One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next, #6)

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One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next #6)

3.87 of 5 stars 3.87 · rating details · 7,493 ratings · 1,207 reviews

The newest tour de force from The New York Times bestselling author of Thursday Next and Shades of Grey.

Jasper Fforde's exuberant return to the fantastical BookWorld opens during a time of great unrest. All-out Genre war is rumbling, and the BookWorld desperately needs a heroine like Thursday Next. But with the real Thursday apparently retired to the Realworld, the Counc...more

Hardcover, 362 pages

Published March 8th 2011 by Viking Adult (first published February 1st 2011)

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Apr 25, 2011 Bettie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: published-2011, books-about-books-and-book-shops, doo-lally, fantasy, amusing, spring-2011, paper-read

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 08, 2011 Lorna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Jasper Fforde has been on my to-read list forever. I haven't read any of the others in the series, but my dad got me this as a gift, so I'm giving it a shot.

Sometimes a little too clever for its own good, but a fun and unique read. Favorite passages:

..."'For all its boundless color, depth, boldness, passion and humor, the RealWorld doesn't appear to have any clearly discernable function.'
'Not that better minds than ours haven't tried to find one.'
The jury had been out on this matter for some...more

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Apr 25, 2011 Judith rated it 4 of 5 stars

One of Our Thursdays is Missing: A Novel by Jasper Fford is 6th in his Thursday Next series of literary fantasies. The fictional Thursday begins to find her inner real Thursday when called by the Jurisfiction Accident Investigation Department to report on a book crash. She discovers that all the debris has mysteriously been scrubbed clean of ISBN, and that the real Thursday Next is missing. Leaving her series in the hands of an understudy and, assisted by Sprockett, the clockwork butler, (“It ha...more One of Our Thursdays is Missing: A Novel by Jasper Fford is 6th in his Thursday Next series of literary fantasies. The fictional Thursday begins to find her inner real Thursday when called by the Jurisfiction Accident Investigation Department to report on a book crash. She discovers that all the debris has mysteriously been scrubbed clean of ISBN, and that the real Thursday Next is missing. Leaving her series in the hands of an understudy and, assisted by Sprockett, the clockwork butler, (“It has long been proved that everyone needs a butler.”) she attempts to find the real Thursday. Meanwhile, boundary disputes have erupted between Women’s Fiction and Racey Novel, and Colonel Bradshaw has asked her to take the real Thursday's place at the negotiating table.

While, back at the Council of Genres …
“There was a session in progress, and although it was being conducted in Courier Bold, the antiquated yet universal language of the BookWorld, I could make out that it was a discussion about the possibility of Text Sea levels rising due to the advent of e-books. … The argument went that because e-books were composed almost entirely of electrons and barely any ink and paper at all, the scrawl trawlers' work would be cut by 90 percent overnight, and there was a possibility for inundation of the low-lying areas of the BookWorld … this argument was countered by a delegate who maintained that e-books were the way of the future, and since the power of a book is undiminished irrespective of the carrier medium, no such panic was necessary. Still another delegate suggested that the advent of e-books might actually increase the demand for new material and thus cause a shortage of words—something for which the BookWorld must be prepared by the construction of more scrawl trawlers and the training of extra scrawlermen. All three were experts, and all three had conflicting views. I was reminded of Clarke's Second Law of Egodynamics: 'For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.'”

... sounds exactly like a HELIN Board meeting, doesn't it?
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Oct 20, 2011 Steve H rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, humorous

It's been a while since I started the Thursday Next series, and the other books in the series weren't that fresh in my mind, so I was a little overwhelmed by references to ideas and events introduced in previous books. Plus, this work was a little slow to get established for me because I wasn't ready for our main character to be, perhaps, a different character than the other Thursday novels. My final minor gripe with this book, which I nevertheless enjoyed, is what seems to be an overwhelming am...more

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Feb 04, 2013 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: a-z-challenge-2012

Let's start by saying this: who knew reading could be so complex? From the beginning chapters, and really the title and spoiler blurb on the back of the book, we find out that Thursday Next is missing. However due to the books she's written there is a Thursday who can take her place until she is found. This instantly changes the tone of the book as the new Thursday takes over as narrative voice. Despite looking like the Real Thursday, her written counterpart has a much different personality, and...more Let's start by saying this: who knew reading could be so complex? From the beginning chapters, and really the title and spoiler blurb on the back of the book, we find out that Thursday Next is missing. However due to the books she's written there is a Thursday who can take her place until she is found. This instantly changes the tone of the book as the new Thursday takes over as narrative voice. Despite looking like the Real Thursday, her written counterpart has a much different personality, and this is reflected in the narrative voice.

With the main protagonist missing, we are taken away from the official and policing part of BookWorld, and instead we are given a civilian point of view. I do think having anything too much like the past books would have felt very out of place in this unfamiliar world. Even when written Thursday meets people from real Thursday's world you can feel the difference. You really get the sense she is a different person trying to be someone else, and outsider looking in the window, yet still somehow participating.

