Early Riser
By: Jasper Fford
My Rating: Four out of Five Stars
Best for: 16 and up

Jasper Fforde keeps being awesome!

I think Jasper Fforde is a literary alchemist. In his other books, he’s turned Thursday into a person, taught a lesson in humanity using human sized rabbits, and created a color-blind world to help us see the world better. He wins again with Early Riser, this time giving an oh-so-subtle nudge about taking care of our Earth using his expected, quirky style to write a story with fun characters and giving us an intriguing mystery to solve.

Early Riser is about Charlie Worthington: just your everyday orphan with a cranio-skeletal birth defect who decides to take a job with the security force charged with maintaining the peace during the long, cold, frozen winters while all the other humans hibernate.

Yes. Hibernate. Like bears. But in beds, not caves.

A murder and a misunderstanding leave him stranded in the least desirable spot to spend a least desirable winter, and Charlie finds himself surrounded by a variety of colorful characters and–most unwittingly–a mystery to solve. Along the way he has to watch out for sleep-walking zombies, mysterious winter monsters, dreams that can kill, a bit of romance, and a boss who is more than meets the eye, all while not getting eaten by zombies, monsters, dreams, romance, or his boss AND not freezing to death.

I thought Early Riser was a whole snow shovel full of frozen fun. Go into it expecting a quirky story with quirky characters and an author who is (clearly) quirky, and you’ll have fun too. There are several instances of Sh** and some silly, very non-descriptive references to sex. This dad says Early Riser is best for 16 and up.

Happy reading!