The Rook, au service surnaturel de sa majesté

I really thought I'd enjoy this. I wanted to like this. I didn't :(

This book features one of the most intriguing opening scenes I've read lately, and it sets the tone for a mysterious dark tale (which is fantastic). Then the entire thing turns into a humorously absurd tale which obviously isn't meant to be taken seriously (which is also fine, I guess, just not the kind of book I prefer reading). The narrative stays uneven, as if the book just can't decide what sort of book it wants to be. Scenes begin with a sober tone only to melt into a pile of giggles. This might appeal to many readers, but unfortunately I'm not one of them.

And the cleverness, oh god, the cleverness. See, this book is imaginative. And clever. Oh so very clever. It's so in love with its own cleverness that it becomes tiresome very, very fast. Everyone's constantly delivering snarky one-liners, everything is either a pun or a juvenile joke, and there's no real way to differentiate the characters because they're all just, well, so damn witty and snarky they basically sound the same.

All in all, this was an overwritten book with a cool premise, some nice ideas and a very tedious execution. I thought I'd give it just one star, but it gets a surprise extra star for the stroke of genius that is the Gestalt siblings.

So, I was in a bookstore in San Francisco and Abby really wanted to recommend a book to me, but nothing really sounded good. I bought the Rook more out of a sense of wanting to buy a book in that particular moment rather than any hope that this specific book would speak to me. And then, it happened to be in my backpack when I found myself caught on a bus without the book I was reading. I got to “The body you're wearing used to be mine” and found myself completely unable to put the book down for the next 450+ pages.

This is really true perfection: a spy novel-y romp of deception and double-crossing, with some lovely world building (on the heavy side of expository, but well-explained by the protagonist's amnesia) and a female character that's nuanced and has agency and kicks butt and takes names. The sort of book that's like a warm cup of spicy cinnamon tea in my hierarchy of comfort.

I also had many lovely existential conversations prompted by the Rook: Is present Myfanwy the same as past Myfanwy? Just without trauma? Is she a totally new person? What does identity mean, anyway?

I'm so in for the series, but I think the framing device of amnesia really made this book shine, not sure how it'll keep up in the future.

Started out well enough, a lost memory story. I rarely find these, as well known of a trope it might be. The writing is good, the protagonist witty, intelligent, likeable. But after the introduction the pacing becomes too slow. It feels like a 24 episode season TV series, where most episodes are just filler. Some of the “episodes” in the book are too boring and some even annoying.

Up to the moment there is a mystery regarding who the traitor is it was a good story. But then we are presented with:
- a needless action scene
- a straightforward sequence of events, kind of like the author is describing in details the steps to tying your shoe
- a caricature villain, “oh look at me, I'm so evil”
- the politically correct main character engaging in torture, in one of the most repeated tropes of torture/interrogation in writing history:

“Tell me what I want or we will torture you, even though I think torture is abominable”
“Do your worst, I don't care”
Oh, I think he is pretty though, I'll have to be creative
“Oh really? Then I'll do this to you!”
“Wait what? No no, please no! Okay, I'll talk!”

PLOT

Honestly, I was really excited about this. I've been meaning to read it for a while. The start of the story was interesting tho weirdly and clearly written by a man.  Like this women just woke up with zero memories and clearly in distress and the first moment she looks at her self and goes “hell yes I am thin” ... Like wtf. I could name more things but to be honest I spend more time trying to ignore them than document them. 

Then we have the main body of the story.  First off there was an awful lot of unnessicary nudity. Tho I loved how the narrative kept switching from current events to letters written by the former Myfanwy Thomas. However, they are supposed to be two totally different people, which is really only clear on one important aspect, being timid vs being assertive, and not anything else was shown clearly different. Which is kinda dumb since her whole personality was supposedly erased, there should be many things different. Which also highlight how incredibly one dimensional her entire character is. 

The villain where also, frankly, kind of dumb. Like Belgiums that were all kinda gross and have the most unbelievable motivations. (The supposed accents in the audiobook were really bad and not Dutch or Belgium and more an off-brand German but that is beside the point)  Another totally unnecessary edition of having Gestalt have the ultimate incest with themselves. (As well as calling Gestalt an it and not just they which seems like a weird and unnecessary choice but also beside the point) 

And the final reveal. Which was the most unrewarding and anticlimactic situation I think I have ever read if it were not for the book I had recently finished before this (The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle). The character who ends up being behind the whole thing  // spoilers ahead // is not at all a prominent part of the story and I honestly forgot he even existed.  The reveal and subsequent explanation was a bit convoluted and uninteresting, especially because many details were suddenly revealed that were never mentioned before and thus completely impossible for me to be able to deduce it on my own. 

