Red Side Story

Shades of Grey #2

by Jasper Fforde, Chris Harper (reader)

Imagine a world where your position in society depended on what bit of the colour spectrum you could see. This is the world inhabited by Eddie Russett (red, middle-level) and Jane Grey (monochromatic, lowest in society). Eddie and Jane must negotiate the delicate Chromatic politics of society to find out what the 'Something that Happened' actually was, how society got to be this way, and crucially, is there Somewhere Else beyond their borders - and if there is, could there be Someone Else, too, someone whose unseen hand has been guiding the fortunes and misfortunes of the nation for the past 500 years?

It's a tale of a young couple's thirst for justice and answers in an implacably rigid society, where the prisoners are also the guards, and cages of convention bind the citizens to only one way of thinking - or suffer the consequences. . ..

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Dystopia, Audiobook, Humor, Science Fiction Fantasy

1 pages, Audio CD

First published February 6, 2024

About the author

Fforde began his career in the film industry, and for nineteen years held a variety of posts on such movies as Goldeneye, The Mask of Zorro and Entrapment. Secretly harbouring a desire to tell his own stories rather than help other people tell their's, Jasper started writing in 1988, and spent eleven years secretly writing novel after novel as he strove to find a style of his own that was a no-mans-land somewhere between the warring factions of Literary and Absurd.

After receiving 76 rejection letters from publishers, Jasper's first novel The Eyre Affair was taken on by Hodder & Stoughton and published in July 2001. Set in 1985 in a world that is similar to our own, but with a few crucial - and bizarre - differences (Wales is a socialist republic, the Crimean War is still ongoing and the most popular pets are home-cloned dodos), The Eyre Affair introduces literary detective named 'Thursday Next'. Thursday's job includes spotting forgeries of Shakespeare's lost plays, mending holes in narrative plot lines, and rescuing characters who have been kidnapped from literary masterpieces.

Luckily for Jasper, the novel garnered dozens of effusive reviews, and received high praise from the press, from booksellers and readers throughout the UK. In the US The Eyre Affair was also an instant hit, entering the New York Times Bestseller List in its first week of publication.

Since then, Jasper has added another six to the Thursday Next series and has also begun a second series that he calls 'Nursery Crime', featuring Jack Spratt of The Nursery Crime Division. In the first book, 'The Big Over Easy', Humpty Dumpty is the victim in a whodunnit, and in the second, 'The Fourth Bear', the Three Bear's connection to Goldilocks disappearance can finally be revealed.

In January 2010 Fforde published 'Shades of Grey', in which a fragmented society struggle to survive in a colour-obsessed post-apocalyptic landscape.

His latest series is for Young Adults and include 'The Last Dragonslayer' (2010), 'Song of the Quarkbeast' (2011) and 'The Eye of Zoltar' (2013). All the books centre around Jennifer Strange, who manages a company of magicians named 'Kazam', and her attempts to keep the noble arts from the clutches of big business and property tycoons.

Jasper's 14th Book, 'Early Riser', a thriller set in a world in which humans have always hibernated, is due out in the UK in August 2018, and in the US in 2019.

Fforde failed his Welsh Nationality Test by erroneously identifying Gavin Henson as a TV chef, but continues to live and work in his adopted nation despite this setback. He has a Welsh wife, two welsh daughters and a welsh dog, who is mad but not because he's Welsh. He has a passion for movies, photographs, and aviation. (Jasper, not the dog)

Series:
* Thursday Next
* Nursery Crime
* Shades of Grey

Reviews

[Michelle J.]

PLEASE, for the love of all that is good, write ffaster, Mr. Fforde!!!! I cannot wait!

[Kelsey]

Eagerly anticipating a sequel since 2009. Can’t wait to read it!

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

**US finally has a release date!!! Alas, we have to wait till May 7, 2024, according to PRH site (Soho Press)
*UK pub date Feb 6, 2024 (Waterstones has it listed a bit earlier, but this is from his site)
*AUS pub date Feb 13, 2024 (from publisher Hachette)


**UPDATE 11/1/22**
From Jasper Fforde's Twitter:
"Submitted 1st Draft of Shades of Grey 2: 'Red Side Story' this morning. Eddie and Jane: They're back. The Colourtocracy, Prefects, Jollity Fair, Tin Men, Angels, Heralds, Fallen Men, Loganberry Jam, Riffraff, Ball lightning, Mildew, Ford Model Ts and the lovely Violet deMauve.."

