REVIEW

Review - THE ROOK, Daniel O'Malley

Reviewed By
Karen Chisholm

Immediately you'd have to wonder what on earth this reader would be doing even attempting a book like THE ROOK - an urban fantasy thriller. With paranormal aspects, and spies, and something about world domination.

Although it starts out with a young woman waking in a London park with no memory, surrounded by dead bodies, wearing, what is allegedly, somebody elses body. Okay, so I thought crime fiction for the first couple of minutes, and then got a bit of a sinking feeling with the whole body thing, although a bit of a sense of humour from the outset certainly helped the swallowing of the rest of it.

It is probably the cup of tea and biscuit for fans of urban fantasy, albeit with what is possibly a slightly tongue in cheek feeling. For the rest of us - that biscuit is going to need more than dunking in a cup of tea to make it palatable.

Whilst there are points that THE ROOK set up a cracking pace, there are also places that seem to lag, possibly because the joke isn't as strong as it could be, or because of that personal need for a lot of hardy chewing.

To be fair though, there's a good balance of character and plot here what with secret British organisations, strange sorts of super-powers, and ... well that whole other body thing, although there are some aspects of the superness of Myfanwy that felt a bit ... boy's own adventure maybe.

But, given that THE ROOK wasn't ever going to be my cup of tea, and no matter how many biscuits I chewed my way through, it's taken an absolute age to finish the book which probably isn't necessarily a reflection on it - definitely different books for different readers.

It would, however, probably be right up the alley of somebody who likes this sort of Urban Fantasy adventure, unlikely, completely off with the demons, scenario especially when it comes with a big serving of tongue in cheek humour.

BOOK DETAILS
BOOK INFORMATION
ISBN
9780316098793
Year of Publication
BLURB

A quick-witted, genre-bending, debut thriller about a secret organization keeping the world safe from supernatural threats, one staff meeting at a time.

“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 memory of who she is, Myfanwy must follow the instructions her former self left behind. She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-level operative in a secret agency that battles supernatural forces. But there is a mole inside the organization and this person wants her dead.

Battling to save herself, Myfanwy will encounter a person with four bodies, a woman who can enter her dreams, children transformed into deadly fighters, and an unimaginably vast conspiracy. Suspenseful, hilarious, and richly inventive, The Rook is a rip-roaring debut.

Review Review - THE ROOK, Daniel O'Malley
Karen Chisholm
Tuesday, April 1, 2014

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