I did find myself missing the old Book World, despite us never really getting an expansive description of it before. A lot of the previous books consisted of jumping from one to the other with few stable points of reference like the Great Library. There was nothing wrong with the new BookWorld certainly. it just took a little getting used to. I think the other part is I just missed the Real Thursday, familiar characters, the Jurisfiction and official side of BookWorld. As much as I loved seeing the Book World from the civilian and written characters perspective, after five books focusing on one side, it was an adjustment seeing the flip side.

Don't get me wrong, it was brilliant all the same. Once you take the story as it is you began to see the immense effort Jasper had gone to. The detail in this book is astounding. It is not even always relevant, but the descriptions and the minute things like street names or conversations and logic that you tend to just brush over, yet have probably needed just as much thought as the narrative itself. I can't even begin to list the detail Jasper has put into the BookWorld and the novel itself this time around. Something that I thought was truly beautiful was the way the RealWorld is described through Jasper's BookWorld descriptions. His descriptions of everyday life and activities are rather poetic, which considering how poetry is viewed in these books, shouldn't be taken as an insult. The wriggling in your seat excitement returns, not entirely through the whole book, but enough and in the right places to make you grin like the Cheshire Cat filled with warm bubbles.

The fact that this book is similar yet very different to the others works well for the BookWorld's advantage. As readers we are given a full layout and story in this world from the point of view of the characters that live in it. They are the fictional counterparts of all the books, and while there is the mystery to be solved, the reality is we are given a complete breakdown and introduction to the Book World we have only seen glimpses of in the past, and all in the name of solving the mystery. This is something Jasper is very good at, telling us what we need to know but without interrupting the story's flow. A lot is revealed from past books that you didn't even realise needed to be solved, but there is also a few unanswered things as well. There were some unrelated revelations though. We have finally discovered an explanation of how there, their and they're problems arise in the RealWorld, discover how important syntax is, and how Malapropism is funny, but also makes conversation a little trying. We get to see the dangers of comedy, realise that yes, clowns are an offset of the Horror genre, that humans in a crowd are very much like starling and fish, and the awkward back and forth shuffle between two people on the street is not as simple as it makes out to be.

I really do not want to give any more away for fear of spoilers, but in all truthfulness there is also no time. There is just so much beautiful description, so much detail, imagination, forethought, genius, humour, absurdity, and amazement in this book that you wouldn't even know where to begin telling you about it all. Even if I did explain them all and gush over their awesomeness, it'd take the joy away from discovering them yourselves and admiring Jasper in your own way. Not all of them even ruin plot, it's just simple pleasures in the BookWorld life and the story itself that is being told.

Aside from the plot there is so much more to love about this book, and so many new things that after you reset what you know about these books already you will find them a rather intriguing change. A refreshing change, but I look forward to getting back into the writing and point of view I know and love. What this book does well is give a great insight into how reading is actually done, and received, which changes how you read yourself. Don't resist it, just accept it and enter this world blissfully; and by the time you finish you will feel as suspicious and guilty for getting sleepy when reading a book as I do now.

A version of this review was also published on my blog http://lostinagoodbook.blog.com/2013/...
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Jan 05, 2012 Derrick rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: library-books, novels, 2012read

The thing I like best about this one, apart from the witty references to current concepts like FanFic and Harry Potter, is that we get to start at the beginning and watch our dear Thursday find herself all over again.

The written Thursday lives in the shadow of the real Thursday, a woman of worldwide fame in both real and book worlds. She starts off rather timid and by the end has learned to trust herself.

Sprockett the clockwork Jeeves is a wonderful character. And the mimefield is absolutely t...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Tina rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, best-2011, fantasy

Original post at One More Page

I was planning to put off reading Jasper Fforde's latest Thursday Next book until I found the time to reread the first five books. It's been years since I last read any of them, so I thought I'd appreciate reading this latest one better if I read the first ones again. Never mind that there are five of them and it would take significant time off my real TBR. But then I got sick a few weeks before I had to fly to Europe, which got me worried about all kinds of things...more

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Jan 26, 2013 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally read in February 2011, reread November 2012. Fun seeing the pictures this time (the advanced uncorrected proof did not include them).

3.5 stars? I can't decide how I feel.

First, I won the Advanced Uncorrected Proof from Goodreads! Ahhhhh! I was jumping up and down screaming in my head when I found out. I love winning things. And as my workmate reminded me, I did NOT win anything at office Bingo a couple of weeks ago. And Jasper Fforde is my book husband. It was like the universe came...more Originally read in February 2011, reread November 2012. Fun seeing the pictures this time (the advanced uncorrected proof did not include them).

3.5 stars? I can't decide how I feel.

First, I won the Advanced Uncorrected Proof from Goodreads! Ahhhhh! I was jumping up and down screaming in my head when I found out. I love winning things. And as my workmate reminded me, I did NOT win anything at office Bingo a couple of weeks ago. And Jasper Fforde is my book husband. It was like the universe came together to send me this lovely, lovely book.