---ORIGINAL POST---
While we still have an agonizing two years to wait for the second Shades of Grey, Fforde says he's doing a standalone prequel about the Something That Happened coming...eventually... So that will ease the hunger, I suppose...

*UPDATE*
Looks like we can expect a completely unrelated book called Early Riser set to release in January 2016. Presumably this is the "Super secret standalone" described on his website.
Amazon UK description reads:
"Imagine a world where all humans must hibernate through a brutally cold winter, their bodies dangerously close to death as they enter an ultra-low metabolic state of utterly dreamless sleep. All humans, that is, apart from the Sleep Marshalls, a group of officers who diligently watch over the vulnerable sleeping citizens.
When John Fugue, a junior Sleep Marshall, finds himself in the forgotten rural outpost of Sector Twelve, he hears of a conspiracy - a viral dream is somehow spreading amongst those in the hibernational state, causing paranoia, hallucination and a psychotic episode that can end in murder. When Fugue enters the Sleepstate himself and wakes two months later, all those who knew about the dream have disappeared and, more disturbingly, Fugue himself can recall parts of the viral dream - a dream that shouldn't be possible."

So everything's been pushed back, SoG prequel not expected till 2016 along with the fourth Dragonslayer T_T
Ah, well. His books are good enough to be patient for ^u^

**UPDATE 11/8/16**
From Jasper Fforde's Twitter, 10/19/2016:
"Writery update: at present, my plans: Early Riser, Dragonslayer 4, as yet untitled novella, Shades of Grey 2, Thursday Next 8..."

The agonizing wait continues, but at least there's The Last Dragonslayer film to look forward to this Christmas......
T^T

**UPDATE 2/11/18**
From Jasper Fforde's Twitter, 01/19/2018:
"Just finishing Early Riser now, so we'll have a pub. date soon and news of future books. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible"
(Early Riser being a standalone novel unrelated to SoG, but hopefully this means we'll be hearing more soon!)

**UPDATE 12/17/18**
From Jasper Fforde's Twitter, 11/09/2018
"The next book will not be a Next book. The one after the next book is DS4, and the next after that will be SoG2. Then there will be the next Next. The next book is a standalone about rabbits. I hope that’s clear."

...In case it's not,
1. Meet The Rabbits*
2. Dragonslayer 4
3. Shades of Grey 2***
4. Thursday Next

If you live in the UK, Fforde's standalone novel, Early Riser, is available now! Those of us in the US can grab it February 12!

*From his site, updated 5/18:
"Meet The Rabbits: Sort of "District 9" meets "Watership Down". Blatantly unsubtle allegorical novel about Rabbits moving in next door. We live in unsubtle times, and this calls for unsubtle books. I should be done with this by the end of June 2018, so hopefully 2019 for publication."

***From his site, updated 5/18:
"Either a prequel that takes place before the 'Something that happened' or we'll just carry on straight after Eddie's marriage. I'm favouring the latter. I'll be working on this in 2019 and am not sure how long it will take to write."

**UPDATE 9/23/20**
Nearly two years ago, Fforde told us his next book would be a book about rabbits, and that book is finally here!
The Constant Rabbit is now available in the UK and will be available 9/29 in the USA.
Early Riser, another standalone, is also now available if you still pine for your fix of Fforde.

On Twitter 10/10, Fforde confirmed his writing schedule is as follows:
1. Dragonslayer 4 (Humans v Trolls) aiming for publication late 2021
2. Shades of Grey 2 aiming for publication 2022
(No word on whether this will be a prequel or continuation, JF favors the latter)
3. Thursday Next 8 (Dark Reading Matter)
*There are no plans for further Nursery Crime novels at this time.

[Phrynne · Rating 5 out of 5]

At last the second book in the series. The author has been promising us this since Shades of Grey was published in 2009. That's a long time but I still remembered the story from the first book, and was able to drop straight into Red Side Story and enjoy every minute of it.

We are back with Eddy and Jane in East Carmine, a town in a dystopian world where Britain has become Chromatacia. As usual Fforde creates an amazing and detailed world where people live according to the colour they can see, and under a totally insane list of rules. Jane is a true rebel and Eddy is swept along with her in an attempt to find out the truth behind their situation.

I have always loved the way Fforde writes. I really enjoy his wacky imagination, his humour, and his way with words. Little things like vestigial memories of the past creating a fear of the sea because the "undertoad" who lives there might drag you down and eat you. The ending is excellent and I will be perfectly happy if this remains a duology. I have seen a hint that he is planning a third book but if so I hope it does not take another fifteen years.

