Jennifer Strange is back and facing her greatest challenge yet. At the end of the last book, we found out that in her forced excursion to wales, trolls had invaded the rest of the UnUK. Now only Jenny and her ragtag bunch of friends are all that stands between the troll's complete takeover of the land, and also the Wizard Shandar's fiendish plans for world domination at the very least.
As usual this is brilliantly inventive stuff. despite being YA, the plot has become extremely convoluted and elements from all three previous books are essential to following the story.
It's hysterically funny- also as usual. But the drama in this volume sometimes overwhelms the comedy. There are a couple of character deaths that felt unnecessarily cruel on this particular reader at least. I liked those guys! Damn you Fforde!
I know he's writing about a war and people will have to die... but not those guys 😢😢
That's probably a good criticism that he's made me feel so much for the death of fictional characters but I'm reading a comedy. I didn't expect those feels.
The solutions to the problems are ingenious (once again as usual) and the clues are layered through the narrative flawlessly so none of it came so far out of left field as to feel dumb (the author of the previous book I reviewed could take notes here).
Page 215 is the most glorious piece of meta-fiction I've read in many years.
This probably wouldn't work as a standalone novel, but as the closing part of a genius series, it works amazingly well. lots of laughs, and some sad farewells.
Recommended reading - as long as you've read the other three.
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