One of Our Thursdays in Missing

 One of Our Thursdays is Missing by Jasper Fforde

In this sixth volume of the Thursday Next series, the action takes place inside a re-made Book World and the narrator is the written Thursday Next. The real Thursday is missing. And if that sounds confusing, hang on. 

The real Thursday was scheduled to appear at peace talks to calm down genres intent on war, but no one has heard from her or knows where she is. The written Thursday - the one in the book the real Thursday wrote about her work as a literary detective - sees a chance to live up to her namesake's reputation and determines to find out what happened to her and effect a rescue if that is needed.

This re-made Book World is very different from that of the first five books. I'm not as keen on it as I was the other, but still it was fun traveling through it and seeing how it operates now. And they give you a map! In the front of the book there's a detailed one of Fiction Island that I had fun studying and found myself referring to many times. I do love a book with a map.

One reviewer called the book "inspired lunacy" and I can't think of a better description. Book World is a weird and wonderful place, full of quirks and curiousities like these:

• a support group for the lesser-known siblings of famous characters. James Bond's brother, Harry Potter's sister, and The Great Gatsby's siblings, Mediocre Gatsby and Loser, all discuss their jealousy and inferiority complexes there. 

• written characters who get shot and fly apart in words, which then get stuck in walls and furniture like shards of glass.

• "met labs" where metaphors are made by stripping similes of their likes and as's. The quality of the product is low but they sell well on the black market because of the dearth of fresh metaphors.  

I don't know how he does it, and how he keeps doing it book after book, but Jasper Fforde's imagination is off the charts. If you're new to the series though, don't start with this one; jumping in the middle might cause you to doubt your own sanity as well as Fforde's. Begin at the beginning and just enjoy the whole whacky ride.