Book Review: Red Side Story by Jasper Fforde

Red Side Story
Book 2: Shades of Grey
Hardcover | Kindle Edition | Audiobook
By Jasper Fforde
Publisher: Soho Press
Release Date: May 7, 2024

Jasper Fforde‘s Red Side Story, the long-awaited sequel to Shades of Grey: The Road to High Saffron, dives back into world of Chromatacia, where a person’s social status is based on their color perception. In this dystopian setting 500 years in the future, the Purples are the ruling class, while the Greys are peasants at the bottom, deprived of privilege and made to do the grunt work. The various shades of red, blue, and yellow are in the middle, with each group grasping for a bit of power.

As in most societies, in Chromatacia there’s not only a pecking order, but rules to live by. In this case, it’s The Word of Munsell, a doctrine that dictates all aspects of life, from fashion to marriage, and ultimately, it demands blind obedience. Citizens who break the rules receive demerits, with those who question the rules or deviate from the norm relocated to the Outer Fringes… or worse.

Enter Eddie Russett. This young Red was introduced in the first book when he’s sent on assignment to the Outer Fringes town of East Carmine to conduct a chair census as punishment for a minor prank. But soon after his arrival, he suspects that what should be a temporary relocation might actually be permanent. Perhaps it was because his ideas on how to create a more efficient queuing system had been perceived as “radical.” In truth, Eddie had no intentions of being troublemaker. In fact, all he really wanted was to get back home to Constance Oxblood, a wealthy Red he was courting for marriage. But thanks to his exile, Eddie begins questioning the seemingly arbitrary rules of the Collective and snooping around to uncover what became of “the Previous,” the population before a cataclysmic event known only as the “Something That Happened.” He discovers some others in the town who are skirting the rules, including a volatile miscreant named Jane who he falls for, and together, they seek to uncover the unsettling secrets of the past and challenge the rigid system in this Colourtocracy and its injustices.

The sequel picks up soon after the events of Shades of Grey, with Eddie and Jane preparing for their trial, as they’re accused of crimes against society. Eddie reluctantly becomes betrothed to Violet deMauve, an ambitious Purple who only values his genetic potential and can’t wait for him to meet his end to the Mildew, a fatal disease with no cure with origins he discovers are suspect.

Though this all might seem dreary and hopeless, Fforde infuses satirical absurdism into his dystopian tale, adding levity to Eddie’s otherwise dire circumstances. Picture the grimness of 1984 and Brave New World with the humor of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld and the Douglas Adams universe. As with Shades of Grey, in this follow-up the author often discloses Eddie’s current predicament, then slowly backtracks to reveal how he got into that scenario. This is an effective way to alleviate some of the anxiety the reader feels knowing the characters are in constant danger living under an authoritarian regime, allowing us to laugh at the ridiculousness of it all.

In Red Side Story, Fforde makes a concerted effort to explain the ways of the Colourtocracy and reiterate its rules and punishments, while also referring to previous events to get new readers up to speed. But even with that, the depth of Chromatacia’s world would be better appreciated by first reading Shades of Grey, with its intense worldbuilding and superb storytelling. Like the best of high fantasy and dystopian literature, it helps to have a firm grasp of the universe it’s set in; in this case, it’s a place that’s both strangely familiar, yet also disturbingly alien.

Fans of dystopian tales with a satirical edge will appreciate Red Side Story‘s fantastic return to Chromatacia, with Fforde’s perfect blending of sharp social commentary and absurdist humor in a witty story that continues to build suspense and intrigue.