The Woman who Died a Lot

“Our own dimension was coded ID-11 and was the only League member with diphtheria, David Hasselhoff and the French, which amused the rest of the multiverse to no end.” ➽ And the moral of this reread is: a world in which libraries are more powerful than the military + the boob flashing market + clearly pissed off disgruntled standard deities + arguments with trapdoors + ornamental hermits + hardwired marxists Neanderthals + damp and lukewarm aphorisms + Grade III smitings + insane Enid Blydon fundamentalists + inverse teleport devices + the trigger-happy pious Blessed Ladies of the Lobster 🦞🦞 (where do I sign up?!) + “Justifiable Lethal Force by a State Registered Librarian in the course of their duties” + the ‘Noddy Riots’ of 1990 + fictional butlers + ‘Pliny the Really Very Young’s account of being unable to see the eruption of Vesuvius owing to being put to bed early for some bullshit excuse’ + the Brotherhood of Perpetual Defenestration + Aeschylus and Scooby-Doo vs. Aristotle and Columbo + ninjas, aka the key to most of science’s biggest puzzles + a hilariously wacky and wackily hilarious idea a minute = · Book 1: The Eyre Affair ★★★★★ · Book 2: Lost in a Good Book ★★★★★ · Book 3: The Well of Lost Plots ★★★★★ · Book 4: Something Rotten ★★★★★ · Book 5: First Among Sequels ★★★★ · Book 6: One of Our Thursdays is Missing ★★★ · Book 8: Dark Reading Matter - to be published. Eventually. One day. Maybe. [October 2013] I am so glad I decided to re-read the whole Thursday Next series instead of directly diving in The Woman Who Died a Lot! By the time I started reading this last installment I was completely immersed in Thursday's world and felt like it was my own:) Some reviewers seem to think Fforde has gone a bit overboard here as (they say) there is too much craziness and too much wackiness. Well, that is exactly why I love this series so much and why it is so different from other series/books. I actually think the series is getting better as it gets crazier. A fantastic read, I can't wait for the next installment to come out!

I started out reading this book in audiobook format but unfortunately the quality of the CDs was such that large chunks of text were missing. Rather than try to put the remaining pieces together and try to fill in the blanks I picked the book up from the library. While I wish I could have listened to this book via audiobook (there's just so much in the text easily missed when reading that the slower nature of audiobooks brings out brilliantly) I still really enjoyed this book, probably the most out of all three in the sequel series. I have to admit though that I was confused a lot of the time as the story progressed. However, I think that's a trademark of Fforde's writing, at least in the Thursday Next series. If I had slowed down, or listened to the book as an audiobook, I know things would have made a lot more sense. In terms of overall plot, Fforde tied up a lot of loose ends in this book, like that of Jack Schitt. If it weren't for the book world (almost entirely absent from this particular book) and the loose ends remaining there (like the serial killer Thursday mentioned at the end of First Among Sequels) this book could made a really good ending to the Thursday Next series. Thankfully, it isn't the end because this series is just too good. I love all the characters, although Tuesday is a bit difficult to like. ;) The plots, while absolutely ridiculous, are fascinating and well thoughout, not to mention chock full of action. I highly recommend this book and continue to highly recommend the series as a whole.