Jasper Fforde
Hodder & Stoughton
Otago Daily Times, April 9th 2011
Until the publication of Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series, very few people knew that the characters inhabiting the stories we read have an independent existence. In literary detective’s latest adventure, One of our Thursdays is Missing, her intervention is critical if a cross-genre war between Racy Novel and Women’s Fiction is to be averted. The only problem is, the real Thursday Next is missing and the written Thursday (who acts out the role for readers of the previous novels) must either find her or take her place at the peace talks. To top it off, her fellow characters have voted her out of the series, and her prospective boyfriend has acquired a nasty back-story involving a bus full of nuns and orphaned puppies.
Cast in an attempt to make the books more family friendly her predecessor having introduced too much sex and violence for the real Thursday’s taste written Thursday is not exactly an action heroine. Can she find the real Thursday in time? Will she get her old job back? Is she ever going to find true love? These and other questions will only be resolved if the book is read, but unfortunately I’m not sure how much audience it will attract. It will make little sense for readers who have not read the previous novels, but it is likely to disappoint fans of the series.
As clever as the original idea was, the literary in-jokes and punning are tired and well worn by this stage, and I didn’t really care about final outcome one way or the other. I will keep the book in my library to complete the set, but I think Thursday Next’s time is past.
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