[Ms. Smartarse · Rating 4 out of 5]

Eddie and Jane have finally taken their colour perception tests and are now free to run off into the sunset. In theory that is, because in practice Eddie could not get out of his political marriage, Jane's barely-there perception of green makes them incompatible in the eyes of society, plus they're also on trial for murder. But other than that, everything's just dandy. Besides, Jane's got big plans, and zero compunctions about (not so) secret night-time canoodling.



Before you jump headfirst into this sequel, you should be aware that a reread/relisten of book 1 is a necessity. As a fundamentally lazy reader myself, I thought I could jog my memory on the go, so to speak, but not even my propensity to remember weird shit lasts for over a decade. Trust me on this, it took me five failed starts and a relisten to the prequel to finish the book.

On the upside, this book picks up immediately after the (vaguely cliffhanger-ish) events from book 1, so I felt quite a bit of satisfaction in not having to contend with the cliffhanger for another ten years. The pacing felt noticeably snappier this time around, which was unexpected. I guess it makes sense given the context of the murder trial, but the number of coincidences driving the plot was way too high.



I wasn't happy about the way these events started, but I did get invested in the story and the world-building that followed. E.g. there was a decade-old mysterious skeleton that the community at large was happy to avoid, and merely use as a landmark. Enter Tommo aiming (or rather not aiming) a kick at a stone, and somehow this triggers a near-cataclysmic set of events.

The character development was generally well-done. I loved how Violet turned into a strong woman on the cusp of motherhood, who even managed to capitalise on her entitled pain-in-the-arse persona. Jane's sudden inability to lie effectively, however, was odd. And Eddie's insistence that his hookup with Violet was essentially blackmail didn't convince me.

Score: 3.8/5 stars

Despite a few hiccups, I actually found the overall character development and world-building enjoyable. I'm looking forward to the final(?) book, which hopefully won't take another decade to come out.

=================
Review of book 1: Shades of Grey

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

In Red Side Story, the second book in the Shades of Grey series, Welsh author Jasper Fforde returns the reader to East Carmine, somewhere on the island that used to be Britain, sometime in the far dystopian future when all fauna including humans are bar-coded, people live in a chromatic hierarchy, graded according to colour perception, have no night vision, and live by a centuries-old dogma entailing ridiculous rules, often circumvented by shrewd loopholery.

The scarcity of spoons affords them their own postcode and gives the owner the right to procreate, wearing gloves is forbidden, along with the use of acronyms, and enquiry is frowned upon. The quickly-fatal Mildew takes out the old, the broken, the lazy, and the independent thinkers. The technical Leapbacks ensure that much that is useful is also illegal.

Eddie Russett’s recent Ishihara test rates him with the highest red perception in the village, which ought to afford him a prestigious position, and sees him, to his dismay, engaged to a pregnant-to-him Violet deMauve, but with a murder trial hanging over him and his true beloved, the seditious Jane Brunswick, (formerly Grey) after their recent expedition to High Saffron, it’s a moot point.

Jane, though, is determined to undermine the power of the ruling Collective, with Eddie ever ready to do her bidding. Sent to the ghost town of Crimsonolia to search for spoons, they take the opportunity to do some research and, after narrowly escaping an ambush, are shocked by what they coincidentally learn. “It’s not unusual,” they are later told, “for residents with an inquisitive mind to achieve a limited degree of unnecessary awareness. Most people are sensible, ignore it, and live on.” Not Eddie or Jane!

Surprise testimony at their disciplinary hearing results in an upheaval in the ruling Prefects, and brings the threat of a Supervisory Swatchman who will administer the Mildew when Eddie’s father demurs. Things go horribly wrong for the village while a team from East Carmine are away in Vermillion attending the Jollity Fair, and when things get dangerous for the survivors, Jane and Eddie have to think outside the box if they are to survive.

As always, Fforde’s plot is highly original, very clever and Douglas-Adams-level imaginative. He is inspired when it comes to hilarious names (people, towns, flora and fauna, technological advances and euphemisms). Readers will recognise in Chromatacia the absurdities of our own bureaucracies, politics and everyday life. Fforde has a finger firmly on society’s pulse.

