One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

In this installment of the extremely unpredictable Thursday Next series, the titular protagonist is missing! At least, that is the suspicion of the actual protagonist, the written Thursday. After many years of portraying Thursday in print, the written Thursday barely knows her namesake, but receives a tip from a mysterious man on a train that something nefarious is going on.

Although her jurisfiction colleagues won't admit that Thursday is actually gone, no one is certain of where exactly she is. The written Thursday is soon on a semi-authorized investigation to discover the real Thursday's whereabouts before her presence is missed at an extremely important political meeting.

Along the way, the written Thursday will visit the real world, show more meet ghosts and villains, and enlist the help of countless bizarre allies in her pursuit of the real Thursday. But the more she investigates, the more she begins to wonder about her own identity. Is it possible that she's the real Thursday who has suffered some crippling accident that has rendered her delusional?

Okay, I'm saying it: this one might be too meta! Although I love Mr. Fforde's writing, this one was so insular and self-referential, I was occasionally lost. I think part of it is my general weariness around the Mystery genre, but I still enjoyed this journey enough to be fully satisfied. show less

I'm conflicted about this book; I'm wavering between 3.5 stars and 4, so i'm going with 4, out of respect to Fforde for his ability to so thoroughly and beautifully manipulate the English language and, for that matter, reality itself.

This book takes place entirely in the BookWorld, save for a chapter or two in the RealWorld. The real Thursday is missing on the eve of peace talks between Racy Fiction and the rest of the Genre Fiction, with Racy Fiction threatening to launch 'dirty bombs' that will litter all fiction with badly written, graphic sex scenes. The fictional Thursday Next is stuck in the middle: trying to keep her books running smoothly while avoiding a coup, investigating an unexpected book breakup that has left debris all show more over Conspiracy, and the Genre Council pressuring her to step up and impersonate the RL Thursday during the peace talks, all while trying to find out what happened to Thursday herself.

The BookWorld is my favourite part of the series, but this book starts off by documenting the rebuilding of the BookWorld, taking it from The Great Library model to a Geographic Model. I understand the logic the Geographic model offers, as well as the myriad of problems it might solve for the writer (because now there's a describable environment between books), but I miss the library and I miss the Cheshire Cat! He didn't even make an appearance in this book and the new model lacks that certain bookish atmosphere the never ending library afforded. And nobody actually book jumps anymore - it's considered passé. Hmph. The cool way to walk from book to book now? Walking. Again I say Hmph.

Fforde also delves into the psychological quandaries of self a lot as book Thursday questions how much like the RL Thursday she is, or is she really in fact the RL Thursday but has somehow deluded herself into just thinking she's the book Thursday. i don't like psychologically bent plots. Fforde comes close to gas lighting the reader as much as he confuses his MC and I don't like unreliable or even possibly unreliable narrators either, so that dinged my pleasure a bit. So did Pickwick being a character with decidedly un-dodo-like characteristics. The real Pickwick's cameo wasn't heartening either; she was herself, but she was older. Call me unreasonable, but if I'm reading a fantasy genre book, I want my heroines and their dodos to remain un-aged.

To summarise, it's better than the last book, but not quite on a par with the earlier ones. Some of that is just my personal preferences so ymmv. I found the writing excellent though and I did enjoy the story a lot; I just missed the regular cast of characters and am a little bid saddened that the adventures look to be slowing down, if the characters' ageing is anything to go by.

If there's a next Next book (had to, couldn't resist) I'm still going to read it, but it will be with equal parts trepidation and enthusiasm. show less

This is the sixth Thursday Next book. These books range from completely nutty to totally anarchic, and this one was firmly at the anarchic end. Still, it was a great entry to the series, especially after the somewhat disappointing First Among Sequels.

For those who have never read Thursday Next, I have no idea how to explain this series. It's set in an alternate history, in England in the 1980s, where people care about books like people in our world care about sports. (I could live quite happily in Thursday Next's universe.) And it just gets more insane from there.

I happily chortled all my way through One of Our Thursdays is Missing. It's not one to be reading without reading the others first (in case anyone was tempted to dive in at the show more end of the series), there's so much assumed backstory from the previous books. But it was a worthy entry in the series, and as silly as one would expect from Fforde.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I really must go and see if I can find that pink gorilla in A Tale of Two Cities... show less

I have a confession: I read this half hoping to hate it so I could make some space on the physical library shelves. Alas, there is no way I could consign it to "the narrative doldrums of the suburbs." The reading references are too clever, the mystery too intriguing and the character-building too well-done. Don't tell Friday, but I think I might have to toss 'Something Rotten' instead.

I haven't read Thursday Next in about ten years, so I wasn't sure how confused I'd be. I remember a lingering sense of enjoying some of the series, but with other parts leaving a strange, vaguely unpleasant aftertaste. Happily, the mechanisms of BookWorld came back to me quickly, and Thursday (the written one) was kind enough to give background, in the show more guise of orienting a new stand-in Thursday, Carmine O'Kipper (you may now groan).

The meta-literary elements included in the story are surprisingly insightful, and frequently amusing as well. There's a moment early on when Thursday explains book detail to Carmine:

"Every novel as only as much description as is necessary. In years past, each book was carefully crafted to an infinitely fine degree, but that was in the days of limited reader sophistication. Today… Most books are finished by the readers themselves."
"The Feedback Loop?"
"Precisely. As soon as the readers get going, the feedback loop will start back washing some of their interpretations into the book itself... readers often add detail by their own interpretations."

It's that kind of insight that adds fun layer to the stories. In this book, BookWorld is rebuilt early on, restructuring the Book Universe along the lines of the Geographic model. It means Thursday will need to travel by physical means to get from one genre to the next instead of the more ambiguous 'reading in' technique. What this means for the reader is a fun little tour through BookWorld as Thursday (the written one) investigates a book accident. After crossing through Thriller, she heads into Conspiracy, where she runs into Sprocket, a robot about to be stoned by residents as a spy.

The written Thursday is very aware of her inadequacies compared to the legendary Thursday Next, but feels she brings emotional depth to Thursday's story. Others might characterize her as "the dopey one who likes to hug a lot." As she investigates the crashed book, she discovers that the real Thursday hasn't been seen in a suspicious number of days. The real Thursday is needed to broker peace talks between Racy Novel and Feminism/Dogma genres who are about to be in a cross-genre war.

The mystery here is fairly--narratively, at least--straightforward. The humor often has me smiling, particularly Agent Square from Flatland as he coaches Thursday (the written one), Sprockett's expressive eyebrow, a devastating minefield, the ongoing joke of keeping track who is speaking when there aren't any conversational markers, and the threat of a 'Bobby Ewing' ending. Despite all that, parts are definitely brainy and expositionary, and so it is surprisingly easy to fall asleep to for a four-star book. That said, it's definitely worth keeping. show less

This is the sixth book in a very unique, bookishly humorous series featuring literary detective Thursday Next, who has jumped into books and brought characters into the real world and back again. When we last left Thursday, she was saving the world by playing croquet and juggling her responsibilities making sure that all is well in the BookWorld. In this story, the real world Thursday takes a backseat to the written Thursday, who from her position in the BookWorld realizes that all is not well when she is asked to investigate the destruction of a book and isn't expected to find anything. When she does find something amiss, she's not sure who to trust except herself – and the real Thursday is missing.

If I can give you any bit of advice show more about these books it's this: Read. Them. In. Order. Don't start with this one; it won't make a lick of sense. They're ridiculous and nerdy at the same time, so you may find you want to space them out and not read, well, the same sort of mix of over-the-top absurdity and cleverness all at once. But if you find yourself laughing when you realize that the transport system is named after a character from Journey to the Center of the Earth and that Hamlet is shocked by how many interpretations to his character there have been over the years (see Something Rotten), then this is the series for you. I rather enjoyed this foray into the BookWorld with the written Thursday taking the front seat, though others may be annoyed by the departure from the expected. Still, I find these great romps when I'm in the mood for something silly and fun. show less

This one was hilarious!
It has a very clever and funny plot, a neat progression of the world, and interestingly, a story that lacks the protagonist of the series (sort of).
Definitely one of my favorites by Fforde.
My only complaint was a minor nitpick involving someone's name being different than what we have been told, implying that other details might also be different (!). I don't think the name change was actually necessary, as it could easily have been an alias.

