I thought it was funny when I told people I was reading Shades of Grey and they thought I meant one of the 50 Shades of Grey books.Then i would be like no no NO Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde! Then I would get puzzled looks. Oh well not everyone is literary.
In Shades of Grey the higher ranking people can only see in one color. For example Eddie can only see red. Everything else appears as shades of grey. Other things such as grass have to be colored by artificial means. Eddie gets kicked out the the outer borders to learn humility and he is not happy about it. Until he meets Jane who is from the grey part of town. She opens his eyes to things that are really going on in the empire.
Oh My God!! I love this book. I am one who feels dystopias have been done to death. Most writers cant come up with an original idea and the world building sucks.
Jasper Fford creates a compelling world that is every bit as believable as our own. You may have to suspend your disbelief very early in the book although this world makes sense early in the book.
This book is a metaphor for how things are in our own society. True we may not have night trains that takes people to their death but we do have ways of punishing people for failing to act according to society’s norms. We push them to the outcast of society where there is less privilege there.
As I was nearing the end of the book and everything started to all come together I was all, WHAT?!?! NOOOOOOO it had me feeling things that I do not often stop to feel. The end of the book rips your heart out then crushes it. I felt that it ended so unfairly so I am hoping the next book in the series makes up for that soul wrenching ending to Shades of Grey.
I bought this as soon as it came out but I still haven’t read it yet. I think there are a few books around that have been tainted a bit by the shades of grey title thing!