67/111 – First Among Sequels by Jasper Fforde

This is the fifth book in the series, I believe? Got one more to go, and then there is going to be another release later this year.

I wasn’t sure how much I was going to enjoy this episode of the Thursday Next series, as it picks up about 20 years in the future and at first I thought I might find it a bit boring, although I suppose that says more about my opinion of middle-aged women than anything else.

In this episode, there is once again looooads of stuff going on, and a lot of it is concerned with time travel, which is so difficult to get a grip on, but still a really interesting idea.

I ended up still really enjoying this book, and as always Jasper Fforde manages to get hilarious right, interesting right and sad right. Bravo.

One of the saddest moments of this book that really stood out to me was related to one of Thursday’s daughters. She has a daughter called Tuesday, a son called Friday and another daughter called Jenny, who we never meet. At some point, Thursday suddenly panics as both her other children are accounted for, but she can’t remember what’s going on with Jenny. It turns out that Jenny doesn’t exist, and that she is a mind worm that has been planted on Thursday to make her pay for some other deed. Every time she asks where Jenny is, her family have to tell her and she goes through the process of losing her all over again. Because they care about her, they decide to humour her and they give various explanations for Jenny’s whereabouts (like being at a sleepover) in order to spare Thursday the pain.

I don’t know why I found that so sad, but I did. It kind of reminded me of the way you might treat someone with dementia or short-term memory problems. Very sweet.

So next, I suppose I should read the last in the series, however I might take a slight detour and re-read Misery in preparation for World Book Night next month.