The Well of Lost Plots, by Jasper Fforde

Rating: 4/5
Publisher: Viking
373 pages
2003
Source: Library book sale

Description: Protecting the world's greatest literature—not to mention keeping up with Miss Havisham—is tiring work for an expectant mother. And Thursday can definitely use a respite. So what better hideaway than inside the unread and unreadable Caversham Heights, a cliché-ridden pulp mystery in the hidden depths of the Well of Lost Plots, where all unpublished books reside? But peace and quiet remain elusive for Thursday, who soon discovers that the Well itself is a veritable linguistic free-for-all, where grammasites run rampant, plot devices are hawked on the black market, and lousy books—like Caversham Heights—are scrapped for salvage. To top it off, a murderer is stalking Jurisfiction personnel and nobody is safe—least of all Thursday. (Copied from LibraryThing )


Review: This is probably more like three-and-three-quarters stars. I really enjoyed this book, and the writing in this series has come a long way from The Eyre Affair. The ideas behind BookWorld, and most of the humor, are very clever.

The main story was very entertaining, so was the subplot involving the two generics housed with Thursday. However, there were two other major subplots going on in the book. One involving Thursday's attempt to save Caversham Heights does eventually pay off, but it seems forgotten for much of the book. The other one involves Thursday fighting off a mindworm left by Aornis Hades. While this plot comes to a conclusion earlier than any of the others, it feels completely unnecessary to the story.

I think this book would have been better if it had been a little more focused.