The interesting thing about dystopian fiction is how realistic it can be, in essentials. How human it all is at the base of it. Which is why it can often be so horrifying: the human potential for taking a point too far, or taking the wrong point anywhere.

What I like about Shades of Grey is Fforde's use of colour variations as the means of his fictional society's control. It is a hierarchy of colour (the jacket blurb calls it a "Colortocracy"). I find this fascinating, as perceived colour is so individual and yet, in this novel, it is used as a means of societal delineation, and, of course, control. Individuality as a means of conformity.

Eddie Russett, our narrator (our eyes, as it were), is the means by which we access this increasingly menacing world. He is on the cusp of adulthood and his colour test is imminent. The colour test is something each individual must take in this carefully controlled society. The test involves a series of questions about the quanitities and qualities of colour each person can see (each person sees a predominance of shades; Reds see mostly red -- Eddie is a red -- Greens see mostly green, and so on, Purple being the most prestigious and Grey the least prestigious) and the results of the test will place the test-taker in a role from which he cannot escape for the rest of his life. Unless he wants to take the train to Reboot. And no one wants to be a Rebootee. The undercurrent of fear, of something untoward, begins immediately and builds as Eddie and his father, a swatchman (a healer/doctor who uses colour swatches for the healing/doctoring), come across a deceased Purple who is in actuality an unmarked Grey. And Eddie (as well as the reader) is hooked.

The outcome itself feels inevitable (this is a dystopian novel, after all, and one knows that something sinister and untoward is taking place), but the means by which Fforde presents it is unique and compelling. This is a detailed world he's invented. The Previous (us, evidently) and their way of life has largely disappeared. Abandoned cities, scattered art (Vermeers and Rembrandts hang in citizens' houses), leftover Ovaltine and fading adverts are just about all that's left of them/us. In place of the Previous is a system of workers and rulers who are chosen for their specific colour capabilities, and who are given a list of rules they must live by, however absurd, however difficult.

Eddie Russett is a Red, and destined for greatness, if his possible marriage to Constance Oxblood comes to fruition, that is. First, however, he is sent on a census-taking task (counting chairs) meant to teach him humility. It certainly becomes an eye-opening experience for him. And us.

Eddie, as narrator, was initially less compelling than Thursday Next -- and less compelling is a hitch when it's a first-person narration -- but he does grow on one as the story moves forward. And as his awareness increases so, too, does his appeal . . . until I found myself completely wrapped up in the concerns and tribulations of young Russett. Jane Grey, however, the unsuitable girl he inevitably falls for, is brilliant from the get-go as his foil in intelligence, awareness, and passion. Just a great cast of characters from the Apocryphal Man to the Colorman. Fforde takes typical plot conventions and moves them around, changes them up, recasts them. Just a really great read!