One of Our Thursdays Is Missing is the sixth Thursday Next novel by Jasper Fforde. [Here are my reviews for the other books in the series.]

Plot:
The fictional Thursday Next is troubled. Her books are only just above being unread, her co-characters are annoying and the guy she likes has no backstory whatsoever. She just wishes that she was more like the real Thursday – also because that would mean that she would get a Landen of her own. After a big restructuring of the Book World, Fictional!Thursday gets called in to investigate a book crash. But as she soon discovers, there’s more to it than it looks like at first and apparently Real!Thursday is missing – right on the brink of the peace talks between Racy Novel, Women’s Fiction and Dogma she’s supposed to be heading.

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing seems a bit like the start to a spin-off – there are wonderful new characters like Sprockett and Square, the Book World has been remade and the Real World is treated like the exciting new thing, not the Book World. But what remains the same is Fforde’s idea explosions and his sense of humor (there’s a mime field. It’s a thing of beauty and terror). And as usual, that just works very well.

After First Among Sequels, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing is basically yet another reboot of the series. Having the Ficitional!Thursday (or is it?) star is a wonderful move and gives us the possibility to see the world from a fresh perspective. Not that that was strictly necessary – I would have been quite content to read on in the “old Book World”. But the restructuring gives Fforde new ideas to play with – and since that’s what he’s best at, I won’t complain.

I also liked the way the Book World was restructured. Instead of the Great Library, there’s now the Island of fiction on the inside of a sphere. Which is just too great a visual not to enjoy it.

The scene where Fictional!Thursday enters the Real World for the first time is brilliant, as is her relationship with Landen. [Also, Landen! I’m about as much in love with him as all the Thursdays.] And I adore Sprockett – a worthy sidekick if ever I saw one.

Summarising: Despite the usual weak plotting, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing is an awesome new entry into the series. Won’t disappoint fans, though it probably wouldn’t be a good place to start with the series.