Shades of Grey
A Novel
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4.6 • 158 Ratings
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
The New York Times bestseller hailed as “a rich brew of dystopic fantasy and deadpan goofiness” (The Washington Post) from the author of the Thursday Next series and Red Side Story.
Welcome to Chromatacia, where the societal hierarchy is strictly regulated by one's limited color perception. In this world, you are what you can see. But Eddie Russet wants to move up. When he and his father relocate to the backwater village of East Carmine, his carefully cultivated plans to leverage his better-than-average red perception and marry into a powerful family are quickly upended.
Eddie must contend with lethal swans, sneaky Yellows, inviolable rules, an enforced marriage to the hideous Violet deMauve, and a risky friendship with an intriguing Grey named Jane who shows Eddie that the apparent peace of his world is as much an illusion as color itself. Will Eddie be able to tread the fine line between total conformity — accepting the path, partner, and career delineated by his hue —and his instinctive curiosity that is bound to get him into trouble?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This inventive fantasy from bestseller Fforde (The Eyre Affair) imagines a screwball future in which social castes and protocols are rigidly defined by acuteness of personal color perception. Centuries after the cryptically cataclysmic "Something That Happened," a "Colortocracy," founded on the inflexible absolutes of the chromatic scale, rules the world. Amiable Eddie Russett, a young Red, is looking forward to marrying a notch up on the palette and settling down to a complacent bourgeois life. But after meeting Jane G-23, a rebellious working-class Grey, and a discredited, "invisible" historian known as the Apocryphal man, Eddie finds himself questioning the hitherto sacred foundations of the status quo. En route to finding out what turned things topsy-turvy, Eddie navigates a vividly imagined landscape whose every facet is steeped in the author's remarkably detailed color scheme. Sometimes, though, it's hard to see the story for the chromotechnics. 10-city author tour.
Customer Reviews
All-time fave
I cannot get enough of this world that Jasper Fforde created. So creative and well-written!
Thoroughly enjoyed
This book is a wonderful commentary on life and a fun read also with all its twists and turns. Love the characters.
Where is the second and third?!
I need more. Now.