Thank you so much to NetGalley and Soho Press for the Advanced Reader Copy in exchange for my review. American readers - it is definitely worth the wait. Be strong!

As a longtime Fforde ffan, I have been eagerly awaiting this book since Shades of Grey came out. I am so happy to say that the sequel doesn't disappoint. As other reviews have suggested, I highly recommend a re-read of SoG and having a copy handy for reference, which will help make Red Side Story as enjoyable as possible.

This book follows hard on the end of SoG, and Eddie, Jane and the other residents of Chromatacia are as enjoyable - or odious in some cases - as ever. We rejoin Eddie as he awaits judgement for his actions from the end of SoG and the future does not look rosy for Russett. The plot is a typical Ffordian whirlwind, perfectly blending the absurd and the just-plausible-enough-to-actually-happen. After every chapter, I couldn't wait to turn the page and see what happened next.

Though I would have loved this book just for the enjoyable plot and return to characters I was invested in, I most appreciated Fforde's expansion of Chromatacia. His pre-chapter blurbs give the reader tantalizing glimpses of a world that is both nothing like ours and similar in too many ways. As Eddie and Jane discover there is more to their world than they could ever have imagined, I delighted in Fforde's pushing the dystopian envelope. This is a must read for Fforde lovers, and I'll now be recommending SoG/RSS as a satisfying entry into Fforde's works to any newcomers.

Spoilers - Aside here, this is everything I've ever wanted from a dystopian novel. As the girl who read Hunger Games and tried to imagine what in the world was going on outside of the borders of Panem and how bad the rest of a global society would have to be not to intervene in the murder of children, this book finally scratched my itch. I cannot wait to see the larger implications of Utopiainc. and if I have to wait another 15 years to see Eddie and Jane in ffuture-Ffrance, I may explode.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC copy of this book!

I loved Shades of Grey. It was funny and witty and comedic and surprisingly deep, and I was really looking forward to this one! It did not disappoint. The same snark and humor was present in the narration, Jane and Eddie and Violet and the rest of the crew was just as fun and amusing, and the best part is that it didn't do what lots of sequels do and rehash the entire first book. It did give enough info to allow the reader a quick refresher on the first book without being obnoxious about retelling it, so that despite having read the book over a year ago, I still got what was going on almost immediately.

I enjoyed the plot, but at times it was a bit convoluted and I felt as though the story as a whole added odd details that weren't clearly explained. This might be intentional - this story has more of an air of mystery to it than the first book - but it was a bit odd at times. However, that's really my only complaint, and on the whole, I enjoyed the characters and the dystopia and the ideas presented.
I just hope I don't have to wait years for book three! I want to know what happens and how things unfold after the events of the last part of this book :)

Eddie deMauve (ne Russett) and his girlfriend Jane are on a quest to uncover what exactly is going on behind the scenes in their demented, color-vision-obsessed society. They hope to free everyone from its inane, often lethal, regulations. Yellow zealots, peeved by the way Eddie and Jane keep evading their assassination attempts, and Purple despots, determined to cling to power, are hellbent on stopping them. The duo faces perils including but not limited to swans, kangaroo courts, and unsportsmanlike conduct. On the plus side, they accumulate knowledge at a rapid clip. Still quirky and densely-detailed, but fifteen years of pent-up longing is a lot for a book to overcome.

Fforde is one of the mosy distinctive modern specfic writers, and I will always commend him for that, but sadly I don't think Red Side Story works. Having looked forward to this book for over a decade, I was probably primed to have unrealistic expectations, but I do think my disappointment goes beyond that. Everything that felt so effortless and bitingly satirical in book on feels far clunkier and more arbitrary, not helped by a real tendency towards overexplaining. While there are many funny jokes along the way, some of the humour made me roll my eyes more than chuckle, feeling just a little cheap. The story eventually gets to a good place, but probably took too long and with weird choices of focus, although there were certainly points that intrigued me. Ultimately, this is still classic Fforde and a dystopia with some interesting ideas, but I can't help but feel that 10 years ago there might have been a better version of this book that would have matched the undiluted excellence of Shades of Grey.

wow, not what I was expecting. It might seem a bit out of left field if readers have only read [book:Shades of Grey|2113260], but I think it makes sense, having read all the author's other books that came out in between the two.

