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 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. ( )

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, 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. ( )

Barely a 4. It took me awhile to get hooked into the change of voice. ( )

The BookWorld has been built, there is a ban on travel between OutWorld and Bookworld, and there is a war brewing between many of the genres of Bookworld,many of whom are taking affront to RacyNovel's attempts to expand and encroach into WomFiction and Romance.

There are several prophetic moments in this, especially around the RacyNovel and (since the publication of this book), the popularity of softporn (such as 50 Shades of Grey) in the real world.

In all this Written Thursday - whom we met in the previous book as a Jurisfiction reject being mentored by the real Thursday Next - is narrating the book in the 1st person. She begins to realise that Real Thursday Next is missing and starts to investigate, thereby alienating a lot of people, and getting herself into trouble.

Not for those who have not read a Next book before. The story in itself is standalone, but the whole structure of the book and who the characters are would be difficult for a new reader to pick up with this book. I wouldn't say it was the strongest book in the series, though fair play to Fforde for trying to open up the way the story is written in an attempt to keep the series moving forward ( )

Book 6 in the Thursday Next Series. This time Thursday is missing, or is she? In the Book World, the written Thursday Next, is worried that the 5 books of the series aren't be read, but now she has to investigate what's going on with the real Thursday, time's running out, she has to be at the Peace Talks meant to put an end to the escalating Genre Wars. Oh and why are the Men in Plaid chasing after her? Another whacky adventure. ( )

Mostly light-hearted humor. The reader. needs to be well read to catch all the references and puns. It's part of a series, but it's not essential to have read the earlier books. ( )

Not as good as the earlier books in the series but still enjoyable for those who have read the previous books. ( )

I love this series but I have to say, this one was a lot slower and less engaging than the first 5 in the series. I hope book 7 will pick up again. ( )

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 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. ( )

So meta! It started slowly and really grew on me. I hope the Fforde Fiesta in Swindon is lots of fun. I love that he's made his crummy little hometown a hotbed of intrigue in his books. ( )

Endlessly imaginative, inventive and amusing. A book that loves books and is about the inside world of books. ( )

Very slow going as compared to all of the others in the series. ( )

I really like the characterization in this one. ( )

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 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. ( )

> It was painfully difficult for her, and if Sheridan had known the misery that using acyrologia in a comedic situation would bring, he would possibly have thought butter of it. “Come hander hair-in culled!” she said again in an exasperated tone, sweating profusely and starting to shake with the effort. “Commander Herring called?” I said, suddenly getting it.

> I moved quietly to the French windows and stepped out into the garden to release the Lost Positives that the Lady of Shalott had given me. She had a soft spot for the orphaned prefixless words and thought they had more chance to thrive in Fiction than in Poetry. I let the defatigable scamps out of their box. They were kempt and sheveled but their behavior was peccable if not mildly gruntled. They started acting petuously and ran around in circles in a very toward manner. ( )

The only person who can stop the war of words between the genres defending into all out war is Thursday Next, but with one week to go before the crucial peace talks, she vanishes. No one know where she is, back in the real world, or stuck some where in Bookworld or the victim of some far more sinister.

Stepping into the breach is her literary version now eager to prove that she is worthy to carry the name and reputation forward. But as she picks up the trail, with her robotic assistant Sprockett, she uncovers a threat far more fiendish than a missing person. Staying one step ahead of the Men in Plaid even her existence is now perilous!

Peppered again with literary references Fforde has managed to turn this series into a thriller and a mystery. There is plenty of parody here too, with humorous pokes at the vanity publishing industry and ghost writers. Was fairly easy to read, but I felt the plot wasn't as strong as the previous book, with all being revealed right at the end as almost an afterthought. More of a 2.5 rating. ( )

Preceded by The Eyre Affair, Lost in a Good Book, The Well of Lost Plots, Something Rotten, [The Great Samuel Pepys Fiasco,] First among Sequels. ( )

Still many laugh-out-loud moments, and I loved the metatextual use of "the Written Thursday" as the main character. However, the plot? ... bit of a mess!
Obviously reading the next, though! ( )

3.5 stars

This one is told from the point of view of one of the written Thursday Nexts, not the real one. It turns out the real Thursday is missing, and this written Thursday is trying to help find her.

I liked this! I’d been putting this one off, as I don’t remember liking the past couple in the series as much as I started off liking it. I loved how Fforde described the written Thursday when she arrived in the real world, as it was all new to her. Now, I have to admit that sometimes it got a bit confusing trying to follow, but it is a very witty, creative series. ( )

Much of my reading is done by way of recorded books (I spend too much time in the car).. this book was one that I read. (It's been a long time since the last Thursday Next, and I didn't want to wait!) Parts of the book I liked, parts of the book I felt I had to work at getting through to the next likable bit. At times, I had to read things out loud, in order to get the joke (usually a malaprop), and sometimes I still didn't get it.

I liked this book, but I didn't love it. I don't think there's anyone else out there who writes quite like Fforde, and I will definitely read anything - and everything - else he chooses to put out there. But I was disappointed, because I didn't love this, and I'd expected to. ( )

One of Our Thursdays is Missing, by Jasper Fforde
6th in the Thursday Next series
5*

In this, the 6th Thursday Next book, the real Thursday is missing. If any one of these things seemss remotely interesting, read this series: Deregulated Imagination (TM); discussions of unpredictable syntax, and poor grammar; a dodo named Pickwick; a character named Mrs Malaprop; Outland tourism of the Book World; "not having a coffee" in a trendy coffee shop because the price is too prohibitive; The Great Library, Jurisfiction, and The Council of Genres; reading between the lines, and Epizeuxis.

Seriously. I cannot convey the witty repartee and wordplay that runs rampant in Fforde's writing. What a delight. ( )

More enjoyable language- and literature-bashing from Jasper Fforde. BookWorld has been re-designed to be geographical, ebooks are having an impact on reading processes and the written Thursday is faced with the disappearance of her RealWorld counterpart and an imminent war between the Racy Novel and Women's Fiction parts of the world.

I don't think you could get the most out of this book without having read the earlier ones - which isn't a criticism at all. Quite the reverse, as it means that there's a lot less explanation than there was in earlier books, which is a good thing.

I love the way Fforde mucks about with language and with literary conventions. "Double negatives were a complete no-no" was one of my favourite lines. ( )

Someone has kidnapped the real Thursday Next. Who are you going to call? One of the written Thursdays, of course! Mr. Fforde devotes a good deal of this book to musings about publishing, It remains a good read, though a bit of a filler book. Still, good time. ( )

Very funny. The shift to a written Thursday Next as the protag made for an interesting pov. ( )

Finished this right as I went to Fforde Fiesta (which was absurdly fun) and found that out of all the JF books I've read, this one is the weakest one in the bunch. It felt more like a filler book rather then an adventure set of it's own, which was disappointing. At times I felt like the plot dipped in and out of consciousness and i wasn't sure exactly what was going on. But Jasper is an incredibly strong storyteller and even his worst fallacies as a writer are heads above most other writers.

Even with the occasional annoyances and weak plot lines, this is still an engrossing and entertaining read. Would recommend if you're a JF purist, but if you're dipping in and out of his series, you can skip this without losing much of the backstory.

( )