Book Review: Something Rotten

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Something Rotten     Amazon US TPB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada TPB Amazon Canada HC
Jasper Fforde
Class/Genre:   Mystery   Science Fiction   Time Travel   Alternate History
Series: Thursday Next # 4
Viking, Aug 2004, $24.95, 385 pp.

After two years in the Well as the head of Jurisfiction, Thursday Next decides to go home although she literally will miss some of her compatriots. She travels to Swindon with her son Friday and that indecisive fickle Hamlet, who is unable to decide or not to decide.

While Hamlet tries to understand the real world better so that he can improve his decision process in the Shakespearean realm, Thursday learns that the Goliath Corporation, who deleted her spouse Landon, have begun a faith based system. They believe she is the Chosen One and plan to choose her whether she wants to or not. Meanwhile outlaw Fictioneer Yorrick Kaine plots havoc so he can become dictator while the Merry Wives of Windsor show Hamlet to err is human, but they are divine. Only Thursday can clean up these messy subplots, but she is not sure what chapter or verse will follow. As President-for-life Formby is missing and the world will end in a whimper if the Swindon Mallets fail to win the croquet Superbowl, all she seeks is good childcare.

A usual with a Thursday Next novel, literary giants are shredded and “exposed” as Jasper Fforde takes characters like Hamlet with his foibles and places him in the real world. The latest adventures are wild, over the edge, and very amusing. Fans need to set aside time because they will be LOST IN A GOOD BOOK literally sharing SOMETHING ROTTEN affair with the heroine as she tries to keep the myriad of lost plots straight. Once again nothing is sacred as Jasper Fforde satirizes with humorous word play literature and real icons.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner