Review: The Rook

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A unique supernatural thriller that kept me invested the whole way through.

In one of the greatest opening scenes I've read in a while, our protagonist wakes in the rain, surrounded by dead bodies, with no knowledge of who she is and the only clue a letter that begins, 'Dear You ...'

Hook, line and sinker, my friends.

What follows is an introduction to a secret supernatural organisation where our mind-wiped protagonist, Myfawny is charged with keeping things orderly and making sure that inconvenient supernatural disturbances are followed up with all the appropriate forms - all while trying to figure out who is responsible for her current state. Oh, she also has superpowers. As do most of her colleagues.

A comparison to X-Men comes to mind, but there's no dramatic heroics here - saving the day is just a regular Monday. In fact, a lot of the humour comes from how calmly these crazy situations are dealt with. I loved how Myfawny 2.0 just had no patience - it was so refreshing for there to be more anger than fear and have her just go OFF at these psychotic supernatural beings for messing up her day. I support the new model wholeheartedly.

There's the consistent, nagging mystery of how she ended up mind-wiped, which is enough to keep you reading, but then there's also one crazy happening after another and let me just say, these are things that 14 seasons of Supernatural still did not prepare me for.

So the pacing is fantastic, with the main storyline intersected by the 'mundane' day to day business of Myfawny's position. Plenty of action, plenty of humour, and some really unique powers on display.

The characters are a lot of fun, though I did get a couple mixed up. A little more depth on some would have been nice, but there were a lot to introduce in this novel so I'm looking forward to getting to know people better in the next one. As it stands, there's still enough info to give you an idea of the personalities hanging around the office and an understanding of what drives each.

The whole thing was honestly just a lot of fun and I flew through it. It's a refreshing take on super-powered humans dealing with supernatural things, with a nice side of comedy to lighten the mood.

Keen to read the sequel!

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