Red Side Story, Again

 

It's not here yet, but it looks to be actually coming. Hard to believe. There's a saga connected with this book. I've already written on post on this book, back in January of 2022, and then added some updates to that post.

The story starts back in 2010 when Jasper Fforde's Shades of Grey was released. I love that book, it is one of my favorite books of all time, for some reason. Originally it was to be the first book in a trilogy, the two books to follow were to be Painting by Numbers, and The Gordini Protocals. I couldn't wait for them. But wait I did. For years. I despaired of living long enough to ever read them. Eventually I found a YouTube video where he said he was first planning to write a prequel. He never did. And finally, I found somewhere that said that the two sequels had been cancelled due to disappointing sales of Shades of Grey. Such is life.

Fast forward to January 2022, where I found on the File 770 blog that Fforde's birthday was January 11th. I commented on how much I enjoyed Shades of Grey, and lo and behold, another commenter pointed out the fact that he was planning to do a single sequel; Red Side Story to complete the story. I jumped over to Amazon UK, found its listing, with a place holding cover, and a release date, in Britain, set for August 11, 2022, just 8 moths away. I might live to read it after all, I thought. I preordered it instantly.

Alas, in due time, I got notice that the the release date had been pushed back to April 2023. I kept my preorder, and hoped. And then some months later I received a notice that it had been pushed back yet again, this time to February 6th 2024. By this time I had my doubts that it would ever come out, or I'd live to read i, if it did. It seems that Jasper Fforde takes years longer to write his books then he expects to. I think Shades of Grey was also long delayed and I know that his follow up adult book, Early Riser was delayed, I'd like to say, for almost two years. So basically, I was no longer holding my breath. Indeed, I forgot about it.

Recently I remembered it, and not having heard of any more delays, I decided to check the status of my preorder. To my great surprise, not only is the date still 6 February 2024, but it now has the actual book cover (pictured above) which tells me that the book is finally ready to go.

Of course, my joy is now tempered with the realization that it is very hard for a sequel to live up to the standard of one of, if not, my favorite book. Shades of Grey left lots of secrets to be revealed, as the story is set after "something happened" but what happened we don't know. And well, the character are a different sort of human, so what's with that? Will the answers be worth the mystery and the long wait or not? In short, how will Red Side Story affect my love of Shades of Grey? Will it increase it, or will it prove to be a disappointment, and the answers tarnish my fondness for the first book? I have only 2 1/2 months to wait (after waiting 13 years) to find out. Fingers crossed.