Review: The Eyre Affair
By EricMesa
- 2 minutes read - 289 words
The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
My brother Dan recommends a lot of stuff to me. I don’t always have the time or money to get to it right away, but when it comes to books, music, and comics I’m usually very in sync his recommendations. (At least when it comes to his recommendations to me, it’s been a bit spotty in the other direction) Examples of good recommendations include World War Z, Chew, Jonathan Hickman’s body of work, and Lucky Boys Confusion. Dan recommended the Thursday Next novels years ago. (At least five because it was way before Scarlett) I recently got a $10 credit on B&N Nook books so I went and grabbed the first book, The Eyre Affair.
I would say it’s not a home run; maybe a double. I enjoyed the characters quite well. They seemed realistic within the bounds of the world in which they existed. I think perhaps the biggest issue is that I don’t know Jane Eyre. I’ve read a lot of books, but still have a lot of gaps in the classics. While the book was enjoyable without knowledge of JE, I’m sure I could have gotten more out of it.
I’m sad to say it took me until the final battle to put all the clues together that Hades (view spoiler)[was a vampire (hide spoiler)].
I think the biggest problem I had with the book was that it was so similar to our world except for little bits here and there. I was often unsure of what was right and what to expect.
I will give the second book a shot, but I’m not in a rush to read it.