Each chapter is prefaced by an extract from either the Great Munsell’s Book of Harmony, or Ted Grey’s memoir, Twenty Years among the Chromatacians. There’s plenty of wordplay in this wonderful social & political satire, an abundance of laugh-out-loud moments, and caution with liquids whilst reading is advised due to possible ambush by some of the witty dialogue. While the resolution is satisfying, room is left for more of Eddie and Jane: let’s hope Fforde doesn’t make fans wait another fourteen years for the next entertaining flash of colour.

[Nigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

OK - for me Fforde can be such an inspired writer but I've been a fan for years now. This is funny, anarchic, subversive and very well plotted. You really do have to read Shades of Grey first (but that is a great read anyway) to get some understanding of the apparent and actual regimes in play here. There are completely daft rules enforced utterly ruthlessly and all that stands against this are Eddie and Jane (and maybe one or two others).

Even though I had to wait 15 years for this I think it was excellent. In a sense "everything" is tied up here however I sense an opening for a third book (which my daughter and I agree we do not want to wait 15 years for... 😂). I guess I'd love to know how this would have played out if the other books (there were to be 2 more) had happened. Recommended for anyone who likes entertaining, well plotted fantasy. Maybe not Pratchett but at times ever so close.

[Ashley · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really good! I don't want to say that it was worth the wait—because it was a very long wait—but it kind of was. Also would make a good ending if he never gets book three out. (Definitely re-read if you haven't read the first book in a while. You will be lost otherwise.)

[Brok3n · Rating 4 out of 5]

What are these people?

When I reviewed Shades of Grey, the first novel in Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey series, I asked

Although I referred to Eddie as a young man, it is not clear to me what the people of the Collective are. I think they are more-or-less human. ... However, in some ways they behave like automata. These are puzzles that I hope Jasper Fforde will clear up in subsequent novels in the Shades of Grey series.

Now I'm patting myself on the back, because that is indeed what Red Side Story is about. Or so say I. You might think it is about other things -- a love story, a fight to survive, a battle for justice, a cycle race -- and you would not be wrong. Red Side Story contains multitudes.

Shades of Grey ended in a flurry of revelations about the Collective. Eddie, Jane and Courtland Gamboge visited the abandoned town of High Saffron, where Jane revealed that all the people supposedly sent to Reboot were in fact sent here to die. Eddie and Jane vowed to work for the overthrow of the Collective. Courtland did not survive the trip, and Jane and Eddie stand accused of his murder. So, that's where we start.

Will Eddie and Jane survive? Well, OK, let's be honest -- that is never really in doubt. That's not really a spoiler, because Eddie begins the book with a brief précis of what's to come. Although cryptic, it leaves no doubt that Eddie and Jane will still be alive when we get to the end. HOW will they survive? That's a real question, and I will, of course, not give you an answer.

The good news is that we do eventually get a complete answer to the puzzles I asked about in my review of Shades of Grey. And it's a great story. Aside from learning the nature of the people of Chromatacia, we have drones and robots and a reenactment of a famous scene from Star Wars -- you will recognize it immediately. And the big reveal at the end is entirely satisfying.

I am left wondering whether there will be a third Shades of Grey. Red Side Story ends in a good place. I didn't feel that there were any major loose ends. However, on his Next Book page, Fforde suggests that after wrapping up Thurday Next he may write "SofG III".

I liked Red Side Story a lot. I enjoyed it more than Shades of Grey, because, now that we know all we need to about the dreary Chromatacian dystopia, there is room for action and fun. You do, however, need to read Shades of Grey -- Red Side Story won't make much sense without.

I thank Edelweiss and Soho Press for an advance reader copy of Red Side Story. This review expresses my honest opinions.

Blog review.

[ally ¯\(ツ)/¯]

There is currently nothing in the world that I want more than this book.
Seriously. And I really don't care how crazy that sounds.

[Tehmer]

Hidden Rule 5.22.01.002.54-codebook B - The muse is an animal that must not be chevied

Yes, I want to read it, to know the full truth, and yes, I am ready to do my obligation and wait for as long as it takes Jasper to finish it. The first one is so simply amazingly brilliant that I keep my fingers crossed that the whole saga is somewhere in his head and he takes all the time that is needed to write it down in the quality we love.

