Book 45 The Rook

 

The Rook by Daniel O’Malley fulfilled the category “A DNF from your TBR List” for the PopSugar 2021 Reading Challenge. I received a recommendation for this title at least five years ago. I started it but put it away for some reason. A quarter of the way into the novel, I realized why I never finished. It is the perfect example of showing, not telling.

The Rook places us inside a secret British government agency that polices paranormal activity in the British Isles. No, this isn’t another Lockwood and Co story and does not star Thursday Next. Instead, our main character is a bureaucrat who finds herself without memory in the middle of a murder and invasion plot. Her group is called the Checquy, and they base their leadership on the chessboard. Myfanwy (pronounced Miff-ann-ey) is a Rook. She must hide her lack of memory, find out who tried to kill her, and save the world.

Sounds fantastic, right? Many members of the Checquy have superpowers, and most are unique. It’s like the author thought long and hard about interesting ways to expand human capabilities. For example, a set of quintuplets only have one consciousness between them—four bodies, one brain. Cool, right?

Yeah, well…

The book is 504 pages, 250 of which are exposition. The author explains what happened in the past to set up Myfanwy’s current situation. We listen to her own diary entries, stories from other characters, and long history lessons. I get that Mr. O’Malley must build the world he threw amnesia-stricken Myfanwy into. But really, the wonderful story suffered from the pages and pages of explanations. It was great that he switched from third person to first person to do the diary entries, but other characters droned on and on. Even my hubby, who listened to five hours of the seventeen. commented the amount of explanation in the book.

Also, I had a hard time finding some things believable. I can buy a man who can melt metal and reshape it into any form with his hands or an old woman who can speak to others in dreams. The diary of the pre-amnesia (PA) Myfanwy is supposed to be from a perfect bureaucrat, well versed in proper procedure. If that was the case, I think she would have spilled the information the new Myfanwy needed immediately, instead of writing tons of letters. If PA Myfanwy really was super-efficient at conducting strikes against supernatural enemies, she would have reported in the first letter. Yes, I know—plot. Honestly, with inconsistent characters and miles of explanation, I was disappointed in the telling of the story.

Just to mess me up even more, the audio was read by the same woman who read all the Thursday Next books. I got a bit confused why the book wasn’t better. Then I remembered Jasper Fforde didn’t write it.

So, The Rook was an interesting read with a great premise and interesting ideas. But if you want your supernatural government agencies to rule by action, rather than explanation, you might want to try another series.

I give The Rook by Daniel O’Malley Four Psychic Ducks, just for effort.