A re-read of book 1 wouldn't go amiss. I have read [book:Shades of Grey|2113260] about 3 times and thought that would carry me through. While I had all the major plot points and characters, I had lost some of the little interpersonal bits.

eARC from NetGalley.

I’ve read all of Jasper Fforde’s books and I can say with great sadness, I could not finish this one. Perhaps it’s because I’ve aged in the 15 years since the previous was published. 15 years! I’m a different person to the one who first read shades of grey, like a person starving of thirst unable to drink water fast enough. It was such a wonderful read. Red side story, however, has way too much lead up, so much description and not enough action. It’s like he has to set the stage all over again because he too has forgotten what happened 15 years ago. I wish I could’ve finished this.

This is a book I have been anticipating since I closed my copy of Shades of Grey in 2009. It was quite good, and an effective sequel to SOG.

I do have some specific criticism. Normally, I cannot put one of his books down, I am so engrossed in the story. This is my first Fforde that took me more than 2 days to read. There is some pacing that is off. At times the action/story moves quickly, other times it is quite slow. It is, to borrow from Fforde's own cannon, as though something is wrong with the story engines on the library side.

For Thursday Next readers the following comments will make more sense. This is book that plays with the 7 (or 8/9) basic plots. It has elements of quest, overcoming the monster/rebelling against "the one", and tragedy. In speaking to a friend about Fforde the other day I noted that he was a favorite author, and I would recommend his books, but not to expect to understand the plot until it is all done. In this book, I do not know if I could easily articulate what the plot is, which is not to say that it is bad, its more unexpected in his work outside of the Thursday Next series.

The characters in this story are as engaging as they were in SOG, and several make reappearances for the better. We get additional detail into some of the most enigmatic, mysterious, and apocryphal subjects throughout the story. My recommendation for readers is to keep SOG handy so you can look back and check in with who did what in the previous story, it will help you keep track of the personalities in this one.

Overall this was a good book, I read an ARC granted to me by Soho Press from #NetGalley. With that in mind it was a review copy. I look forward to reading the final printed version as I hope there will be bonus content there for all of us who have waited so long.

As to the story, well I believe the world of Chromatacia will continue in the future. I look forward to it. Fforde ended the story by opening up a landscape of new possibilities for content. I will be anxiously awaiting to see where Ted Grey wanders off to in the next book.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the ARC.
6 out of 5 if I could.
I was so excited when I saw the author's (I've been a huge Jasper Fforde fan since The Eyre Affair, there's just no fiction like Fforde fiction) announcement that this sequel was being published after almost 15 years - the first book was so weird and wonderful!
In the strange (post-apocalyptic?) world of Chromatacia, social class and wealth are determined by the Book of Munsell. Eddie and Jane are accidental lovers / rebels brought together by curiosity, questioning the rules of their society and a desire to figure out what the 'something that happened' actually was. This book begins the day after Shades of Grey ended, and plays out in the course of the next day or two.
The reader will have some of their questions about life in Chromatacia answered, and be left with several more. Fforde's writing is brilliant, as is his construction (and explanation) of a very strange society. The world building here is staggering. so much odd and not-quite-familiar detail keeps the reader constantly a little off balance.
I have to say the sequel doesn't disappoint, but like Shades of Grey, it leaves me looking forward to a promised 3rd instalment.
Recommended for fans of alt-worlds like the Silo and Hunger Games (but really, so much stranger!), make sure to read Shades of Grey first if you haven't yet - I was so glad I reread it before starting Red Side Story.

I enjoyed the first book in the series and am glad to say that I enjoyed this one too. It was great getting some more background on their whole society and how everything functions. As always, there's absurdity without being ridiculous.