Wednesday, October 15, 2014

One of Our Thursdays Is Missing: A Thursday Next Novel by Jasper Fforde


Next in Thursday Next series. This time the protagonist in the book isn’t the actual, original, “real” Thursday Next, but her correspondent from the Thursday Next books. The nice and empathetic one, not the arrogant one from those books which were written with added sex and action to please the readers. Most of the book happens in the bookworld, where the Thursday Next’s literary correspondent tries to find out what has happened to the real Thursday Next, while an understudy takes care of those few readers who are actually reading the book series. The real Thursday was supposed to mediate the peace talks between racy novel and women’s fiction, two genres with a long history of bad relations. At the same time an unknown book has destructed itself over the bookworld and spawn stray phonemes everywhere. As the real Thursday Next isn’t available, the written one must try to find out what is going on. She encounters many strange and surprising threats, like a dangerous mimefield filled with ruthless mimes. And she also gets a change to visit the real world and is astounded by the level of the detail. Even those things which aren’t described exist there!
Another really fun book from a fun series. This instalment was perhaps slightly less manic than some of the previous instalments, but it was a very inventive book filled with loads of fun literary and culture references. Very likely I missed many of them, but there was more than enough for a few chuckles for almost every page. Enjoyable, inventive and entertaining.
384 pp.

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