Review. The Rook

Title. The Rook

Author. Daniel O’Malley

Publisher. Head of Zeus

Release Date. January 11^th 2012

Standalone/Series. First in the Checquy Files

Genre. Fantasy, Paranormal, SF

Description.

The body you are wearing used to be mine.

So begins the letter Myfanwy Thomas is holding when she awakes in a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. With no recollection of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind to discover her identity and track down the agents who want to destroy her. 

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own. 

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

REVIEW.

I’ve had this one on my shelve for quite some time, and of course did I plan to read it… but I just never got to it. So when I asked my husband to pick my next read and he grasped this one, I knew it was time.

I had NO IDEA what to expect from this one, before I came across it on a book fair, I never even heard of it ! This one got so little hype, or well, maybe I started getting into English novels after the hype of this one ? But either way, I had no idea what to think of this one and was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed it.  

The main character was such a laugh ! Mayfanwy was so much fun !! I loved her as our narrator and her humour was great !! She was a very likable character, and since we start at the beginning with her losing her memory, it feels like you walk through the story along with her, that you discover this world with her. She made me snort and smile along with her :)

I also really enjoyed the wide array of characters. Even though there were a couple we got kind of attached to, there were so many people we got to know (and got weary of, because we did not know who to trust) and who well, left us again XD It had some GoT in there with all the slayed characters. Just when we got to know some new ones after the previous got killed, they died too XD But well, it was all part of it and no senseless killing.

And don’t get me wrong, this is not a tear jerker, but it is just part of the story to make it more believable and less James Bond like.

I really enjoyed how we got more and more paranoid throughout the story, who could we trust ? Who was the traitor ? How many traitors are there !? I got really into it and the further I got in the story, the more invested I got.

I just LOVED this world. So many supernatural being with awesome powers ! He created an awesome world. So complex and well-thought. Very different from anything I've ever came across. It was very interesting and entertaining. Loved the whole Checquy system and rules. He also got really creative with all the powers and creatures, very interesting.

And you know what is even more awesome in this novel ? No romance ! We finally have female character who cares more about saving the world then falling head over heels in love !

It fitted much better this way, and I think a romance would have been unnecessary here.

It did have some female friendships in there that I enjoyed though. 

Mostly the info dump.. SO MUCH INFORMATION. I get that there is a lot to know, a whole organization filled with supernatural beings, and with the amnesia you have a good excuse to write a lot of it down. We kind of need that information to understand the world… But still, it was too much. I had to stop every couple of chapters at the beginning, I could not continue with so much info thrown at me all at the same time. It took me longer to finish this one because of the info dump.

At the beginning it did not bother me much, since we were just getting into the story.. but later on I got really annoyed with the letters/flashbacks. (Can I call it flashbacks?? It did happen in the past..) It got more and more exciting the closer I came to the end and when she is in the middle of finding out who the traitor is I do NOT want a flashback !! It kind of got me out of it and I did not think it added any value to the story to throw that in.

This novel was much more entertaining then I hoped for. I loved the world he created here and it was so well put together. So many pieces put together wonderfully and it had just the right amount of weird to make it work. Myfanwy was so much fun and I loved reading along with her story to find out what happened and who was the traitor.. This was such a FUN novel !!! If you’re in the mood for something different then YA for a bit, this one is highly recommended.

I do have some doubts about the next book though.. I really liked this one and it does make we want for me.. But it is over 500 pages.. But I do think I will get to it sometime because I’m very curious how it will continue !

Rating a SOLID 4