"One of Our Thursdays Is Missing" by Jasper Fforde

It's hard to believe One of Our Thursdays is now the fifth book in the Thursday Next series. It's a series that I felt had started to become a bit stale, though I'm happy to say this most recent addition picked up for me. Perhaps that's because of the (mostly) new protagonist, the written Thursday Next. As this novel begins, the real Thursday Next is missing, and the written Thursday, the current star of Next's books, finds herself on the kind of convoluted quest the real Thursday would normally undertake.

The written Thursday is a lot different than her real life inspiration. Written Thursday is insecure and sheltered; she's trying to keep readership in a series with waning popularity while being true to the real Thursday's wishes. On her journey, written Thursday is joined by Sprockett, an adorable and loyal robot butler, and is chased by the nefarious Men in Plaid.

Significant time has been spent in the BookWorld in the previous books in the series, so it's nice to finally get the point of view of a written character. I loved written Thursday's point of view on the real world and her exasperation at its lack of narrative and purposefulness.

Like all the books in the series, One of Our Thursdays Is Missing is largely fluff and fairly forgettable, but it's a fun read and a neat way to think about the act of reading and the reader/book relationship.