Review | The Rook Is The Fantastical Story You’ve Been Missing

The Rook

By:Daniel O’Malley

Overall Rating: ★★★★

A lady wakes up in a park surrounded by dead guys wearing latex gloves. She doesn’t know who she is, how she got there, or what she should do next. Follow Myfanwy (rhymes with Tiffany) as she finds out ghosts and ghouls are real, she works for the British equivalent of the Men in Black, and that one of her coworkers is trying to kill her.

Theme Song

TL;DR:

The Rook is a little Men in Black, a little Downtown Abbey, a little X-Men and some Jason Bourne mixed in for good measure. The inspiration was obvious, but I still felt like I was reading something completely fresh, riveting and mind-bending. If you’re looking for a new fantasy series where dragons are real, people have super powers, and the British government is hiding it all from the normal guys like us – dig into the Checquy Files ASAP!

The Good

The Heroine

Myfanwy wakes up as a “new” person and has to learn how to be  her while navigating the ins and outs of acceptable behavior for a superhuman government agent, and she doesn’t always get it right. She’s believable and strong and it’s refreshing to have a snarky character to read about that isn’t high and mighty about the greater good. No cliche “I don’t trust other girls” or “I’m only friends with boys” or whatever else you can think of.

There’s A Little Something For Everyone

Like, I said – The Rook had scenes that reminded me of so many different pop culture icons, but it still felt new and fresh. This makes it great for a lot of different tastes. You like Supernatural? You British Men of Letters peeps get ready. Prefer some X-Men Xavier’s School for the Gifted? Read On. Looking for some Bourne Identity vibes. This has it! Is Downtown Abby more your style? You’ll love it. There’s even some very sly Greek Mythology references, but don’t blink because you might miss them.

There’s No Smut!

I’ve been so knee-deep in fantasies with forbidden love, love triangles, unrequited love, etc. etc. that I forgot stories without love aspects exist! It was refreshing to have the focus be on literally everything else (like hello, someone is trying to kill you, WHY would you even bother with dating at that point?). O’Malley got it right.

The Bad

It Has It’s Slow Moments

For some reason it took me longer than usual to get through almost 500 pages. I chalk it up to the lulls in the story. Some of them are necessary, but some points could have been moved along a bit more quickly.

The Ugly Truth

This is an amazing fantasy/sci-fi read! There’s a rich world, strong characters, and enough mystery to go around. I can’t wait to get my hands on the second book, Stiletto!

Talk To Me

Have you read this book? If so, what did you think of it?