The Eyre Affair: Thursday Next Book 1

I directly fell in love with this novel as I read the first chapter about Thursday Next, her time-stopping father and a crime that never seems to have happened. This novel of a sort of parallel England in 1985 never got boring and involved me fully in a science fiction world of cloned dodos, the Crimean War and a purely evil man who seems to be able to do anything. It concentrates on the heroine Thursday, being written in the first perspective but also including third-person passages. Though until the last third I asked myself to what extent Jane Eyre would play a role, as she gets kidnapped, I could hardly put the book away. Knowledge of classic literature, such as Shakespeare and Bronte is not necessary to understand the novel but surely helps. The end is kind of cheesy but after such a breathtaking hunt, you need it!

Not only did he do a great job on this book, but the sequel is even better. The other decline a bit but are still well worth the read. The humor is so incredibly well hidden that you have to go back to check what you have missed...