Something is Bizarre in the State of Denmark

Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde

Pages: 385 Genre: fantasy, humor

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Detective Thursday Next (yes, that's the character's actual name) is done with her time in Jurisfiction, so she decides to head back to Swindon. She brings with her the Shakespearean Danish prince, Hamlet, and her two-year-old son, Friday (no, I am not kidding). But as she returns to the real world, she finds Swindon in a state of disarray: escaped fictional character Yorrick Kaine is in pursuit of total power and control in England. Meanwhile, the forces around her are foretelling the end of the world, Hamlet (the play) is being rewritten without its hero, Thursday's husband is still eradicated, and Thursday doesn't have anyone to babysit Friday. Will Thursday be able to save the world and find childcare for her son?

This book was weird. I'll admit that it was partially my fault, since this is the fourth Thursday Next book that I just mindlessly jumping into. Although, on that front, I think this book stands well on its own. But the whole world and premise is just ... bizarre. Not bad. Just weird.

I did enjoy the humor, though. It felt almost satirical (although I never feel confident enough in my knowledge to call something satire). But I liked the dry, sarcastic look at politics, life, and literature. And the writing itself was very funny. If I were to read other books featuring Thursday, it would primarily be because of the comedy style.

My desire to read more of these books would be largely hindered by the fact that the main character's name is Thursday. And her son's name is Friday. And her mother's name is, you guessed it, Wednesday. As someone who considers herself to be a fictional character name snob, I found this almost inexcusable. However — just this once — I did think the goofiness of the names added to the bizarre nature of the story.

The story was very expansive. So many different things were happening that felt largely unrelated. Again, this added to the strangeness of the story: Thursday was doing everything. But the author brought all these random pieces together really well by the end, which I would've thought was impossible. There were a lot of fun references for book lovers too. Some meta jokes and some jokes about specific genres. As someone who reads a lot, I really appreciated these moments.

I actually read this book because it was on a list of Hamlet retellings, and it certainly wasn't that. But Hamlet was a very prominent character, and while it was fun to see him, I have to say that ultimately I disagree with the interpretation of him. He was annoying, which I can get behind, but nothing else felt like my interpretation of Hamlet. That's not a fault on the book, though, just worth pointing out.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was silly and clever and entertaining, and it's probably one that I'm going to think about for a while. Although I'm not sure I'd recommend that everyone else just jump in at book 4 because Hamlet happens to make an appearance. Maybe just start from the beginning.