Now, the book. I wanted it to be a home run, slam dunk, whatever other sport saying that means I just love it to pieces right away because it's easily perfect. I even quickly read First Among Sequels to prepare myself. If this book was not perfect, you see, I didn't want to blame it on my own confusion. (First Among Sequels, still awesome, by the way.) But even with that, it took me a 114 pages to get into the groove with this one. Why? Well, even though the book promises that "[f]ans of Thursday Next will rejoice that their favorite character is back", the book does not center around Thursday Next at all. It focuses on the written Thursday, who we are told time and again, including by written Thursday, that she is NOT Thursday. She toughens up a lot, becoming more like Thursday, but she isn't, and I can't pretend otherwise. All of the other characters that we know and love are also not in the picture (brief appearances by some). We do get a new character that I like--Sprockett. Adding to the confusion, the BookWorld is completely different from how we've read about it in the previous books. It's a lot of change, and a lot to get used to. I didn't get insync with the book until page 114 because we're finally getting to Jurisfiction, Commander Bradshaw, Council of Genres-- familiar things. I feel like Fforde got into the groove as well with the jokes, puns, literary references. I felt like he was done setting up everything and could now let the story flow.

(Jasper, you do realize you had another Captain Corelli's Mandolin joke in this one, right? I think there was a similar one in First Among Sequels? Like the same joke about the first 100 pages or so being blah because of the sudden surge of interest? Sorry, sorry, don't want to call you out, but it surprised me that we did that one again. Let me know in the future if you would like for me to read all of your books ahead of time to catch these things. If you did this on purpose, ignore me. Okay, that's all.)

I had a lot of favorite moments. Here's one of them:

"Sprockett and the cabbie looked outside. Surrounding the car were five hundred or so mimes, all dressed uniformly in tight black slacks, a stripy top, white grease-paint and a large hat with a flower stuck in the crown. They were miming in the most terrifying fashion, their hideous faces contorted with exaggerated expressions, their bodies moving in a frighteningly sinuous movement that defied written description. The cabbie panicked and started the engine. It burst into life, and he popped the car in reverse.
'Hold it,' I said, looking out the rear window. 'You can't go backwards--there's a mime stuck inside a pretend glass cube just behind you. Wait--he's out. No, hang on, there's another, bigger pretend glass cube outside the smaller one.'
The cabbie started to sob."

Hahahahahahaha. And later in the book, "Was the mimefield funny or not? To us I think not. But it might have been funny to someone."

Oh, right, I know Fforde was tired of the time traveling, but I loved the time traveling! I'm sad to see it go. (Except maybe it isn't completely gone? I mean, we were hardly ever in the Outland to see if it was truly gone. I can't just believe that Thursday's father isn't running around in Time. And only slightly related, but I missed Mycroft. I completely love Mycroft.)

So, in conclusion, read the book. Jasper Fforde is still amazing and witty and funny and so darn creative. The literary references are fantastic. But be prepared. Don't go picking up the book thinking, Hurray, Thursday's back! Because she is NOT.(less)

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Mar 29, 2011 Lisa Vegan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Yes!, for all those who’ve enjoyed Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series

Shelves: fiction, mystery, novel, speculative-fiction, books-about-books, reviewed

Oh, I just loved this book. From beginning to its very wonderful end.

I’m in love with Jasper Fforde. He’s got a brilliant imagination and he’s hilarious, so wickedly funny!

At first I was puzzled and missed the “real” Thursday and the “real” Pickwick, but I quickly got on board with this romp. I ended up loving the written Thursday and I loved Sprockett, her butler. I got reminded of the previous books as I read, especially in the little blurbs that start each chapter.

A fun and clever book. A gre...more

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Jul 01, 2011 Kaethe rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, books-about-books, fantasy, feminism, fiction, humor, meta, mystery, noir, scifi, strong-smart-female-protagonist

One star off of fabulous, because it's slow to get going. Fforde has written a book starring the written version of Next, and she's less adventurous, less brave, less quick, less sexy, and much more dignified than the Real Next. By taking her out of her own book and giving her some detective work, her gradually builds her up until her depth rivals that of her Real equivalent. Maybe she is the Real Next? We don't spend much time in the Real world, but the hours there are loaded with events, and t...more

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Aug 06, 2011 bb rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Thursday Next fans

Shelves: first-reads

If you love diagramming and parsing sentences and following phrases beyond its meaning, you will love the plot development and how Thursday follows the flows and ebbs of innuendos to solve this mystery.

Thursday Next fans will definitely rate this as a 5-star read. If this is your first Thursday Next book, or if you haven't kept up since The Eyre Affair, you may feel a little lost. Not too worry, tho -- just enjoy the read!

fyi -- i received this book as a goodreads' first-reads give-away.

