[amazon_image id=”0670022527″ link=”true” target=”_blank” size=”medium” class=”alignleft”]One of Our Thursdays Is Missing: A Novel[/amazon_image]The sixth book in Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, [amazon_link id=”0670022527″ target=”_blank” ]One of Our Thursdays Is Missing[/amazon_link] is set amid turbulence in the BookWorld. An all-out genre war is threatening to break out between Racy Novel and Women’s Fiction. And Jurisfiction/Spec Ops agent Thursday Next is missing. It’s up to her written counterpart to get to the bottom of Thursday’s disappearance. Meanwhile, she is asked to substitute for the real Thursday at peace talks between Racy Novel and Women’s Fiction. She begins to wonder if she might be the real Thursday Next, which would make the plot a whole lot more complicated.

After a fairly slow start, the novel picks up, but it doesn’t quite measure up to the other books in the series. The written Thursday just isn’t as much fun as the real Thursday, and the puns and jokes that usually have me laughing out loud as I read Jasper Fforde were in much shorter supply. It is definitely my least favorite of the series so far, and I hope that any future Thursday Next books will not continue down this road. If you haven’t read the series, I don’t recommend starting with this book, as I think it will put you off Fforde, and his other books are really good. He’s one of my favorite writers, but this book is a disappointment in comparison with the others. If you have read the series, then you will probably want to read this one, too, so prepare yourself. I seem to be in the minority: most of the reviews I have read are positive. You might find it more to your liking than I did. And I would not be honest if I didn’t say that there are some genuinely funny, laugh-out-loud moments. Once the book picked up steam, I finished it in the space of about five hours or so, but I’ve never had to wait so long for Fforde to hook me before.

P.S. If you’re like me and you read this on your Kindle, the map of Fiction Island is impossible to read. Luckily, Fforde has the map available on his website.

Other books in the series:

• [amazon_link id=”B000OCXHC2″ target=”_blank” ]The Eyre Affair[/amazon_link] (review)
• [amazon_link id=”B004WB19EY” target=”_blank” ]Lost in a Good Book[/amazon_link] (review)
• [amazon_link id=”0143034359″ target=”_blank” ]The Well of Lost Plots[/amazon_link] (review)
• [amazon_link id=”014303541X” target=”_blank” ]Something Rotten[/amazon_link] (review)
• [amazon_link id=”B001IDZJIQ” target=”_blank” ]Thursday Next: First Among Sequels[/amazon_link] (review)