I really loved the first few Thursday Next books and then they got a little old, possibly because I also read the Nursery Crimes books, which I didn’t like nearly as much as Thursday Next and it all just ended up being a little too much Fforde-fun for me. But, I did keep reading the Thursday Next books – just not as quickly as I had in those early days.
When I noticed Fforde had a kids fantasy novel, I knew I’d be reading that and when I went to reserve it, I noticed the new Thursday Next: The Woman Who Died A Lot, and figured what the heck. I’ll get it and at the very least it will be another book to keep TW reading (there are not enough books in the entire Book World to keep her in books. She probably needs to head to the DRM…. which will make no sense unless you read The Woman Who Died A Lot.)
Anyway, I read it and I’m glad. It was the best Thursday Next book since… I don’t know since when. The Well of Lost Plots? The fake Thursday thing did get a little old (ok a lot old) and I hope to goodness we’ve seen the end of that (except the next book will probably rif off of the very last duplicate Thursday… last that we know about. Sigh. But it will be ok because it just will. Trust me. )
I’m not sure I like what happens to Tuesday in this book. Or what happens to her for the rest of her life. This is where I get annoyed with Fforde, just in general. His characters live with crappy people and put up with it, like that’s how it should be. The bad relationships are get easy laughs, except I never really laugh. Oops. I’d better stop analyzing it or I’ll find myself liking this book less than I did before I sat down to type this.
Let’s leave it at… best book in the series in a very long time and I do have hope for the next book. DRM and DoDos… at least I hope that’s what Thursday finds…. Next.