All in all a disappointment and yet another example of why I should start reading more books written by women. 

Definitely a page turner! It's an amnesia/mystery/special powers/secret organization plot with a female lead character.
I enjoyed the pace of book: it kept me interested until the end. The sense of humor is delicious and reminded me of Dr. Who.
I still don't know how to say the lead character name, Myfawny Thomas, but I really liked her! It was interesting to get to know her by the letters she wrote to herself.
But you gotta have an open mind and turn on your “suspension of disbelief” mode at full power. Lots of crazy things happen and the characters have all kinds of unimaginable powers.

Rating: 3.25 stars.
_______

Should have been called “Exposition Dump: The Novel.”

This is one of those books that had a stellar premise but was unfortunately marred by subpar execution.

A woman, Myfawny, wakes up in a park with absolutely no memory of who she is and is only guided by letters written by herself from before she was saddled with her amnesia. As it turns out, she's a person of significant supernatural ability in a secret organization whose job is to protect the world from supernatural phenomena while also keeping them secret from the general populous. The basis of this premise has been used many times before, but it's an appealing facet of worldbuilding that's led to many successful and endearing properties before.

The main issue is that this kind of setup requires a lot of knowledge to be passed onto the reader so that they know what's going on. And this leads to now of the trickiest parts of writing...exposition. Sometimes, the only way to give readers the knowledge they need about the world in your story is just through telling them in prose. And if it's written in a genuinely engaging way, I usually don't mind. In fact, I think learning about an interesting world can be fun.

In this book, it is not fun. Much of the exposition we are given through Myfawny's letters from before she got amnesia. It's a very cool setup that's dampened by the fact that these letters go on for pages. They make up entire chapters in some cases. The letters that detail was Myfawny was doing before she got amnesia and are tied to the plot are kind of interesting, at least. But half of them are just info-drops on certain individuals, about the Chequey organization, things like that that aren't connected to the plot. It brings the story to a grinding, uninteresting halt. And it's a shame because I already think the book has pacing issues, where it feels like the plot plods along in the early-mid section of the book before suddenly ramping up around the 60% mark, and then slowing down in favor of a subplot of introducing another character to Myfawny before ramping up once more around the 80% mark.

It also doesn't help that Myfawny in general is one of those clever and snarky protagonists. She always quipping about things, likes to make nonchalant comments in tense situations, and has skewed priorities (asking for coffee during important operations). These kinds of characters, I find, are very hard to write well. I've only seen them pulled off a handful of times. Most of the time, they're just incredibly annoying and also hurt the atmosphere in a book. How am I supposed to take anything seriously in this book when the character doesn't themselves? How am I supposed to find weight in anything that happens in the story when the character is treating it like a big inconvenience?

It's really too bad because there are some really cool concepts in here. Some of the characters, like Gestalt, were a fascinating character concept that I thought was interesting to see fleshed out. The main villains of the book (no spoilers) had some great, visceral descriptions going for them. Ingrid was cool. Alrich was also kind of cool. There was one part in the book that got a genuine chuckle out of me and I thought was kind of legitimately clever and not the artificial cleverness the book tries to make us think (won't put details because of spoilers).The last part of the book where the plot ramps up did kind of have me hooked and I read through it pretty fast.

This book has a sequel, which makes sense considering how the book ended. Too bad I'm not interested in continuing.

★★★ out of 5 – See this review and others at: spikegelato.com/2016/08/03/review-the-rook/

Summary: Myfanwy Thomas wakes up with her memory wiped clean. The only hints into her secret agent past life are letters written by herself...to herself. These letters help her rediscover her identity, while also assisting her in solving the mystery of a saboteur in her midst.

Review: Daniel O'Malley presents a witty voice and engaging book structure in The Rook. All characterization of Myfanwy Thomas, the protagonist and narrator, is told through letters interspersed throughout the narrative. This serves as a real-time glossary for both the reader and the amnesiac main character. It provides amusing and detailed backstory without the traditional interwoven exposition. It is within these letters that O'Malley's storytelling really shines–filling in details splendidly. In a strange way, I ended up losing my investment in what was happening in the main narrative because the letters were more compelling.

My biggest criticism of this novel was the length. It would've benefited greatly from being about 150 pages shorter. This sort of book deserves to be consumed quickly, and the length made quick consumption prohibitive. The recently released sequel, Stiletto, is 100 pages longer than this one, so that presents a challenging barrier to entry. I hate to judge a book based on it's length (I'm always happy to do it based on it's cover), but it factored into my level of enjoyment so it's certainly hard to ignore.

