The Woman Who Died a Lot (Thursday Next Series)4stars

 

 

By Jasper Fforde
Penguin Group, $26.95, 384 pages

Thursday Next is no stranger to the dangerous world of literary crime. And the eighth installment of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, The Woman Who Died a Lot, provides plenty. The Goliath Corporation goes to any extreme to get into the BookWorld, including creating synthetic Thursdays to take over her life and sending Jack Schitt on a mission that seems to make no sense. SpecOps decides that Thursday’s recent injuries make her the ideal candidate to be chief librarian. And Thursday’s family struggles too: Friday’s going to prison for life for a murder not yet committed, Tuesday’s creating a defense shield to protect against the smiting of Swindon, and Jenny doesn’t actually exist. Can Thursday protect her family from prison, the BookWorld, and the Global Standard Deity?

“As it stands at the moment, I can forget I have the mindworm almost midsentence.”
“Does it affect your work?”
“Does what effect my work?”
“The mindworm.”
“What mindworm?”

Jasper Fforde doesn’t disappoint. The wit, wonder, and wordplay that shape the world of Thursday Next are as clever and imaginative as always. Whether exploring the Dark Reading Matter or trying to escape Letters of Destiny, each and every detail is rich, vivid, and simultaneously utterly incredible and wholly believable. A fantastic addition to the series that will leave readers eager for the next Next.

Reviewed by Leah Sims

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