Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) by Jasper Fforde

[gilda_elise]

If resourceful, fearless literary detective Thursday Next thought she could avoid the spotlight after her heroic escapades in the pages of Jane Eyre, she was sorely mistaken.

Her adventures as a renowned Special Operative in literary detection have left Thursday Next yearning for a rest. But when the love of her life is eradicated by the corrupt multinational Goliath Corporation, Thursday must bite the bullet and moonlight as a Prose Resource Operative in the secret world of Jurisfiction, the police force inside the books. There she is apprenticed to Miss Havisham, the famous man-hater from Dicken's Great Expectations, who teaches her to book-jump like a pro. If she retrieves a supposedly vanquished enemy from the pages of Poe's "The Raven," she thinks Goliath might return her lost love, Landen. But her latest mission is endlessly complicated. Not only are there side trips into the works of Kafka and Austen, and even Beatrix Potter's The Tale of Flopsy Bunnies, Thursday finds herself the target of a series of potentially lethal coincidences, the authenticator of a newly discovered play by the Bard himself, and the only one who can prevent an unidentifiable pink sludge from engulfing all life on Earth.

As with the first book in the series, I felt there were perhaps a few too many plot lines to keep straight. Actually, there seemed to be even more with this book, which is probably why I didn’t enjoy it as much. I think the 400 pages would have done better at 350. Maybe even 300, because I found myself jumping ahead, skipping paragraphs, not at all concerned at what I might be missing. Turns out, usually I didn’t miss a thing.

Thursday jumps from book to book, trying to retrieve Hades from Poe’s The Raven, trying to outwit the Goliath Corporation, as well as staying one step ahead of her own people, all the while hoping to keep the Earth from ending in a covering of pink sludge. Oh, and trying to get her husband back, keep her flat, and watch out for her dodo and the bird’s egg. All while being pregnant, herself. That’s an awfully lot to keep straight. Or, unfortunately, to stay interested in. And I’m sure I’ve left out some things.

I’m pretty sure I won’t be reading the third book. Just the thought of reading another book like this one is exhausting!






Mount TBR 2025 Book Links


Links are to more information regarding each book or author, not to the review.

1. The Demon of Unrest: A Saga of Hubris, Heartbreak, and Heroism at the Dawn of the Civil War by Erik Larson
2. The Silence of the Girls (Women of Troy #1) by Pat Barker
3. Withered + Sere (Immemorial Year #1) by T.J. Klune
4. The Traitor's Son by Wendy Johnson
5. All That Heaven Allows: A Biography of Rock Hudson by Mark Griffin
6. You Like It Darker by Stephen King, Thomas Hayman (Illustrations)
7. The Fireman by Joe Hill
8. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
9. Lark Ascending by Silas House
10. Memorials by Richard Chizmar
11. The Russo-Ukrainian War: The Return of History by Serhii Plokhy
12. Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
13. The Border by Robert McCammon
14. The 2084 Report: An Oral History of the Great Warming by James Lawrence Powell
15. Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
16. All Over the Town by R. F. Delderfield
17. The Last Days of Richard III and the Fate of His DNA: The Book That Inspired the Dig by John Ashdown-Hill
18. Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean #2) by T.J. Klune
19. Blood of the Children by Alan Rodgers
20. For Fear of the Night by Charles L. Grant



21. We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer
22. America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H.W. Brands
23. American Lion: Andrew Jackson in the White House by Jon Meacham
24. The Seventh Veil of Salome by Silvia Moreno-Garcia
25. A Beginning at the End by Mike Chen
26. Lost and Found by Marilyn Harris
27. Strange Weather: Four Short Novels by Joe Hill
28. Three Wild Dogs by Markus Zusak
29. Full Throttle by Joe Hill
30. Lost in a Good Book (Thursday Next #2) by Jasper Fforde







JUN – Great, Wander, Child, Mine, Book, Watch, Heart, Save

Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde