★★★★☆ Which Thursday?

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing

Jasper Fforde

This installment of Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series features a new main character. Actually, she's not quite new -- we met her in First Among Sequels. She is Thursday Next - 5, the fictional Thursday Next in an unsuccessful fifth Thursday Next book promoted because Thursday, the Real World Thursday, was unhappy with her own portrayal in the series. This introductory scene from First Among Sequels will give you a pretty good idea of her personality

But I did bring you some breakfast.’

‘Well, in that case . . .’ I looked into the bag she handed me and frowned.‘Wait a minute – that doesn’t look like a bacon sandwich.’

‘It isn’t. It’s a crispy lentil cake made with soya milk and bean curd. It cleanses the bowels. Bacon definitely will give you a heart attack.’

‘How thoughtful of you,’ I remarked sarcastically. ‘The body is a temple, right?’

‘Right. And I didn’t get you coffee because it raises blood pressure; I got you this beetroot and edelweiss energy drink.’

You get the idea.

In that book Thursday 5 failed to become a Jurisfiction agent. She was just not cut out for action sequences and the possibly violent coercive apprehension of bad guys, etc. And what's more, readers don't find her all that exciting, either. As a result, her book, the book in which she is the hero, is almost unread. (It is not, in point of fact any of the actual real world books in the Thursday Next series.) The problem, however, is that the real Thursday has gone missing, at a very bad time -- the Bookworld in on the edge of war, and Thursday was supposed to be the chief negotiator.

So Thursday 5 is called on to investigate real world Thursday's disappearance. She needs to act against her own granola-infused New Age nature. Thus we have a story of personal growth. In addition, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing mostly reconciles the Thursday Next series within Bookworld with the real, actually published series. There's also a new character, Sprocket, whom I enjoyed and about whom I will say no more. And there is the usual literary humor. You can look at my highlights for the book on Goodreads for examples.

If you've read and enjoyed the first five volumes of Thursday Next series, then I confidently predict you will enjoy this one.

Amazon review

Goodreads review

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