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May 08, 2013 Sally rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks

When I look for a new book or audiobook, I find that Jasper Fforde is one author I usually punch into the search bar. That's probably because I've read the Thursday Next series as well as the Nursery Crime series, and get a tingle of laughter out of the slant-wise jabs at known fiction. Comedians who are successful seem to achieve success by touching on things that are familiar and then putting a humorous twist on perception of the familiar. I think Terry Pratchett is the master of this in ficti...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Julia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, satire

I purchased the whole Thursday Next series, just so I could have it around when I needed some "perking up" after darker, longer reads. I've always loved the "written" Thursday idea, introduced in FIRST AMONG SEQUELS. Now, in this book, the kind, dippy, sandal-wearing Thursday version becomes the center of the book.

Thus Fforde has given himself the chance to show another side of Thursday--since it turns out that this "goody two shoes" version of Thursday has to imitate the "real" Thursday, who i...more

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Feb 24, 2013 W.H. Fordham rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is the most original and inventive fiction book I have ever read.
The concept is of a whole other world, like another dimension, where all the characters throughout fiction live like actors waiting to play their roles whenever someone in the real world reads their book. Amazing. When characters 'die' they disintergrate into their constituent parts - words and letters, to be used again in other works.
They can even crossover into our 'real' world !
So I would give this book 10/10 for mind bogg...more

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Sep 11, 2012 Rachel Neumeier rated it 5 of 5 stars

This may be the cleverest book I ever read.

The main character is the “written Thursday”, who is the protagonist in the books about the “real Thursday” (who was introduced in Fford’s first book, THE EYRE AFFAIR, which involves somebody kidnapping Jane Eyre from her book and holding her hostage, in an alternate world where people take their literature VERY seriously. Did you follow all that?)

So, the written Thursday lives, obviously, in the Book World, which contains all the settings and character...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Susan rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have to admit that I have a weakness for the Thursday Next series. Although the stories are not such wild roller coaster rides since the author banned time travel (to save his own sanity, I suspect), they are still totally engaging. As the title implies, this is a novel about identity. The “real” Thursday Next is missing, so her written character is recruited for an assignment by Jurisfiction. Many of the characters are just as happy with the substitute because she does not have Thursday’s har...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Katharine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: adventure, fantasy, humor, scifi

I've seen comments that these last two Thursday Next novels aren't as good as the earlier books in the series, but I can't agree about One of Our Thursdays is Missing . Granted, none of them have been quite as polished, innovative, or beautifully plotted as the first, The Eyre Affair. But I thought this one was funnier, more suspenseful, and had more character development than the last few. In this installment Fforde switches protagonists and first-person narrators - sort of. The heroine of "Mis...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Cassie-la rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2011/03/26/b......

For those not yet introduced to the Thursday Next series, it is set in alternate history England in a world which reveres literature so much that it has its own police force called SpecOps 27 to deal with literary related crimes (with SpecOps 29 focusing on Shakespeare). Its most famous agent, Thursday Next has the ability to jump directly into literature and interact with its characters, even having lived in BookWorld and seen first han...more REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2011/03/26/b......

For those not yet introduced to the Thursday Next series, it is set in alternate history England in a world which reveres literature so much that it has its own police force called SpecOps 27 to deal with literary related crimes (with SpecOps 29 focusing on Shakespeare). Its most famous agent, Thursday Next has the ability to jump directly into literature and interact with its characters, even having lived in BookWorld and seen first hands how books are created to be read in the RealWorld. This is all handled by Text Grand Central, the engine room of the BookWorld which allows books to travel to the reader’s imagination via a process called an imaginotransference system.

I highly recommend the other books in the series: The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, and First Among Sequels.

One of Our Thursdays is Missing stars the fictional Thursday Next, who is fictional both in the world the novel is set in and also in our own minds. The book breaks the fourth wall a lot, with the main character being a fictional character who knows she’s a fictional character in a fictional series about a fictional character (although for all purposes of the book, Thursday Next is real). It’s a lot to take in, and even readers such as ourselves have a hard time following the plot sometimes.

The book begins with the BookWorld being restructured from its original form as the Great Library (overseen by head librarian the Cheshire Cat) into Fictional Island, on which each genre has their own plot of land. For example fantasy, horror, crime, and fan fiction each have their own place in the Geographic BookWorld. Everything is governed by the Council of Genres and policed by Jurisfiction, whose headquarters are situated inside Sense and Sensibility.

I finished this book about two weeks ago and I’m still in love with the change the series has taken. This is the first time that the Thursday Next series has been narrated by anyone other than the RealWorld Thursday Next, and I for one think it offers a nice change of pace. For once we get to see what it’s like to be a fictional character, to be read, the desire to be loved, and to have the ability to alter the readers’ perceptions. The characters themselves are forced to “play” their roles while someone is reading their book(s), the only option for escape from readings is to hire an understudy. For example, someone can read Jane Eyre at one point and have the real Jane Eyre playing the part, or it can be her understudy. This in a way explains why you can read a novel at different points in your life and have the meaning be different or the feeling it gives you can change from the first reading. In the BookWorld this is brought on by the change in character rather the change in you as the reader.