This tale takes place in a modern world, like our own but where the Supernatural is real. It is a fun story with a bit of mystery, a bit of the super spy, some humor, and a bit of fantasy. In my opinion, the male author does a pretty good job of writing from a female perspective (although, I'm not qualified to make that assessment). I do have a few criticisms, however. The author frequently interjects letters as flashbacks, but I can't imagine how the main character could always be reading the right letter at just the right time - and most of the time, the main character couldn't be reading at all when the flashback is thrown into the story. The various supernatural capabilities and gifted individuals are imaginative, but give the world a chaotic appearance. The reader can't guess what weird capability will be introduced next because there seem to be no rules and no framework for how the supernatural exists.

Lots of humor (I actually laughed out loud many times, which is rare for me) and I even understood some of the cultural references. A story with a strong female lead, which is nice; good action around the middle of the book all the way to the end. There were a couple times when the switch from one story line to the other didn't quite work in the audio but things sorted out pretty quickly.

The narrator has a very wide vocal range; getting really convincing deep male voices as well as a fairly high lead female.

This was a book that was the featured book for December in the Sword and Laser podcast and Goodreads group. I saw that the audio was available on Overdrive and borrowed it, not realizing what I was in for.

I found the story telling easy to follow and I often didn't want to turn it off when it was time. The reader was quite talented in reading the different characters and bringing them to life. I would describe the story as a X-Men of they were a British secret agency. Less action and much more intrigue, which is a plus in my book. There are a number of words that I would have struggled pronouncing, so the audio version was a big help in this instance.

A number of my friends would want to be warned of the use of profanity in the book. There isn't a lot of it, but it is there. I thought the use of it was similar to the usage I hear in day to day life.

One minor complaint I have is the end. It felt like it dragged on. It does tie together the story line and provide a stage for the next installment, but it felt anticlimactic and was the one part of the book I had to stick to it.

I am one who wonders how life would be different if I made different choices at times, and how my choices work to shape my personality. This book scratches that itch quite nicely. Further, it got me to thinking about how often I think more about what is expected of me or what other people think I should rather than thinking it through and doing what I've come to decide to do.

Overall this is a fun adventure that got me thinking about my own choices and motivations. I look forward to the next installment.

This book would be the perfect argument to prove that elite education is useless. Just listen to me. We have a lady, who comes to her senses in a ring of dead bodies, with no memories and letters in her pocket from her pre-amnesia self. They explain to her that she was part of some super secret paranormal spy agency that handles all the spooky stuff in the UK. But someone attacked her, someone with a conspiracy in the organization that's called Checquy, by the way. Our heroine, Myfanwy (pronounced like Tiffany) simply goes to work the on Monday and... handles shit perfectly. Can we be honest for a second? This is BULLSHIT. The original Myfanwy got educated in a super secret, extremely thorough luxury Xavier Institute for Higher Learning, then became a person in a pretty damn high position. There is no way some random amnesiac could handle that. NONE. I mean why do they get kids from their parents as babies and educate the shit out of them if you can just drop them in as adults and everything is even better than before? Another book with AWESOME ideas and super fun side characters, but with an author who feels like he just had these cool little bits that he mashed together into a story that has some fundamental bullshit holes. We have quintuplets with the same mind, super cool vampires, evil Belgian alchemists. And we're stuck with a ridiculous hero. Ehh... Reading the background of the others through the secret letters left by pre-amnesia Myfanwy was sweet, though, we learnt some about many of them and it broke up the main story in a way that I found nice and pushing me to read more. The action sequences were good, I enjoyed them a lot. Hey, I found even the flashback letters explaining everything, which could have gone dead boring really easily. The thoughts and dialogue of Myfanwy, though... So much annoying sass thrown around. I'm sure Mr. O'Malley is a nice guy who is interesting to talk to, with wits galore, but I could like characters without them saying something snappy all the time, I promise! I had really high hopes for this, kind of like a less annoyingly verbose version of Kate Griffin's [b:A Madness of Angels 6186355 A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift, #1) Kate Griffin https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1305861910s/6186355.jpg 6366640]. Sure, it was less verbose, but in exchange, we got some other issues that stop me from giving it a better rating. Supposedly the second book will come out this year, which I will read. If not for anything else, then just for the side characters. The book ends with a last bit that gives potential to produce a pretty interesting sequel, so that looks nice.

