Something Rotten - Jasper Fforde

Rating: 5 Better than a new Derby Hat and the winning horse (¨¨¨¨¨)

Pages: 385

Challenges: Once Upon A Time II

Synopsis (From BN.com)
Detective Thursday Next has had her fill of her responsibilities as the Bellman in Jurisfiction, enough with Emperor Zhark's pointlessly dramatic entrances, outbreaks of slapstick raging across pulp genres, and hacking her hair off to fill in for Joan of Arc. Packing up her son, Friday, Thursday returns to Swindon accompanied by none other than the dithering Danish prince Hamlet. Caring for both is more than a full- time job and Thursday decides it is definitely time to get her husband Landen back, if only to babysit. Luckily, those responsible for Landen's eradication, The Goliath Corporation- formerly an oppressive multinational conglomerate, now an oppressive multinational religion- have pledged to right the wrong.

But returning to SpecOps isn't a snap. When outlaw fictioneer Yorrick Kaine seeks to get himself elected dictator, he whips up a frenzy of anti-Danish sentiment and demands mass book burnings. The return of Swindon's patron saint bearing divine prophecies could spell the end of the world within five years, possibly faster if the laughably terrible Swindon Mallets don't win the Superhoop, the most important croquet tournament in the land. And if that's not bad enough, The Merry Wives of Windsor is becoming entangled with Hamlet. Can Thursday find a Shakespeare clone to stop this hostile takeover? Can she prevent the world from plunging into war? Can she vanquish Kaine before he realizes his dream of absolute power? And, most important, will she ever find reliable child care?

Review

I love this series. Part of the reason is that it's all about books and I just can't get enough of books! Also there are things I would NEVER think of in these books - for example in this book The Cheshire Cat and Yorrick Kane have a battle, but the battle is fought using literary characters where each person picks a literary character to battle the character the other person conjures. For example, Medusa versus Beowulf! How fun! And the end of this battle is great - it's a battle of inteligence for sure. I like learning how Tuesday's life is going and if she has finally beaten the evil of the world. Plus it is set in 1980...I love the 80's! I listen to these on CD and I have to say they are great...for one they got the same person to read all the novels which makes you feel like Tuesday has a voice that doesn't change and some of the names are hillarious!