Much as our RealWorld, the BookWorld too is in the throes of an economic crisis. They solve this problem in two ways. The first way is by sharing what they have. There are only 15 pianos in the BookWorld, which are juggled about from book to book depending on when scenes involving pianos are being read. In this same way, there are only three dodos, the dodo from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland doubling as Pickwick in the Thursday Next books. The second way is by remaindering books that are no longer read. The book is broken up into parts, the characters leave to join new series or become understudies, and the words are broken up and returned to the Text Sea. I enjoy the way that the BookWorld perpetually mirrors our own world, and not only in the ways that the genre borders alter based on being what is read at the moment (i.e. there are a lot of references to urban vampires).

What really makes the book stand apart though is all the amazing literary references that Fforde peppers throughout. One of the images that made me laugh the most was an event called the Running of the Bumbles, in which 24 screaming Mr. Bumbles are let loose in a chapter of Oliver Twist screaming, “More? More?!?”. We also come to learn that taxis in the BookWorld fly solely so they don’t create a movie version of I, Robot in the RealWorld. Sadly, as we know, that didn’t work. The other novels feature Hamlet and Mrs. Havisham among others, and this book introduces one of my favorites from poetry, the Lady of Shallot. I just wish we had seen more of her. When we first are introduced to Tennyson’s tragic figure, she is watching issues of Baywatch on her mirror and weaving tapestries of David Hasselhoff, because I suppose making tapestries of Sir Lancelot for all time can get tiring. She also introduces us to the Reader Feedback Loop, in which readers thoughts and opinions affect things in the BookWorld. Despite what she may have once looked like, the Lady of Shallot is now destined to look like every blonde beauty she was made into by reader feedback. As Fforde informs us, this loop is not always a good thing, owing to the fact that, “Harry Potter was seriously pissed off that he’d have to spend the rest of his life looking like Daniel Radcliffe”.(less)

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Apr 21, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 3 of 5 stars

It was with great excitement that I pulled One of our Thursdays and shades of Grey off the library book shelf recently. I haven't read any new Jasper Fforde books in quite a while. Both books reflect the darker turn I think his work has taken since Something Rotten, but of the two Shades of Grey is the braver and more frightening book.
Given the success of Thursday Next, perhaps it was inevitable that we'd have a book starring the Book World character who 'plays' her every time someone in the rea...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Rob rated it 4 of 5 stars

A new book by Jasper Fforde is one of those things I forcibly prevent myself from enjoying too fast. I put off buying it and try and make myself read it as slowly as possible, just to extend the pleasure. This, the sixth in his Thursday Next series, comes weighted with potential for disappointment: Thursday’s story appeared to come to a satisfying conclusion a couple of novels ago, so there’s always that sense the series is living on borrowed time; Fforde’s latest series started with the superb...more A new book by Jasper Fforde is one of those things I forcibly prevent myself from enjoying too fast. I put off buying it and try and make myself read it as slowly as possible, just to extend the pleasure. This, the sixth in his Thursday Next series, comes weighted with potential for disappointment: Thursday’s story appeared to come to a satisfying conclusion a couple of novels ago, so there’s always that sense the series is living on borrowed time; Fforde’s latest series started with the superb Shades of Grey which is crying out for a sequel; and, perhaps most worryingly of all, this Thursday Next book isn’t actually about our Thursday at all – our hero here is the written Thursday (but not the original written Thursday who turned out to be a little too evil).

If that last sentence made little or no sense, then this book isn’t for you. It’s the first in the series not to bother providing an entry point for Next newbies, and in fact makes various references to previous books that only a long-term reader would get. For the hardened Nextite, however, One of Our Thursdays… doesn’t disappoint. It has the same sense of intelligent daftness, the same potty plotting and the same pace that seem to be Fforde’s trademark. The ‘new’ protagonist is not a problem. In fact, her naivety is a refreshing return to earlier books in the series when Next was unfamiliar with the ‘rules’ and more of a bumbler.

Fforde took a bit of a risk in so blatantly changing the structure of the Bookworld – he blames it on e-books in the novel, but I suspect he just thought it offered more possibility for a bit of fun. Again, it’s a risk that was worth taking. It’s not quite as good as the first few Next books, the Nursery Crime books or Shades of Grey, but it’s not far off. I feel I ought to be more critical, but to be honest I’m slightly in love with Jasper Fforde, and am blind to his flaws. So, in a nutshell, don’t trust this review: just read the book.
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Apr 08, 2012 Tsana Dolichva rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Originally posted here: http://tsanasreads.tumblr.com/post/20...

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde is the sixth book in his apparently ongoing Thursday Next saga. This review doesn’t contain spoilers for previous books.

The Thursday Next books are based around the premise that BookWorld, the reality in which all fiction (and non-fiction, come to that) comes to life, is a real place. Thursday Next, in earlier books, has adventures travelling in an out of BookWorld with evil corporati...more Originally posted here: http://tsanasreads.tumblr.com/post/20...

