The audio version is narrated by Jasper Fforde and Chris Harper, and includes a bonus chapter: Nine Minutes With The Riff Raff.

In Red Side Story, the second book in the Shades of Grey series, Welsh author Jasper Fforde returns the reader to East Carmine, somewhere on the island that used to be Britain, sometime in the far dystopian future when all fauna including humans are bar-coded, people live in a chromatic hierarchy, graded according to colour perception, have no night vision, and live by a centuries-old dogma entailing ridiculous rules, often circumvented by shrewd loopholery.

The scarcity of spoons affords them their own postcode and gives the owner the right to procreate, wearing gloves is forbidden, along with the use of acronyms, and enquiry is frowned upon. The quickly-fatal Mildew takes out the old, the broken, the lazy, and the independent thinkers. The technical Leapbacks ensure that much that is useful is also illegal.

Eddie Russett’s recent Ishihara test rates him with the highest red perception in the village, which ought to afford him a prestigious position, and sees him, to his dismay, engaged to a pregnant-to-him Violet deMauve, but with a murder trial hanging over him and his true beloved, the seditious Jane Brunswick, (formerly Grey) after their recent expedition to High Saffron, it’s a moot point.

Jane, though, is determined to undermine the power of the ruling Collective, with Eddie ever ready to do her bidding. Sent to the ghost town of Crimsonolia to search for spoons, they take the opportunity to do some research and, after narrowly escaping an ambush, are shocked by what they coincidentally learn. “It’s not unusual,” they are later told, “for residents with an inquisitive mind to achieve a limited degree of unnecessary awareness. Most people are sensible, ignore it, and live on.” Not Eddie or Jane!

Surprise testimony at their disciplinary hearing results in an upheaval in the ruling Prefects, and brings the threat of a Supervisory Swatchman who will administer the Mildew when Eddie’s father demurs. Things go horribly wrong for the village while a team from East Carmine are away in Vermillion attending the Jollity Fair, and when things get dangerous for the survivors, Jane and Eddie have to think outside the box if they are to survive.

As always, Fforde’s plot is highly original, very clever and Douglas-Adams-level imaginative. He is inspired when it comes to hilarious names (people, towns, flora and fauna, technological advances and euphemisms). Readers will recognise in Chromatacia the absurdities of our own bureaucracies, politics and everyday life. Fforde has a finger firmly on society’s pulse.

Each chapter is prefaced by an extract from either the Great Munsell’s Book of Harmony, or Ted Grey’s memoir, Twenty Years among the Chromatacians. There’s plenty of wordplay in this wonderful social & political satire, an abundance of laugh-out-loud moments, and caution with liquids whilst reading is advised due to possible ambush by some of the witty dialogue. While the resolution is satisfying, room is left for more of Eddie and Jane: let’s hope Fforde doesn’t make fans wait another fourteen years for the next entertaining flash of colour.
This unbiased review is from an audio copy provided by NetGalley and RB Media.

I had so many books ahead of this one but it jumped to the top of the queue when I was offered a chance to listen to the audiobook of this, courtesy of NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. I just got back from the Fforde Ffiesta, where we hung out with Jasper Fforde and fans while we took part in the fan activities. Honestly, I came into the fandom because I love Thursday Next, and Shades of Grey was not my favorite. Now that I have finished Red Side Story, I have adjusted my attitude and I absolutely love this world, especially Eddie Russett and Jane Grey.
I had a lot of questions about why things worked the way they did, and this book answers a lot of those questions. It doesn't even matter, though, because there is so much action and emotion in this book. There is also a lof of the clever wordplay and allusions to literature that I love so much in Fforde's writing, and which has caused me to read and enjoy so much classical literature. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook. Fforde and Chris Haper do an excellent job with the narration.

Jasper Fforde is my all time favourite author, and Shades of Grey, my favourite novel of his. In anticipation of the release of Red Side Story, I listened to the audiobook of Shades of Grey, to remind myself of what had happened so far. I am grateful to have received the advanced listening copy of Red Side Story from RB Media.

This book gave a much deeper meaning and context to Shades of Grey. I expect I will keep thinking about the social organization of this world for a long time. I was so worried that we would be left on a cliffhanger, similar to Shades of Grey. (I felt so exasperated at Eddie during his conversation with the Herald. Why wasn’t he asking about who Utopiainc was or what the 25th generation was? I felt that we wouldn’t get any better answers than this.) And while there is still more to learn, I am happy with the resolution of this sequel, despite the very morbid turn.

On the topic of the audiobook itself, it is read by a different actor than Shades of Grey. This did not bother me, as I enjoyed Chris Harper’s reading. There were some audible swallowing sounds though, which might bother some listeners.

Overall, I am so happy to be back in this world with these characters.

Fforde never fails to produce the most ridiculous thought experiments that are nevertheless unswervingly entertaining. Something else I always appreciate about his writing is that he has the perfect blend of snark and compassion; sincere, never saccharine and wittily cutting, never callous.

I can't do a deeper analysis without major spoilers, so I'll just say it was well worth the wait from 2009's Shades of Grey to see the end of this story.

