment more than makes up for it - a return to 'proper' Thursday Next!

I would love to know what exactly powers Jasper Fforde's imagination. Not only has be produced four different series of completely unique and absurd book First published on Booking in Heels.

The Thursday Next novels have to be my all-time favourite series - what's not to love about a kick-ass woman who can jump into books? The last installment, One of Our Thursdays is Missing was a little bit of a let-down, but this latest installment more than makes up for it - a return to 'proper' Thursday Next!

I would love to know what exactly powers Jasper Fforde's imagination. Not only has be produced four different series of completely unique and absurd books, this is the seventh and latest book in the Thursday Next series and it's just as imaginative as ever. In addition to creating a fully-functioning world inside books (complete with the JurisFiction policing agency and grammar-stealing beasts), but the world that 'real' Thursday Next lives in is just as filled out.

It's especially great that the author takes little snippets of our real lives and tweaks them to fit into the book. TK Maxx, for example, isn't just a designer label outlet store, it's also a time-loop containment facility where dangerous prisoners are kept, condemned to spend eternity stuck in a dentist's waiting room or waiting for their girlfriend to finish trying on clothes.

This world is also a lot more literary-obsessed than our own - television and all the various gadgets still exist, but books are a much more prominent feature. I love the Marlovian preachers in the earlier books - they traipse from door to door, preaching about how Kit Marlowe was the true author of Shakespeare's works. The Woman Who Died A Lot is no different - the Swindon in this book has its own share of literary asides.

I do wish that there had been more BookJumping in this book - it's what One of Our Thursdays Is Missing suffered from. Mind, at least this book talked about the BookWorld a lot - you do learn more about its functionality and Golaith's secret interest in it. It's just not the same without the occasional literary character popping up though - where are Mrs Tiggywinkle and Emperor Zhark!?

Still, although the plot is real world-based, it's a remarkably good one. Goliath are back to their old tricks and SpecOps has been reformed so there's plenty to keep us entertained. It's fast paced and unique - god knows how Jasper Fforde hasn't repeated a plot point in seven books, but it's true.

I just didn't want this book to end - while reading I was constantly aware that I wouldn't have any unread Thursday Next books! I kept putting it down to savour it just that little bit longer. I can't wait for the next one, the title of which has already been announced as Dark Reading Matter. It doesn't sound like there will be much BookJumping in this one either, but I can always hope!

I just adore these books. If Jasper Fforde ever definitively writes an end to this series, I will literally cry. They're inventive, bookish fantasy for grown-ups, as well as producing that great little "Ah!" moment when a character from a classic novel you've read pops up to say hello. ...more

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About Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde

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Fforde began his career in the film industry, and for nineteen years held a variety of posts on such movies as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. Secretly harbouring a desire to tell his own stories rather than help other people tell their's, Jasper started writing in 1988, and spent eleven years secretly writing novel after novel as he strove to find a style of his own that was a no-man Fforde began his career in the film industry, and for nineteen years held a variety of posts on such movies as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. Secretly harbouring a desire to tell his own stories rather than help other people tell their's, Jasper started writing in 1988, and spent eleven years secretly writing novel after novel as he strove to find a style of his own that was a no-mans-land somewhere between the warring factions of Literary and Absurd.

After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.

Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.

Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.

In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.

His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.

Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.

Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)

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* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey ...more

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The Woman Who Died A Lot

(Thursday Next #7)

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