One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde is the sixth book in his apparently ongoing Thursday Next saga. This review doesn’t contain spoilers for previous books.

The Thursday Next books are based around the premise that BookWorld, the reality in which all fiction (and non-fiction, come to that) comes to life, is a real place. Thursday Next, in earlier books, has adventures travelling in an out of BookWorld with evil corporation and miscellaneous bad guys doing, er, bad things both in RealWorld and BookWorld. It’s an enjoyable series. The first book is The Eyre Affair, involving shenanigans in Jane Eyre. If you’re a book geek (and especially if you’ve read some of the classics, although I haven’t and was still able to enjoy the books) I recommend them. The first few books should be mandated book geek reading. ;-p

On the other hand, One of Our Thursdays is Missing is not a place to start reading this series. It depends a little too heavily on having a knowledge of earlier books. It’s set mostly in BookWorld just as BookWorld undergoes a restructuring. That part isn’t problematic as new BookWorld is new for all readers. But later RealWorld comes up and Thursday’s RealWorld bears only a passing similarity to ours. I’d actually forgotten about that until it came up but at least I’d read the earlier books and had those memories to fall back on. I think a new reader would have found that section quite confusing.

The set up for One of Our Thursdays is Missing is that RealWorld Thursday has (surprise!) gone missing. BookWorld Thursday, the one playing Thursday in the novelisations of Thursday’s adventures (which aren’t quite identical to the earlier books in the series but are closely related… it’s all very meta) has to work out what happened. And why Real Thursday is missing. And so forth. Also there are peace talks that Real Thursday was supposed to attend which may or may not have something to do with her disappearance but by golly it’s all a bit of a problem.

I didn’t hate the book. I quite enjoyed the first third or so of it. (Whether or not this was because I was suffering delusions due to prolonged lack of sleep is debatable.) But I felt it lagged from them onwards. It was amusing — the humour wasn’t the problem — but it just left me a little cold. I read three other books while still in the middle of this one, which doesn’t say much for it’s ability to keep my attention.

Overall, I’d recommend it to fans of Fforde’s other work who have read the previous books. (Actually, having read all previous books isn’t strictly necessary. The plot is self-contained, it’s just the world-building that isn’t. However, as I remember enjoying the rest of the Thursday Next books, I do recommend reading them before getting to this one, lest One of Our Thursdays is Missing put you off the others.)

3.5 / 5 stars(less)

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Apr 03, 2012 Mjohnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

I think it's fairly obvious that I'm a huge fan of Jasper Fforde. In this sixth installment, we find a major change has happened. As Thursday herself puts it, "Everyone can remember where they were when the Book-World was remade. I was at home 'resting between readings,' which is a polite euphemism for 'almost remaindered.'" But she was using the time to acquaint herself with EZ-Read's latest Laborsaving Narrative Devices, designed to [help her] cope with the strains of a sixty-eight-setting, fi...more

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Jan 25, 2012 Bennett Gavrish rated it 5 of 5 stars

Grade: A-

L/C Ratio: 50/50
(This means I estimate the author devoted 50% of his effort to creating a literary work of art and 50% of his effort to creating a commercial bestseller.)

Thematic Breakdown:
50% - Epic literary fantasy
30% - Detective mystery
20% - Satire of the publishing industry

As a rule, I do not dabble in book series. This is partly because they tend to exist most often in the fantasy genre (not my preferred reading area), and partly because I am afraid to get caught up in a series an...more

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Jan 08, 2012 Alytha rated it 3 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. (For those not familiar with the Thursday Next universe, I don't want to discourage you from reading this one, but I reall recommend starting with the first volume, The Eyre Affair, as the whole BookWorld thing is quite complex and confusing. In short: there is a fictional world, where all books ever or never written exist and live. BookWorld used to look like a huge library, but it has recently been remade to look like an archpelago with an island or part of an island for every genre. Books bei...more (For those not familiar with the Thursday Next universe, I don't want to discourage you from reading this one, but I reall recommend starting with the first volume, The Eyre Affair, as the whole BookWorld thing is quite complex and confusing. In short: there is a fictional world, where all books ever or never written exist and live. BookWorld used to look like a huge library, but it has recently been remade to look like an archpelago with an island or part of an island for every genre. Books being transferred from one genre to another, or on their way to be scrapped because of lack of readers sail by overhead like flying cities. The BookWorld is governed by the Council of Genres, and policed by Jurisfiction, although these two entities don't always agree)

The first person narrator in this one is the second fictional Thursday, who took over as the protagonist in BookWorld after the "evil" Thursday was killed in the previous book. Although she tries to play Thursday with dignity, just like the real Thursday from the real world would wish it, reading numbers are going down, and barely reach 30 readers a day..on a good day. In addition to that, the other characters don't agree with her interpretation and constantly pick on her, and the dodo hates her.

