Red Side Story: The colourful and instant Sunday Times bestseller (Feb 2024) from the bestselling author of Shades of Grey

by Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde, the acclaimed SUNDAY TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER, invites you to imagine a world where your position in society depended on what bit of the colour spectrum you could see...

It's the UK, but not as we know it: civilisation has rebuilt after an unspoken 'Something that Happened' five hundred years before. Society is now colour-based, the strict levels of hierarchy dictated by the colours you can see, and the economy, health service and citizen's aspirations all dominated by visual colour, run by the shadowy National Colour in far-off Emerald City.

Out on the fringes of Red Sector West, Eddie Russett and Jane Grey have discovered that all is neither fair nor truthful within their cosy environment, and currently face trumped up charges that will see them die of the fatally soporific tones within the Green Room.

Negotiating the narrow boundaries of the Rules within their society, Jane and Edward must find out the truth of their world: What is it, where is it and even when it is. As they unpeel the lies that cloak their existence they come to the worrying conclusion that they may not be alone: That there might be a Somewhere Else beyond the sea, and more, Someone Else living there - and observing them all, purposefully unseen.

Red Side Story delves into the strictures of a society imposed on itself by itself, immovable dogma and the spirit of humans trying to love and survive and make sense of a world that makes no sense at all. Only it does, of course - you just have to look harder, look further, and forget everything you've ever been told.

'Fforde is one of literature's most enjoyable visionaries, and his long-awaited Shades of Grey sequel will be eagerly seized upon by his admirers... The jokes are excellent, the pacing breathless and the last line a classic' Observer

'Fforde's books are more than an ingenious idea. They are written with buoyant zest and are tautly plotted . . . and are embellished with the rich details of a Dickens or Pratchett' Independent

'No summaries can do justice to the sheer inventiveness, wit, complexity, erudition, unexpectedness and originality' The Times

'Brilliantly inventive' Mail on Sunday

• ISBN10: 1444763660
• ISBN13: 9781444763669
• Publish Date: 6 February 2024 (first published 11 August 2022)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Hodder & Stoughton
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 384
• Language: English

Reviews

[Metaphorosis Reviews]

5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Sent to East Carmine to inventory chairs, Eddie Russett has gotten himself in a fair amount of trouble - some it it instigated by Jane, whom he loves, but who has tried to kill him twice. In the rigidly color-coded world of Chromatacia, they're both finding out much more about how the world really works - and what there might be outside it.

Review
I think this is the best thing Fforde has written. I’ve been a fan since the first Thursday Next novel, and I’ve read most of his books. Largely, I’ve liked them, though it hasn’t been entirely smooth sailing. The precis that sets up this book – giving the highlights of what will happen – is an example; I found it more confusing than helpful. Happily, the rest of the book is much better.

In Red Side Story, Fforde has firmly found his groove. The champion of absurdist satire, he creates a world that’s both profoundly ridiculous and internally consistent and credible. Unlike authors whose aliens are frequently indistinguishable from humans, Fforde gives us humans whose outlook is reliably alien.

It occurred to me as I read that in some ways, Fforde is this generation’s Jack Vance. The worlds and characters he creates are often ridiculous, but compellingly readable. Often through the eyes of a relatively normal protagonist, he’s telling a relatably human story of facing down the accreted and unquestioned oddities of generations. Vance and Fforde have entirely different writing styles and voices, but I think they’re achieving a similar effect.

While Red Side Story fulfills and even exceeds the promise of Shades of Grey, Fforde often has trouble keeping his series on track, and there’s a shift in milieu at the end of this book that poses a considerable risk. Nonetheless, I’m loving this series, and looking forward to the next book (should there be one; if not, this is an adequate, but not fully satisfying place to stop).

My edition had a ‘bonus’ short story – irritatingly, told through images that weren’t full screen – that’s pleasant, but far from essential.