[Mike Collins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm...
Firstly, let me say that Jasper Fforde is one of my favourite authors. I love the Thursday Next books and Shades Of Grey is probably my favourite book of his. I really like the Nursery Crime books and haven't read any of the Dragonslayer titles, as that's really not my 'thing'.
Red Side Story has been a while coming - approximately 15 years - and herein lies the problem, I think. Jasper Fforde has often said that the majority of the emails that he received were enquiries about SoG #2 and even when it was first due for release, that didn't happen for another year. As a result, expectation was high and in my opinion, the reality just isn't worth the wait.
SoG was a brilliant book, in my view; a whole new world and a new way of living was created. The characters were good, the situations fun and intriguing, with a number of mysterious loose ends. RSS explains much of the mystique, but it feels like that's done just for the sake of having something to put in the book. Oh and how much recapping of the previous book? Even at half-way through, there are still explanations of things from SoG. Will people really read RSS without reading SoG? Really? It feels like padding and a lack of ideas.
This is not the sequel that SoG deserves. There is to be a third book in this series, although given the ending, it's difficult to see where that will begin, let alone finish.

[✘✘ Sarah ✘✘ (former Nefarious Breeder of Murderous Crustaceans) · Rating 5 out of 5]

When a story is so amazingly original, imaginative, clever, thought-provoking, and funny nothing you could say about it could do it justice. So you don't.



· Book 1: Shades of Grey ★★★★★

[Saskia Hens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the first book when my daughter was a baby.

I can literally see how long I’ve been waiting for the sequel.

Now she stopped nagging about getting another sibling, but I’ll never stop nagging about the fact that books like this should not be an «only child».

For pete’s sake, let this book arrive before my grandchildren do. And just so the universe gets the right message: Yes, do send me grandchildren when it’s time. Either the book will be there, .... or I can at least harp on about it taking two generations to finish it.

Or I can smoothly segue into pushing for number three. Because let’s face it: if this is the prequel and we have to wait even longer for the sequel, I’ll probably go mental.

[Robin (Bridge Four) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Red Side Story is the long awaited *cough* since 2009 *cough* sequel to Shades of Grey, in the series of the same name.  Set in a dystopian world where people see only one color usually and an entire society has been built around rules and hierarchy based on the color you can see.  But, as we found out in the last book, this strange land and the people in it are far from the utopian society that Monson and all his rules tried to create.  And there are so many ridiculous rules.

Eddy (a Red) and Jane (a Grey or low Green) are awaiting their hearing for the death of a Yellow that happening in the prior book.  After Jane opened Eddy's eyes to some of the happenings around them in their chromatic based society, he isn't quite the good little citizen he was before, but let's be honest, he was never that good (see the last Rabbit incident of the last book).  Sent to East Carmine to learn some humility and do a chair survey after trying to improve queuing in lines Eddy has stubbled into a mystery of the ages.  He has questions, as we all do, after the first story.  Things like; what was the thing that happened, why are there no spoons, what is up with the metal swans, why does everything (including the citizens) have a barcode, who are the riff raff etc.  There are so many mysteries out there to solve.

The humor of this book is just up my alley.  It is smart and funny, with so many little jabs throughout.  I really enjoyed the concepts of this society especially when we learn why it was set up in the first place.  Jane and Eddy are great together and I really do adore they way they make their rebellions against the society they are living in.  With the danger of being 'greened' around every corner for our two lovebirds they will have to be very clever indeed if they are going to find all the answers before those answers get them removed from whatever this experiment is.

I had so much fun with all the clever little things that are thrown into the story and all the oddities this dystopian culture has just adopted.  Like animal watching and logging barcodes for fun, or using a RISK game as a map, along with how literature has been changed for books, well known to the readers, to have morals of the story completely changed to reinforce the Monson doctrine all the residents are supposed to live by.  Really this is just a unique story that I've never read anything of the like and kudos to Fforde for how well he knocked Red Side Story out of the park.  I'm hoping the next book in the series doesn't take 15 years to get here but I'll wait that long for another great addition to the series.  Let the loopholery continue.

Narration:

Chris Harper is a new to me narrator.  He did the English humor great in the story and made the book so much fun.  I liked his dialoguing with the characters the most as it was hilarious at times.  I was able to distinguish between all the characters very well and follow the story without getting distracted.  I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.

Listen to a clip: HERE

 

[Tal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might be the first review from someone who has actually finished reading the book. Normally, I don't write many reviews, but I felt compelled to make an exception this time.

I've been eagerly awaiting the release of "Red Side Story" for over a decade. In anticipation, I revisited "Shades of Grey" to refresh my memory and dive into the sequel with a clear mindset. "Shades of Grey" occupies a special place in my heart, alongside "The Way of Kings" and "Red Rising." While not as epic, its dystopian world and unique narrative style, offering a fresh perspective reminiscent of "Stranger in a Strange Land," have endeared it to me.