As the lack of readers leaves her with quite a lot of free time, she also jobs for the Jurisfiction Accident Investigation Department. One day, she gets called in to have a look at what is left of a crashed book. All that is left is one room, and a few odds and ends. Suspiciously, all the ISBN numbers have been erased. As she starts investigating further, the mysterious Men in Plaid want her dead.

The real Thursday Next is supposed to lead peace talks with Speedy Muffler, the leader of the rogue Racy Novel genre, threatening to cause a genre-spanning civil war in the BookWorld. However, nobody has heard from her for weeks, and written Thursday starts to suspect that something is wrong. Through her contacts with Jurisfiction, she manages to be sent to the real world for a day. After learning to cope with breathing, gravity, and walking, she visits the real Thursday's family and finds out that Thursday has been missing for four weeks, and all the real world organisations that might be out to get her don't know what happened either. And suddenly, Thursday starts doubting that she is in fact fictional...

Back in BookWorld, she finds more and more clues that Thursday was caught in a vast conspiracy, and that there is a connection to the crashed book that might well mean that the real Thursday is dead.

This is a book in good Jasper Fforde tradition. It goes so far into the territory of metafiction that you'll get a headache if you try to think it through, so it's better to just accept it and go with the flow. The usual insanity, literary allusions, terrible puns and play with tropes is present, but in comparison to his other books, I had a bit of a feeling that there was less going on than usual, and it was less funny. Don't get me wrong, this is a really good novel, with good pacing and an engaging story with interesting twists and turns and whole shoal of red herrings that I won't go into in order not to spoil you, but in general maybe a bit more dark and serious than the other volumes, and not packed 200% full of insanity. Fictional Thursday as a first person narrator is so close to real Thursday, that her confusion about her fictionality are quite believable. The supporting characters are interesting, especially her new side-kick, the clockwork robot Sprokett, who believably displays the struggle of a mechanic being to comprehend humanity. Not a new concept, but well executed.

In conclusion, I really liked this novel, although it didn't leave as much of an impression as the other ones.
7.5/10

PS: one riddle I haven't been able to figure out:
The bridge to Fanfiction island is guarded by two game show hosts, who prevent anyone from leaving it (can't have thousands of hobbits and vampires running around, after all).
They kill anyone they see coming towards them. The only way back is over the bridge, you can't swim across. It takes 4 minutes to cross the bridge, and they check every 30 seconds. However, Thursday gets back without any trouble, and just says the solution was obvious...not to me, unfortunately. Any ideas?(less)

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Dec 27, 2011 Ross Hamilton rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jasper Fforde is one of those authors I simply adore and when a new novel comes out, I am in almost fevered excitement to get my grubby mitts on a copy. With all the reading I have to do these days, I rarely have the luxury of being able to re-read a novel, just for the enjoyment of it. Fforde is one of those I know I shall re-read.

Fforde's Thursday Next novels, and the spin-off Jack Spratt series, pretty much defy description. But I shall try.

Thursday Next, the real Thursday Next, used to work...more Jasper Fforde is one of those authors I simply adore and when a new novel comes out, I am in almost fevered excitement to get my grubby mitts on a copy. With all the reading I have to do these days, I rarely have the luxury of being able to re-read a novel, just for the enjoyment of it. Fforde is one of those I know I shall re-read.

Fforde's Thursday Next novels, and the spin-off Jack Spratt series, pretty much defy description. But I shall try.

Thursday Next, the real Thursday Next, used to work as a literary detective in the real world. Show now spends a lot of her time working for Jurisfiction in Bookworld, the strange, literary world that exists beneath the surface of books. This isn't her story. Because the adventures of Thursday Next became novelised, a written Thursday Next also exists. The first written Thursday Next ended up a violent, over-sexed leather-clad headcase. At the request of the real Thursday Next, the character was re-written into a softer, nicer character who readers first met in First Among Sequels. By general agreement, this softer written Thursday Next took over from the earlier written Thursday.

There – I said it would be difficult to describe.

When readers first met the softer Thursday Next, it was as a tree-hugging, herbal-tea-drinking, well intentioned but ineffective ditherer. In this new Thursday Next adventure, I felt some of that character has been lost. While that particular Thursday needed to be stronger than before, I feel Fforde could have shown more of that earlier tree-hugger style in the character, at least at the start.

All the usual, delightfully crazy humour we expect from Jasper Fforde novel is present in this novel. As he often does, Fforde has entwined points from earlier in the series into this installment. In this particular instance, as a small aside, we learn why the Toast Marketing Board suddenly appeared in earlier novels. Reading the dialogue of Mrs Malaprop was a delight to interpret, the structure of her dialogue reflecting Fforde's wonderful inventiveness.

