I think the premise of this book is super cool: a surreal, alternate-version of England where a corporation is more powerful than the government, a team of investigators called SpecOps tracks time disruptions and reign in supernatural creatures, and opinions of literature inspire gang wars. Sounds pretty awesome, right? However, the execution was a bit all over the place. I didn't feel that the voice of the heroine, Thursday Next, was very strong, and the plot meandered quite a bit as she searched for her nemesis, Acheron Hades, whom everyone else thinks is dead but she knows is stealing manuscripts and threatening their storylines (and her family). The writing has a similar vibe to The Rook, although I much prefer Daniel O'Malley and his characterization to Fforde's style. There is a lot of plot and action and not a lot of character development. Still, the story is really fun in parts, especially how Thursday can influence literature by visiting the characters in the books. The story did come together more towards the end, but the book overall was a bit too all over the place for me to continue with this series. If you enjoy wacky, original stories, however, maybe give this series a try.