However, "Red Side Story" did not live up to its predecessor. It didn't feel like a genuine continuation of "Shades of Grey." Although it was compelling enough to keep me reading non-stop for three days, it lacked the original's uniqueness, mystery, and depth. The plot seemed to take a backseat to unraveling the layers of mysteries, which, unlike the first book's gripping twists, felt predictable and less engaging here.

Minor mistakes and inconsistencies, though not ruinous, were nonetheless distracting. Even more disconcerting was the alteration of core concepts from the first book, which struck a discordant note each time they were mentioned. The addition of numerous minor plotlines that ultimately led nowhere further contributed to a sense of disorganization.

In conclusion, while "Red Side Story" is by no means a failure, it didn't live up to the high bar set by its remarkable precursor. Nevertheless, it remains a must-read for anyone for whom "Shades of Grey" was a page-turner that kept them up at night.

[Elizabeth (Plant Based Bride) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across Shades of Grey last year and absolutely adored it - the combination of an intriguing and well-built dystopian world in addition to laugh-out-loud comedy was one I was immediately enamoured with! And when I learned a sequel was on the way, I was even more excited.

I hate when this happens, but I think I might have overhyped myself to the point that nothing could have reached my sky-high expectations. This second book was great, don’t get me wrong, but it didn’t blow me away like the first book. The reveals about the world and their society were interesting, but I personally would have preferred either more vagueness/mystery/an open ending OR a little more detail about what got us here.

I would definitely recommend fans of the first book read this one, as well, but I’m a bit sad it wasn’t as incredible as I’d built it up to be in my head.



Trigger/Content Warnings: death, murder, decapitation



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[Michael Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to read an advanced copy of this in September 2023.

I can assure everyone, it's been worth the wait.

Absolutely incredible.

[Marianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

The audio version is narrated by Jasper Fforde and Chris Harper, and includes a bonus chapter: Nine Minutes With The Riff Raff.

In Red Side Story, the second book in the Shades of Grey series, Welsh author Jasper Fforde returns the reader to East Carmine, somewhere on the island that used to be Britain, sometime in the far dystopian future when all fauna including humans are bar-coded, people live in a chromatic hierarchy, graded according to colour perception, have no night vision, and live by a centuries-old dogma entailing ridiculous rules, often circumvented by shrewd loopholery.

The scarcity of spoons affords them their own postcode and gives the owner the right to procreate, wearing gloves is forbidden, along with the use of acronyms, and enquiry is frowned upon. The quickly-fatal Mildew takes out the old, the broken, the lazy, and the independent thinkers. The technical Leapbacks ensure that much that is useful is also illegal.

Eddie Russett’s recent Ishihara test rates him with the highest red perception in the village, which ought to afford him a prestigious position, and sees him, to his dismay, engaged to a pregnant-to-him Violet deMauve, but with a murder trial hanging over him and his true beloved, the seditious Jane Brunswick, (formerly Grey) after their recent expedition to High Saffron, it’s a moot point.

Jane, though, is determined to undermine the power of the ruling Collective, with Eddie ever ready to do her bidding. Sent to the ghost town of Crimsonolia to search for spoons, they take the opportunity to do some research and, after narrowly escaping an ambush, are shocked by what they coincidentally learn. “It’s not unusual,” they are later told, “for residents with an inquisitive mind to achieve a limited degree of unnecessary awareness. Most people are sensible, ignore it, and live on.” Not Eddie or Jane!

Surprise testimony at their disciplinary hearing results in an upheaval in the ruling Prefects, and brings the threat of a Supervisory Swatchman who will administer the Mildew when Eddie’s father demurs. Things go horribly wrong for the village while a team from East Carmine are away in Vermillion attending the Jollity Fair, and when things get dangerous for the survivors, Jane and Eddie have to think outside the box if they are to survive.

As always, Fforde’s plot is highly original, very clever and Douglas-Adams-level imaginative. He is inspired when it comes to hilarious names (people, towns, flora and fauna, technological advances and euphemisms). Readers will recognise in Chromatacia the absurdities of our own bureaucracies, politics and everyday life. Fforde has a finger firmly on society’s pulse.

Each chapter is prefaced by an extract from either the Great Munsell’s Book of Harmony, or Ted Grey’s memoir, Twenty Years among the Chromatacians. There’s plenty of wordplay in this wonderful social & political satire, an abundance of laugh-out-loud moments, and caution with liquids whilst reading is advised due to possible ambush by some of the witty dialogue. While the resolution is satisfying, room is left for more of Eddie and Jane: let’s hope Fforde doesn’t make fans wait another fourteen years for the next entertaining flash of colour.
This unbiased review is from an audio copy provided by NetGalley and RB Media.