While this novel will not do down as one of my favourites of Fforde's, fans will nonetheless enjoy the continuing adventures of Thursday Next along with yet more delightful Jasper Fforde craziness. (less)

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Sep 29, 2011 Hélène rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantastique-sci-fi

Pas eu trop de mal à le lire (7h de train en deux jours, qu'il a fallu occuper, ça aide), mais, au final... Plutôt déçue.
Changement d'univers du BookWorld de façon assez bizarre. Evidemment, ça permet un meilleur environnement pour l'histoire, cet environnement réalisto-géographique au lieu de la Grande Librairie, mais je trouve que ça perd totalement son côté "nextien".
J'ai pas été passionnée par l'intrigue. Ca manquait, je trouve, des millions de références littéraires auxquelles Fforde nous a...more

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Sep 18, 2011 Anthony Eaton rated it 4 of 5 stars

I hesitated to start this one, purely on the basis that I knew I didn't have anything to follow it up with – having read the spin-off ‘Nursery crimes’ books before starting on the Thursday next series, I was a little bit reticent to launch into this last (Or at least, most recent) book in the series.

I needn't have worried, Though – 1 Of Our Thursdays Is Missing is both a fitting final work in the series, but also leaves open the possibility of more down the track (please, let it be so). For the...more

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Aug 25, 2011 Mjhancock rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

Thursday Next has gone missing, and it's up to her book self to save her and solve the mystery--maybe. I think changing the protagonist from the "real" Thursday to the "fictional" one was a good idea, and worked well here. It provided some comedy fodder, and allowed us to focus on a different level of threat--Thursday may be high-nigh invincible at this point, but her fictional equivalent is more of a blank slate. That said, I wasn't particularly fond of the other new characters, and the mechani...more

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Aug 10, 2011 Trish rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a fun read that brought me back to the days when I first encountered The Eyre Affair and was introduced to Thursday Next, ace literary detective. Although the main character in this sixth book is the written Thursday Next rather than the original RealWorld person, I soon came to like and respect her for herself. She is charming and earnest, and it was fun to spend so much time in the newly remade BookWorld.

Here is written Thursday’s advice to her understudy, who will be handling the rea...more

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Jul 23, 2011 Andrew Sapp rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone who loves literature, satire, shameless punning, and/or fantasy

Recommended to Andrew by: No one: I eagerly await every new Fforde book.

Shelves: fantasy, satire

Jasper Fforde--what can one say other than the man's a genius. I became an avid fan within the first ten pages of The Eyre Affair, which I picked up while browsing the shelves in Fantasy and was drawn by the reference to my all-time favorite novel. Fforde's latest addition to the Thursday Next series, One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing, is just what one expects from Fforde: a complex plot that both builds on and twists the story line, marvelous characterization, absolutely delightful satire, and a...more Jasper Fforde--what can one say other than the man's a genius. I became an avid fan within the first ten pages of The Eyre Affair, which I picked up while browsing the shelves in Fantasy and was drawn by the reference to my all-time favorite novel. Fforde's latest addition to the Thursday Next series, One Of Our Thursdays Is Missing, is just what one expects from Fforde: a complex plot that both builds on and twists the story line, marvelous characterization, absolutely delightful satire, and a brilliance in weaving literary allusions throughout the story with such joyous playfulness that you find yourself re-reading paragraphs and chapters simply for the pleasure of it.
I'll leave the plot synopsis, for those who are interested, to Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or any of the other on-line sources Google will take you to. Suffice to say that the Written Thursday" of the previous Thursday Next novels must scour BookWorld™ to find out whether the "real" Thursday is alive or dead. Although she's played the great detective for five years (her predecessor played Thursday as much to violent and sexually adventurous, so the real Thursday had a more staid player take over), she is wholly unprepared to become a real detective when asked to investigate the mysterious destruction of book from Vanity Island (of the Fiction Archipelago), which soon alerts her to the fact that the real Thursday has been missing for over a week. Along the way she travels to Outland (the "real world", which is the world of Thursday Next novels to us), is ruthlessly pursued by Men in Plaid who keep trying to kill her with eraserhead slugs (once hit, one is reduced to graphemes, the basic building element of text), and becomes involved in trying to restart peace talks between Racy Novel, Women's Literature, and Comedy. Confused? Yeah. And that's the fun of reading Fforde. But don't worry, it all makes sense in the end.
If you're on Good Reads, I know you love literature. Do yourself a favor and pick up this or any of Fforde's books. Whether you're a fan of fantasy writing or not, you'll be in for a wild and thoroughly fun ride.(less)

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About Jasper Fforde

Jasper Fforde is a novelist living in Wales. He is the son of John Standish Fforde, the 24th Chief Cashier for the Bank of England, whose signature used to appear on sterling banknotes, and is cousin of Desmond Fforde, married with the author Katie Fforde. His early career was spent as a focus puller in the film industry, where he worked on a number of films including Quills, GoldenEye, and Entrap...more

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“She wasn't the only one to be physically morphed by reader expectation. Miss Havisham was now elderly whether she liked it or not, and Sherlock Holmes wore a deerstalker and smoked a ridiculously large pipe. The problem wasn't just confined to the classics. Harry Potter was seriously pissed off that he'd have to spend the rest of life looking like Daniel Radcliffe.” — 59 people liked it

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One of Our Thursdays Is Missing (Thursday Next #6)

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