Review on The Rook by Daniel O'Malley

"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.

My take:

This book defitnetly starts with a punch. I was completely hooked at the beginning. I wanted to know what was going on with Myfanwy (name rhymes with "Tiffany") and I really curious to know if this was an amnesia case or if it were a body switching one.

It turns out that Myfanwy belongs to a world where there's an underground society that have powers. It was interesting to read about these powers and how these people affected the "normal" people in England. These supernatural beings get themselves involved into very weird situations and so many of these beings die. I found it quite funny how human life appeared to be very little to them, well at least that of the supernatural kind (civilians were priced).

I enjoyed the fact that the story follows two people: Myfanwy Thomas and Myfanwy Thomas. The first Thomas was weak and a cry baby, but she was very smart and organized. She was the one who would inform the other Thomas and the reader the history of everything involved with the story. The second Thomas is our main girl who wakes up surrounded by the dead bodies. She is quite strong and does not take any "poo" from others. Though she did have some annoying quirks, I couldn't help but admire how assertive she was.

This book is not perfect though. It has a few moments where the story stops so it could go back into the past or describe some sort of supernatural history. Some of it was good but the majority just dragged the story. This pause also made you forget what's going on in the story and made you feel a little jumbled when it jumped back to the present. Also, the ending was somewhat flat and confusing. O'Malley sets up the plot into letting the reader know that there would be a sequel but then it quickly gets wrapped up at the end. It leaves you scratching your head.

Though there were some bumps and delays in reading The Rook, it is still very enjoyable. I liked the new world that O'Malley created and I want to continue to learn more about it. If there is a sequel, I would be looking forward to it.