[Ashley Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This picked up right where Shades of Grey left off (never mind the 16-year gap between publishing) and boy did it just GO. It took a sharper turn than I was expecting, but I loved every minute of this.

Chris Harper (with Fforde on chapter intros) narrates beautifully; I particularly enjoyed his smarmy inflection for Tommo. The bonus chapter is expertly performed by Fforde and Brendan Dempsey, and now I need Jasper to do audio dramas. He's perfect.

[Sarah Brehm]

April 18, 2018:
So I finished Shades of Grey last night, which means that I have now read every book that Fforde currently has published. And while I absolutely love the Thursday Next series and the Chronicles of Kazam, it's the Shades of Grey series that I desperately want him to finish first... because...


October 1, 2019: Still waiting.

[Jessica]

Received this for the World Fantasy Award, had not read the first one, learned about five minutes ago that it's been 14 years since the first (which I just hurried to read).

What. I mean . . . WHAT. So clever! So damn weird! So funny! So sad!

And that . . . was a helluva twist.

Also, that twist.

And the other one(s).

*I am not rating books read for the World Fantasy Award.*

[Torri · Rating 3 out of 5]

5/5 for giving us more of stories in the world of Shades of Grey I loved the first book and have been ecstatically waiting for a sequel for years, which I reread right before jumping into Red Side Story.

3/5 for execution. Unfortunately, this is a bit of a downgrade from Shades of Grey. They honestly don't really feel like the same story. SOG is so subtle, and RSS is hit you in the face jammed packed with action. There is so much to love about the first book, and one of my favorites is that not much is known about how we got to where we are in this world. It becomes clear as you progress through the story that the world of Chromatica is set on Earth in a far-off future after "Something that Happened," but the book is never explict. It asks you to take the little clues and easter eggs and make some leaps. I feel like someone told Fforde his book was too opaque, so he overexplained everything in Red Side Story as some form of malicious compliance. My other issue with RSS is that so much happens. Three books worth of plot happen in this one, and it feels like there was a rush to get all of Ffordes' ideas into this one in case he didn't get to a third shot. Don't get me wrong, I love all of the plot points, but it was just too much. There were points where I was amazed that I was still reading the same book because so much had occurred.

Overall, I love Shades of Grey, and I'm so happy to have returned to this world, but Red Side Story didn't live up to its predecessor. I quite liked the story and continued wordbuilding, but I wish everything wasn't so overly explained. The kooky mysteriousness of the first combined with its "boring" straight man, Eddie, is partially what made it so fun. That being said, I will absolutely read the next one, and I hope it matches the cleverness and brillance of the first.

[Jaz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not worth the wait😔 SoG is an amazing book, and unfortunately this sequel doesn't live up to expectations. There are many inconsistencies with the first book- it often feels like Jasper Fforde didn't even remind himself of the rules created in the first book. Secrets painstakingly discovered by the main characters in the first book are suddenly common knowledge in the second book (despite being unsure if even prefects knew about mildew in SoG, suddenly everyone knows now??) Suddenly there's a new underground club where supernumeraries and other colours mix together at night time? Even though no one can see in the dark?
Was eagerly awaiting release of this book, and hoping Fforde had used the time wisely to do the sequel justice, been left massively disappointed ☹️

[Irifev · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seit langem warte ich auf das Erscheinen von drei Büchern. Shades of Grey erschien 2009. A Dance with Dragons und The Wise Man's Fear erschienen 2011. Und die Fortsetzungen waren lange nicht da - bis vor ein paar Tagen Red Side Story erschien.

Und der Roman hält, was er verspricht - viel Humor und Anspielungen (egal ob Shakespeare oder Star Wars) in einem 1984-artigen Setting. Im Gegensatz zum Vorgänger ist das Ende aber weniger offen - was das Warten auf Band 3 (der laut Jaspers Twitteraccount für 2027 geplant ist) wohl erträglicher macht als die letzten 15 Jahre .

[Melissa McShane · Rating 5 out of 5]

So, basically, I waited 14 years for this book. Shades of Grey remains one of my all-time favorite books, and I was patient. Then I was grateful that whatever happened to Jasper Fforde that made him disappear as an author for many years didn't destroy his career, and I waited for him to cycle around to this. Then I waited for the publisher to make a final decision and stop delaying the publication. To say I was ready for this book is an understatement akin to calling the Great Flood a bit of wet weather.

