Well of Lost Plots (Hardcover)

At the end of "Lost in a good book" we left Thursday pregnant, with a husband eradicated at the age of two, and followed by the Goliath Corporation (who wanted her skills to jump into books). She was in urgent need of a hiding place, at least until her son was born and she could begin again her efforts to un-eradicate her husband. As a consequence, she decided to "get lost in a good book", more specifically in a B novel in the Well of Lost Plots, in order to get some deserved rest.

Did I say rest?. Well, at least that is what she expected to get, but with her temporary job at Jurisfiction, an assassin killing Jurisfiction agents and grammasites all over the place, getting some rest won't be easy. On top of all that, Thursday must face the very real risk that "Caversham Heights" (the B novel where she is staying for a year thanks to the Character Exchange Program) will be scraped, and deal with an enemy that she thought was left behind in the "real" world: Aornis Hades.

As you can see, the "Well of Lost Plots" is likely to be everything but boring... You will meet again some old friends (for example Miss Havisham), and get to know new ones. But beware: there is a traitor among the people Thursday knows and likes. And where is Godot?. Why doesn't he appear?.

I want to point out that I loved the introduction of the generic characters who lived with Thursday, "ibb" and "obb", who later won the right to use capital letters, thus becoming "Ibb" and "Obb", and who went to school in order to become characters in different books. They are... different, but charming :)

Fforde goes on introducing unexpected things, for example a footnote system that works not only as a radio, but also as cellular phones that allow everybody to listen to private conversations. I liked the misspelling "vyrus", and the idea that in order to contain it many dictionaries were needed, but I hated what happened to one of the characters because of an incident involving that "vyrus".

I probably could go on and on writing about "The Well of Lost Plots", because I loved it, and there are really lots of things to be said about it. However, I think that it is better to allow you to discover the rest, because if I don't let you do that I would be depriving you of a wonderful pleasure...

I recommend this book to all those who love literature and will appreciate casual and pertinent allusions to well-known books and characters, but also to those who just enjoy an innovative and appealing fantasy book. If you would like to "jump into a book", seize the opportunity and do exactly that, with Thursday Next !!!.

Belen Alcat