I'm being generous giving this 5 stars, it's more of a 4, but given how quickly I readit (I only started last night) I clearly enjoyed it. This reminded me of Sookie Stackhouse novels in style, as it was quite light, and the letters mechanism doesn't stand up to too much scrutiny within the plot, but are a good storytelling device.
A fun read, and I'm planning to read the next book

I enjoyed this book a hell of a lot more than the jacket cover led me to believe I would. It's hard to explain without giving away rather major plot points, but it's a very clever twist on both the secret government organization trope and the body snatcher trope. It also highlights the importance of effective administration no matter how super-powered you may be. In short, it's a book that glorifies the indoor nerd, and there really are not enough of those. I'd say if you enjoy characters like Baru Cormorant or Sithren from “The Dragon's Path,” you'll probably enjoy Myfanwy Thomas, at least one version of her.

Occasionally, the structure of the book plays heavy to the exposition, but I found I enjoyed reading the exposition dumps enough that it didn't really impact my reading experience. Also, the vastness of superpowers in this universe is occasionally just plain silly, but hey, that's the world we live in. I found there was only one plotline that really bugged me as feeling extraneious, The Bronwyn plot line. I don't really understand why Myfanwy would take so many extremely stupid risks over a person who is basically a stranger, and Bronwyn showing up right now feels forced seeing as no connection to the main plot ever really explains it.

Other than that, I found the book very enjoyable and hope to get into the sequel once I knock a few more updated series off my to-read list.

DNF na 36% (t.e.m. HS15)
Ik wou dit boek echt goed vinden, maar kon me er niet door worstelen.

Het idee is nochtans super intrigerend, speciaal en origineel. Het maakte me echt curieus om meer te leren, maar tegelijkertijd vond ik de manier van schrijven zo info-dumpy dat ik iedere keer weer uit het verhaal werd getrokken.

Het was uiteindelijk omdat ik merkte dat ik telkens met tegenzin het boek oppakte, dat ik besloot om niet meer verder te lezen. Misschien dat ik deze ooit nog een tweede kans geef, maar voor nu geef ik het op.

From the hype I expected more of this book. I did like it, but found it rather pulpy and unmemorable. I mean who would write letters as long and chatty as Rook Thomas wrote to herself? That was the most grating thing about it. The story itself was fun, but not earth-shattering in the ‘this is the best book of 2013' that I got from the panelists on the Incomparable podcast.

Executive Summary: This was a bit of a mixed bag for me, but the last 20% was pretty enjoyable after finding earlier parts uneven and sometimes slow.

Full Review
This book has been on my radar for quite some time, and I was looking forward to finally reading it. I haven't had the best track record with Urban Fantasy, but this sounded different enough to make for a good way to end the year.

I initially found the plot device of the letters to be interesting, but quickly grew tired of them. It seemed like just as I was getting into the present day story line, we got another letter, completely derailing things for me. I wonder if I had done this in audio if it would have bothered me less.

Eventually I did find the letters to just be another part of the story, albeit a bit unbelievable at times. I thought the character development was OK, and the variety of supernatural powers to be pretty interesting/unique. It didn't feel like a lot of recycled comic book powers, and made for some interesting world building.

This is a pretty fun/light book, but I struggled a bit through the first half or so, and it wasn't until maybe the last twenty percent where I was really into it. I'm torn on if I'll pick up the second book in this series or not. Probably not, but then I am a bit interested to see where things go next.

This is a book with a lot of good ideas, written badly. I'm not sure if that makes it a good book, a bad book, or somewhere in between.

The opening is almost a cliche: woman wakes up with amnesia and is in danger. Several other elements are well-worn tropes as well. People with assorted superpowers! Secret elite school for those people! Hell, the X-Men alone tick both of those boxes.

So, the good ideas. For starters, clichés don't mean a book can't be fun, and everything has been done before. The specific situations are interesting and novel. I am really not selling this well. I really did enjoy the read.

What I didn't like is the writing. Not that the author can't turn a phrase. But I have some specific complaints. One of them is that there are plot inconsistencies. Another is how the author writes about women. He just can't help but remark on the attractiveness of female characters (sometimes male characters, too, actually), the size of their breasts, and so on. It's jarring, and it just seems so juvenile. Maybe the biggest problem is the hamhanded exposition. A truly incredible amount of information is conveyed to the protagonist, and therefore to the reader, by way of letters from her pre-amnesia self. It's just a bit hacky. And the letters are weirdly novelesque. Not at all the style you'd expect from the situation.

At some point I think I mentally modified my expectations to be less in line with... whatever I was expecting? Literature? and more in line with the standards of urban fantasy, which regrettably never seem to be as high. By those standards it's pretty good. I am not sure why I expected more from it. I guess it's because an awful lot of people spoke very highly of it, including the friend who recommended it, whose taste is normally impeccable.

This is a book that I enjoyed and am just a tiny bit embarrassed to admit I enjoyed. It's a fun read. Just temper your expectations.