It was worth waiting for. I don't know that I'd call it on a par with Shades of Grey, but it doesn't have to be; it fulfils the promise of that book so well I never felt the need to compare.

The thing is, this is clearly not the book Fforde had in mind when he finished the first one all those years ago. Not for the obvious reason that he's a different person now. If you look at the back of the first edition hardcover which OF COURSE I own, I'm a proper obsessed fan, there are two titles listed as sequels to Shades of Grey, and neither of those is the title of this book. What's more, he makes choices that I'm sure, having re-read the first book obsessively, are different from what he might have chosen earlier. And what astonishes me is that this difference isn't a drawback. The book still answers everything he left hanging. (Almost. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending. It feels like a conclusion for Eddie and Jane and even Violet, but there are still all those others of Chromatacia who are suffering. That feels unanswered, and yet I don't feel like there's another book in this world. I would love to be proved wrong.)

I love this two-book series. And even if it's not more of this--which after a 14-year wait feels like a greedy wish, more of the same--I look forward, as always, to seeing what Jasper Fforde comes up with next.

ETA: I was browsing Fforde's website and as of December 2023 he says this and Shades of Grey are TWO OF THREE in the series. Here's hoping it doesn't take another 14 years...

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, much better.

In my review of his previous book, 'The Constant Rabbit', I pointed out that Fforde said it was his anti-Brexit book. Consequently, it was so polemical and heavily satirical that I thought it degraded from Fforde's trademark wit and cleverness.

The previous book in this series, 'Shades of Grey', was clever and witty but I suffered through a fair amount of “what the hell is going on with these sort-of people who can only see in one color?” Although a complete story, I was unsatisfied by not knowing why it was all structured the way it was.

Now I know. This book explains What The Hell Is Going On.

I won't spoil it here. I must say that Fforde's wit crackles throughout, while cheerfully reveling in the corruption and open hypocrisy of the authorities. His first-person narrator, Edward Russett, is not the milksop that Peter Knox was in 'The Constant Rabbit'. While serving as a narrator who is Acted Upon more than Acting, nevertheless he has some smarts and some ability to make alliances, not to mention the (somewhat forbidden) love of his life, Jane Brunswick, who is a force to be reckoned with.

Most of Fforde's stories have a corrupt authority calling the shots, whether it's a corporation or a government. In this book, there are multiple levels of authority that come to light, as Edward and friends (and us) learn more about What's Really Going On.

The climax where our heroes are on the run is quite good, and it's not revealing a spoiler to say that there's an absolutely brilliant homage to Star Wars at a critical moment that had me laughing out loud.

All in all, good job Jasper. I think the first book needed this one to make the story complete, although it was not obvious that 'Shades of Grey' was going to get a sequel.

The review in the Guardian says that this will be a trilogy. I can see there is room for that, as we still don't have a complete picture of Why Everything Is the Way It Is, and there may be a reckoning with an ultimate authority.

[Peace Love Plan & Reads · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finishing off where the first one ended, we follow Eddie’s adventures as a De Mauve and the impact his Ishihara has on his role in society whilst navigating the potentially corrupt chromogencia.

I sadly didn’t like this one as much as the first. I felt it went on too long in the middle with some repetitive elements, and I just didn’t care as much as I did in the first one. I’m gutted as I’ve waited so long for this sequel to what is absolutely one of my favourite books of all time. It felt it was trying to be too many things and include too many stories, whereas the first seemed to know much more what it was trying to be.

The ending was a bit of a surprise to me, though I don’t think it should have been given the typical nature of YA dystopians. I enjoyed it though and would read another one if it came out.

[Katharina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I‘ve waited for this book well over a decade and wasn’t prepared to say: it was worth it!

After re-reading Shades of Grey last week to directly continue with Red Side Story (on Audiobook), I felt the narrative voice is quite consistent: I loved to wittiness everything Eddy learned and uncovering lots of twists and turns.
The last sentences made me smile and even left me with a teary eye, but most of all - I WANT TO KNOW THE REST OF THE STORY!!! … I hope it doesn’t take another decade :)

[Greg]

I am a huge fan of Jasper Fforde. I love his style of writing and can't wait for the next book. The first, I couldn't put down and was a little disappointed when I found that I will have to wait years' for the next installment.