The Eyre Affair book review

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
Series: Thursday Next #1
Published by Penguin Books on February 25, 2003
Pages: 374
Goodreads

Great Britain circa 1985: time travel is routine, cloning is a reality (dodos are the resurrected pet of choice), and literature is taken very, very seriously. Baconians are trying to convince the world that Francis Bacon really wrote Shakespeare, there are riots between the Surrealists and Impressionists, and thousands of men are named John Milton, an homage to the real Milton and a very confusing situation for the police. Amidst all this, Acheron Hades, Third Most Wanted Man In the World, steals the original manuscript of Martin Chuzzlewit and kills a minor character, who then disappears from every volume of the novel ever printed! But that's just a prelude . . .
Hades' real target is the beloved Jane Eyre, and it's not long before he plucks her from the pages of Bronte's novel. Enter Thursday Next. She's the Special Operative's renowned literary detective, and she drives a Porsche. With the help of her uncle Mycroft's Prose Portal, Thursday enters the novel to rescue Jane Eyre from this heinous act of literary homicide. It's tricky business, all these interlopers running about Thornfield, and deceptions run rampant as their paths cross with Jane, Rochester, and Miss Fairfax. Can Thursday save Jane Eyre and Bronte's masterpiece? And what of the Crimean War? Will it ever end? And what about those annoying black holes that pop up now and again, sucking things into time-space voids . . .
Suspenseful and outlandish, absorbing and fun, The Eyre Affair is a caper unlike any other and an introduction to the imagination of a most distinctive writer and his singular fictional universe.

I was recommended The Eyre Affair by one of my friends at university and I have to say it was a complete win for me. I loved the concept and the characters all the way through this book. It was a great read and although it has taken me the entire month to read I thoroughly enjoyed it and was hooked by the storyline. I think my favourite thing about this book was the fact that although it was set in an alternate world it wasn’t outrageous and it all still made sense and added to the story. One thing I will say is there is a lot that happens in this book, all the way through and I think that sometimes it felt like too much was happening which is why it didn’t get the full 5-star approval from me.

The main character in The Eyre Affair is Thursday Next and we follow her career as a SpecOp and working within the LitraTech force. I really enjoyed Thursday’s perspective, I think the fact that she is an older character and therefore had way more life experience enriched my reading of this book. There weren’t moments of naievty or useless questioning, she just got on and did. I also loved her interactions with her family and I thought the way they were used really helped paint a good picture of the world around them. Thursday was such a great character but I think more could have been done with her backstory, there were bits mentioned and talked about but it wasn’t as developed as I would have liked. I think there was potential for a lot more and I wish they would have been explored.

The best bit of The Eyre Affair for me was definitely the inclusion of Jane Eyre and the way that the story played out around her and her novel. I loved the almost mythology that surrounded this and how technology was used to really get into the detail of everything. I also think the villain, Hades was really well used and his usage of manuscripts and changing them was something I was really thrilled to see use. It made me question how much of a difference it would have made to our world if the changes that happened throughout this book had actually happened. It was really interesting to read about and think about.

The worst bit in The Eyre Affair for me was the lack of direction and focus in some parts. This book was like reading a rollercoaster and sometimes it left me with whiplash and I struggled to keep up with where the story was going and why certain things happened. I felt as though some parts of this book which could have been really well used were glossed over and I wish there had been more detail about those parts than anything else.

I really enjoyed this book. I definitely think I will be carrying on with the series and I cannot wait to see where Thursday ends up next. I think I may have found a new favourite series, hopefully.

Have you read this one? What did you think? Let me know!