The Book Jumper, a review

The lovely Kari from Kar-ing for Books gifted me The Book Jumper by Mechthild Gläser, which to me could be described as a YA fantasy version of Thursday Next by Jasper Fforde. Essentially, people can travel into books, they’re supposed to look after the book characters but (of course) things go wrong.

This book was so much fun! We follow a 16 year old German girl who is going with her Scottish mother back to her mother’s home island after a horrible time for them both back home in Germany. When they get to the island it’s revealed to Amy that the younger people from her family can jump inside of literature and she is introduced to this world.

The book was so much fun! I really loved how the plot twist was worked into the story and it was really fun for me to read this concept from a different authors perspective and from less of a British point of view. I loved the setting of the Scottish island and the warring families, as well as learning more about Amy’s mother and her childhood on this island.

Unfortunately I did think that this book wrapped up far too succinctly at the very end. I can’t say too much because, obviously, spoilers. But people didn’t discuss the reveals that were given despite them potentially holding so many explanations, and they also glossed over the acceptance of a major ending event. I can’t believe there was no transitional period between how things had been and how they are at the end of the book. It seemed super rushed and quite unrealistic.

Despite this ending having a few issues I really did enjoy the reading process. I found this book super difficult to put down and ended up reading most of it all in one day! The translated writing is just perfect for me. Gläser has written one other translated book, also literature related, and I definitely want to pick it up!

On CAWPILE I rated this: Characters: 8, Atmosphere: 7, Writing: 7, Plot: 7, Intrigue: 8, Logic: 7. and Enjoyment: 8 which gives a 7.43 score and a 4* rating.

Highlight here for trigger warnings: grief, fire, injury detail, death, infidelity.

I always love reading translated books (Gläser is German) and I’m so glad I’ve found another author that I enjoy the writing style of. Have you read either of Gläser’s translated books (or her books in German if you read German!)? If so please let me know what you thought of them!

My audiobook go to

Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series is one of the only audiobooks I enjoy. I intend to attempt to change that over time, but the second book in the series was the first audiobook I had finished since Harry Potter (narrated by Steven Fry of course) and I have gotten very used to the style. This book is #5 in the series, and First Among Sequels is the first book in a second “series” in this world, I’ve seen many complaints about the fact that this series was continued on when it should have been left at 4 books but personally I really enjoyed this and I’m looking forward to listening to the next two books.

If you’re familiar with the series, you’ll know all about Thursday and her very weird life. In this book, there has been a big jump in time from book 4 and we now follow a 50+ y/o Thursday as she works, raises children and tries not to get caught doing certain jobs by her lovely husband Landen.

I always love all the references to other literature and the wild and wacky utilisations Fforde makes use of. If you want an insane read where nothing seems to make sense, and some people’s favourite character is a dodo (she doesn’t do much, she’s just a dodo, but fight me she’s great), then definitely pick up the first book in this series!

The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde, a review

I’m not going to lie to you guys, this book was purely a cover buy. But not the usual “this cover is so pretty and I need it” sort of cover buy, but more of a “what the actual f*ck is in this book if that’s the cover and blurb?” kinda buy. I saw it when volunteering in a British Heart Foundation charity shop (they put me in charge of the books, it was great!) and just had to buy it for myself.

I found this book to be so much fun! The whole world in here is juuust a little bit different than ours (and it’s also set back in the 1980s, but it’s still different to our 80s), but similar enough that you feel immersed almost straight away. I loved all the different aspects like the dodo’s and the different government departments.

Thursday is a worker for the literary department and has to deal with books every day (dream job or what), and some odd things start happening (odder than the pet dodo, that’s pretty normal here). Literature is taken very, very seriously in this world, Baconians try to convince the world that Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare, there are riots between Surrealists and Impressionists and during all this, Hades’, our villain, is targetting Jane Eyre and steals her out of her novel. Here is where Thursday Next comes in as a special operative within the literary department. With the help of her uncle and his inventions, she goes into the novel to rescue Jane and to try and restore Bronte’s book. There are so many other things going on within this book, which link into future books and future events (so much complex work done by Fforde).

A knowledge of classical fiction can be handy when reading this, I don’t know too much so I think I’ve missed out on quite a few of the inside jokes that Fforde has put into this work, but the only negative about that is that it’s adding to my tbr with all these great or well known classics! And it doesn’t take away from the story if you don’t know these pieces. It’s definitely a really fun piece and since reading this I’ve listened to the next three books on audiobook and I have been very invested and interested in the events. The series is broken up in two sectors so I’ve taken a break now I’ve finished part one, but I’m really looking forward to getting into part two and I recommend these books! Definitely give them a go if you like wacky, weird, action-packed books with links to classic literature!

March Wrap Up 2018

I am disappointed with how much I read this month, but I shouldn’t be! This was the second to last month where I’ll be working on my dissertation and therefore I couldn’t justify spending too much time leisure reading.

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For those who don’t know, a dissertation is the end project of a degree in the UK. The degrees usually last three years, and most people start at 18 (it’s like our version of the US’ college) and this final paper is worth a huge amount of our grade. The word count varies between 8000 and 11000 and it is really daunting!

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Despite the pressure and the work, I did manage 6 books! For the books that had to be ‘represented’ in the photo, Coffin, Scarcely Used was an eARC from NetGalley, The Call was borrowed from someone who lives in my apartment complex, and Something Rotten was an audiobook.

Books and their Ratings

1. Coffin, Scarcely Used by Colin Watson ***
2. The Call by Peadar O’Guilin ****
3. Inspector Chopra and the Million Dollar Motor Car by Vaseem Khan ****
4. Macbeth by William Shakespeare ****
5. Something Rotten by Jasper Fforde ****
6. Boy Snow Bird by Helen Oyeyemi ***.5

Sadly no 5 star reads this month but some got pretty close! The Call is one that I immensely enjoyed and I will 100% be carrying on with the series. I also really enjoyed Something Rotten and felt that this first section of the series was wrapped up really well, so well in fact that I’m tempted not to carry on with the rest! I don’t want to ruin it! Boy Snow Bird would’ve had a higher rating if it wasn’t for the incredibly… weird… ending and the odd choices Oyeyemi made, which explains the 3.5*s I gave it.

Overall, not my best reading month but I’m glad I managed to keep reading some stuff throughout the month and it’s a huge increase to where I was this time last year and I was barely even reading 2 years ago after a 5-year reading slump! So a vast improvement and I’m really enjoying myself to boot!