Book Review: "The Rook" - Daniel O'Malley
Hi Steemians!
Back with another quick "review" today... but this time of a book I haven't even finished: The Rook by Daniel O'Malley.
I've been trying to read this book for over a week now and it just... didn't work out. The book follows a woman named Myfanwy Thomas, who wakes up with no recollection of who she is but with a letter tucked into her pocket - written by herself. In the note she's letting herself know that she knew she was going to lose her memories and so wrote a series of letters to herself to explain everything about her life. Myfanwy finds out she has supernatural powers and is part of a secret government agency called the Checquy, who's in charge of fighting against paranormal threats.
The book goes from there. She ends up finding a whole suitcase full of these letters, and every other chapter or so is literally just her explaining the world to herself in letter format... in other words, this book isn't even trying to conceal how info-dumpy it is. There is ZERO exposition. Everything is being explained in the letters or by other people.
Plus, this book is SO dull, so unoriginal and I was just bored out of my mind. I didn't care about literally anything that happened. I got to page 155 before calling it, but up until that point there was literally only one moment in the story where I thought it might be picking up slightly... but it didn't. The pace is so slow and the payoff essentially nonexistant. In the first 150 pages, she finds out about her identity and meets with a couple of people. There's a torture/interrogation and then that's it. There's zero suspense, zero build-up.
So much in this book didn't make sense to me.
I didn't like the fact Myfanway treats "her former self"... like a former self. All that happened is she lost her memory, but now she's suddenly a different person? This book is essentially saying our personality and who we are is entirely composed of our memories and nothing else, which is lazy and overly simplistic.
Plus, as mentioned above, this book is SO INFO-DUMPY. The letters the "former" Myfanwy writes to herself are literally just a normal chapter where we're dumped information on. They're supposed to be her telling the amnesiatic Myfanwy about her past etc, but even though they're supposed to be memories recounted, they are way too detailed to be believable. Like who can recount FULL CONVERSATIONS years after they happened or things like:
As I broke down into sobs, she simply nibbled her crumpets and waited for me to finish. When Sir Henry came in and sat down in his own chair, he didn't do anything either. Though he had been moved by the distress of a grown man, he did not react to the weeping of a little girl. Eventually I managed to get a hold of myself, and, wiping my nose on my sleeve, I began thoughtfully eyeing the tray of biscuits. Lady Farrier nodded slightly, and I made a grab for something intriguing and chocolate.
And that happened when this now mid-twenties woman was NINE YEARS OLD. Seriously, in what universe would anyone remember this much detail??
Holy hell, this book made me angry. How do people enjoy this? I can't say. As for me, I refuse to waste another second of my life on this gibberish, which is why I put it down and will never pick it up again.
Have you read The Rook? It has a really high average rating on Goodreads, which I for the life of me cannot understand. I read a plot summary after deciding to quit reading and honestly, this is just another paranormal-agency-fights-foes-story that I've read a hundred times over. Someone in the Checquy is trying to kill her and OH WHO WOULD'VE THOUGHT it's exactly the person you suspect from the get-go. How fun. -.-
Safe yourself the trouble and skip this one, is what I'd suggest ;)
Happy reading (of literally anything else. I mean it, the back of a milk carton would be more compelling than this)
xx
ivymuse