Shades of Grey - Jasper Fforde

[goodreads]

Title: Shades of Grey
Author: Jasper Fforde
Genre: Dystopian
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 390 pages
Date read: January, 2013

Hundreds of years in the future, after the Something that Happened, the world is an alarmingly different place. Life is lived according to The Rulebook and social hierarchy is determined by your perception of colour.

Eddie Russett is an above average Red who dreams of moving up the ladder by marriage to Constance Oxblood. Until he is sent to the Outer Fringes where he meets Jane - a lowly Grey with an uncontrollable temper and a desire to see him killed.

For Eddie, it's love at first sight. But his infatuation will lead him to discover that all is not as it seems in a world where everything that looks black and white is really shades of grey...

It seems like every time I read a Jasper Fforde book I think that this is his best book yet! Shades of Grey is no exception. Both plot and writing style is Fforde at his best - whimsical, unexpected while still carrying more depth than it would seem on the surface.

I was fascinated by the universe - how the things we take for granted are strange and even feared there, and how a person's worth was based on how much colour he/she could see.

This could easily become a fast favourite, and I'm looking forward to seeing where Fforde takes the story in the sequels.