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.

She soon learns that she is a Rook, a high-ranking member of a secret organization called the Chequy that battles the many supernatural forces at work in Britain. She also discovers that she possesses a rare, potentially deadly supernatural ability of her own.

In her quest to uncover which member of the Chequy betrayed her and why, Myfanwy encounters a person with four bodies, an aristocratic woman who can enter her dreams, a secret training facility where children are transformed into deadly fighters, and a conspiracy more vast than she ever could have imagined.

Filled with characters both fascinating and fantastical, The Rook is a richly inventive, suspenseful, and often wry thriller that marks an ambitious debut from a promising young writer.

For the Reading Challenge(s):
2024 52 Book Club Reading Challenge (Prompt #29: Published in a Year of the Dragon)
2024 Finishing the Series Challenge
2024 Audiobook Challenge
2024 Library Love Challenge

The Reason

This book is a reread, and apparently I first read it in 2014, that’s ten years ago! I loved it when I read it back then, but the next books in the series weren’t out yet, and then I forgot about it for a while. The third book was released in 2022, which reminded me how much I enjoyed the first, and I wanted to reread it before moving on to the next two books since I’ve forgotten all the details.

The Quotes

“Yes, Minister, it turns out that there was a mysterious force that caused that plane to crash. We call it gravity.”

“Now, do you mind telling me why you have all these guns lying around? Are you afraid the paperwork will rise up against you?’
‘Oh, no. I’m going to use the guns as paperweights.”

“Checquy statistics indicate that 15 percent of all men in hats are concealing horns.”

“She felt a little pang of fondness for the woman who’d lived in her body. You couldn’t help liking someone who put all this effort into making you feel welcome.”

The Narrator

Susan Duerden. I had a little trouble with this one at first because she’s got a certain kind of inflection that she repeats over and over again, which makes the narration sound weird to my ears. Everything else was great though; the clarity, the volume, and so on. It was just this one thing. However, I did eventually get used to it and didn’t notice it anymore once I got into the story.

The Characters

Myfanwy Thomas is the main character, and she’s interesting because she’s lost her memory, but it’s presented as if she’s a new soul inhabiting another person’s body. It’s very intriguing. I love seeing her grow into herself, and discovering who she is. I like the comparison of her new personality and her old, and seeing that through the expectations of people who knew the old personality.

Rook Gestalt is only one person with four bodies. Yes, you read that right. The book uses “it” for reasons expressed in the book, but it was written in 2012, and I will use “they” to refer to Rook Gestalt. They have three male bodies and one female body, and two of the male bodies are identical twins.

There are several other very interesting characters in the book, but I had to mention Rook Gestalt because a single person with four bodies is just too good a concept, and hopefully that’s enough to make people want to read this book!

My Thoughts

I love the lost memory trope, especially when there are assassins after you, and you have to figure out who you are, what is going on, and who you can trust. I also love the supernatural aspects of the book, the worldbuilding, the different powers the characters have, and finding out how they work. There’s so much mystery and suspense, and also badassery. It’s just so good.

My Feels

The second time reading it was just as wild as my first ride! I’d forgotten a lot, so I didn’t know who the bad guys were and had fun discovering it all over again. There were some gory parts, and it got really thrilling near the end as well, but it was really good pacing overall. Things kept happening, Myfanwy kept discovering new things, and I was kept well on the edge of my seat.

My Rating

5/5 stars. Same as before! I can’t wait to start on the next book!

Have you read this book? Would you read this book? Did you like the book or do you think you would like it?