If you happen to be a book nerd who likes fantasy, mystery, satire and a healthy dose of metafiction, the Thursday Next series will be right up your alley. It quickly became one of my favorite series after I read the first five books in a mad rush over the last year. However, after finishing the sixth installment, One of Our Thursdays is Missing, I’m unsure how I feel about the future of the Thursday Next books.

On one hand, One of Our Thursdays is Missing is a reboot with a different viewpoint character, but on the other hand it’s also the most self-referential of the entire series so far, and probably the worst possible place to jump into the series as a whole. Also, because it’s a Jasper Fforde book, telling you that there is a show more new viewpoint character is a huge oversimplification.

If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it’s about Thursday Next, a police detective in an alternate universe who is able to leap into fiction and uses her powers to solve mysteries both in the “RealWorld” and the “BookWorld”. That’s only scratching the surface, however; Fforde overstuffs the books with an insane number of alternate-world details and odd little touches. It makes the books almost impossible to accurately summarize.

The short version is that Thursday’s adventures were novelized by ghost writers in her world. What this means is that there is a “real” Thursday and a “fictional” Thursday. The fictional Thursday is sort of a cross between an actor and a clone of the real Thursday. Fictional Thursday only has to perform when someone in the RealWorld is reading one of her books. However, readership numbers are dropping and she finds herself with too much free time on her hands. When she hears rumors that the real Thursday may have disappeared, fictional Thursday begins a surreptitious investigation, and almost immediately finds herself in over her head.

Much like her RealWorld counterpart, fictional Thursday is driven to solve this mystery at all costs. However, she isn’t exactly like the real version; in the book series, her husband, Landen, was killed off in the first book to “raise the stakes”, and she finds herself envious of the real Thursday’s family. She also doesn’t consider herself quite as talented a detective, especially since she flunked her entrance exam for the BookWorld police force.

The overall portrayal of fictional Thursday is my main problem with this book. When we were initially introduced to this fictional version of Thursday in the fifth book, she was portrayed as a hippie do-gooder who is too much of a pacifist for proper police work. However, in this book she mostly just behaves like a less confident version of the real Thursday. She tells us that she would probably solve problems by hugging everyone, but it felt like I never really saw the differences in her personality in action. Mostly she just seemed like a diminished version of the real thing. Fforde takes away a lot of the real Thursday’s defining characteristics and doesn’t give us anything truly compelling in their stead.

Also, a word of warning: Fforde really likes to throw in little metafictional jokes. Some of the stuff in this book relies on a fairly thorough knowledge of previous events in the series. It was definitely a huge help that I’d read all of the books in short succession. I’m not sure I would have caught all of the little details that Fforde throws in otherwise. However, even with all of that knowledge, I was occasionally a bit confused by events, and wondered if Fforde knew what he was doing. My best advice is just to try to relax and enjoy the ride.

Ultimately, I have to say that this is my least favorite of the Thursday Next books. A lot of what I love about Fforde’s books is present – his incisive touch for satire, madcap plotting, and crackpot world-building – but it just didn’t have the same heart as the previous installments. I never really warmed up to the fictional Thursday Next as a protagonist. In my opinion, she doesn’t rise above her status as a stand-in for the real deal.

As for the future of the series, I’m not quite sure where it will go from here. The first four books are a sort of loose quartet, and when I finished the fifth it seemed likely that he was setting up another trilogy or quartet. Instead, Fforde made a complete left turn and gave us this book, which doesn’t really follow up on the fifth book and mostly ends up being a bit of a standalone story and/or narrative cul-de-sac. My hope is that Fforde has further adventures planned for the real Thursday Next, or that he at least does more to make the fictional Thursday’s perspective distinct if she returns in future volumes. show less