I was blown away by how well the narrator shaped the audioscape of the story, with pitch-perfect voices and a wry delivery.

Absolutely Brilliant! So good that I have bought this one and "Shades of Grey" to listen to consecutively in a marathon of audiobooks this weekend!

I am utterly thrilled with Jasper Fforde's writing style, humour and narration (echoes of the glorious Noel Fielding in the voice, fantastic)

I will update this review when I have finished both, but absolutely 5 stars and totally in my top ten authors of all time!

4.5⭐ I've been waiting almost exactly a dozen years for this sequel—it's been 14-plus years since Shades of Grey was published. Since its 2009 publication, I read the first book three times—twice just for fun; the third to refresh my memory in anticipation of Red Side Story's publication (also fun). As I've shared before, Fforde is an auto-read author for me, and I often reread his books when I need sure entertainment.

As expected, the novel is stuffed to the gills with Fforde's usual satire, humor, and sociopolitical commentary. It is, in turns, clever, silly, and fun, but also frustrating and infuriating. The story gets increasingly more exciting and tense. There were times I stopped reading not to bookmark a particular passage, but to note the feeling of a chapter. If memory serves, Red Side Story is a shade darker and more intense than it's predecessor; in the vein of The Constant Rabbit or Early Riser. It's definitely darker than the Thursday Next series (and for sure the The Last Dragonslayer series, intended for younger audiences, and the Nursery Crimes series, from each of which I've only read one installment so far).

The book is phenomenally narrated by Chris Harper, who is a new-to-me narrator. The North American release includes a bonus previously unpublished short story entitled “Nine Minutes Among the Riffraff,” which was narrated by Brendan Dempsey and Jasper Fforde.

I recommend reading Shades of Grey before reading this sequel. Do it now so you can get to this soon! I can only hope that I won't have to wait another dozen or more years for installment three, which is on the official radar, as well as clearly being set up toward the end of this book.

This unbiased review is based on the UK print edition from Hodder & Stoughton, published February 6, and an audio ARC supplied by publisher RB Media, released in North America on May 7.

I came to listen to this audiobook without having any familiarity with the first novel in Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Gray series.

Fortunately, I was easily updated and entirely captivated by this dystopian, futuristic England where its inhabitants are organized by the colors they are able to perceive.

It’s a satirical novel about a society with a strict hierarchy and even stricter (and often nonsensical) rules that must be followed. Those who resist are diagnosed with tennis elbow, a euphemism for “put this person to death.”

This book opens with Eddie Russet and Jane Gray awaiting trial for something that (I assume) happened in book one (which I will be reading soon). Even without knowing the earlier story, there is a great deal to enjoy in this one. It is well plotted, funny, and also horrendous in how the worst of humanity *might* behave given half the chance. Ultimately it is hopeful too.

I enjoyed the narration and highly recommend the audiobook version. It includes a short story also set in the chromatic world of the novel.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and #NetGalley for the advance copy of the audiobook for review purposes.

I don’t know where to start with my review other than to say THANK YOU NetGalley for the ARC of the audiobook.

I have been a fan of Jasper Fforde for over 12 years since reading Shades of Gray for the first time in 2012. At that time I instantly fell in love with the book and world and have been waiting for book two ever since. I regularly check the goodreads page and somehow missed that a second book was coming out. When I saw this title on NetGalley I literally screamed. Shots have been fired Rothfuss and Martin, Fforde has released his much anticipated sequel!

This book starts off just after the end of book one and you are dropped right into the thick of the story again — with some helpful comments about what happened previously in case it’s been a few years since you read book one. I found the story so easy to get back into and was hesitant to take my headphones out for the rest of the day. The narrator does an amazing job with engaging you in the story.

The humor and style of storytelling feels akin to Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams, though in my personal opinion a little more easy to read and follow. I have loved every Fforde book I have picked up but this one for me has been the cream of the crop. The Inspector reminded me of Death from Discworld in a good way!

The witty banter between characters was snappy and hilarious. Jane and Eddy have their sweet times, snark, and fun adventures together, reminding us why we loved them in the first book.

I don’t recall if this was in the first book too but the info about how the roads stay pristine and how the buildings reform was slightly grotesque and yet incredibly interesting.

The storyline of this book was easy to follow and action packed: day to day life, death threats, trials, and Jollity Fair (excuse me if I misspell since I listened to the audio book) were a blast to read.

I listened to this book much slower than I normally would to keep my ears open for any critiques and I can be quite honest that I did not find any. Once again Jasper Fforde blew me out of the water. Yes I may have had a sneaking suspicion toward the 2/3 mark about how this book may end, but I was routing for the characters to make the discoveries and take the actions they did! By the end I even found my heart warming to Violet.

Thank you again to NetGalley for the ARC. This is by far a favorite of the year.

Eddie and Jane are back. This was worth the wait. Do not read this without reading Shades of Grey first! Fforde's wordplay and nameplay is in full force here and I missed it so much. There is so much banality of evil and so many oddly randy prudes in Chromatica, lol.