Backlist Burndown: The Rook by Daniel O’Malley
As book bloggers, sometimes we get so caught up reading review titles and new releases that we end up missing out on a lot previously published books. As a result, one of my goals this year is to take more time to catch up with my backlist, especially in my personal reading pile. And it seems I’m not the only one. Backlist Burndown is a new meme started by Lisa of Tenacious Reader. Every last Friday of the month, she’ll be posting a review of a backlist book and is inviting anyone interested to do the same. Of course, you can also review backlist books any day you want, as often you want, but be sure to watch for her post at the end of the month to link up!
This month, I’m busting the backlist with…
Mogsy’s Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Genre: Fantasy, Paranormal
Series: Book 1 of The Checquy Files
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (January 11, 2012)
Length: 486 pages
Author Information: Website | Twitter
The Rook was a novel that had been sitting on my shelf for years, lying forgotten in spite of the repeated calls from my friends urging me to pick it up and read it. It finally took the arrival of a review copy of Stiletto to spur me into action, because nothing lights a fire under my butt quite like the news of an impending sequel. And in reading The Rook, I learned a couple of important lessons: first, I should always listen to my friends because when they tell me that a book is awesome, they are usually right; and second, sometimes it’s perfectly okay to procrastinate because at least now I don’t have wait as long to jump into book two. So there.
Seriously though, The Rook was a bucketload of fun. I was initially a little worried when the book opened and immediately I was plunged into an amnesia-type story, as I’ve had enough experience with those over the years to know they can be hit or miss. However, the writing was clever and tantalizing, encouraging me along despite my misgivings until other elements in the story kicked in and my doubts were dispelled altogether. The intro features our protagonist Myfanwy Thomas (rhymes with “Tiffany”) coming to in the middle of a London park surrounded by bodies all wearing latex gloves. Clutched in her hand is a letter addressed to her, apparently written by herself.
Myfanwy has no memory of who she is, but thanks to the letter she is able to piece together enough of her identity to work out what to do next. Thomas (the name she has taken to calling her pre-amnesic self) was something called a Rook, a high-ranking member of a clandestine government organization known as the Checquy—kind of like MI5 except they are charged with protecting the United Kingdom against all kinds of supernatural threats. Many of the Checquy’s agents are super-powered as well, including Myfanwy, who discovers from Thomas’ letters that she is endowed with a rare but potentially dangerous talent of her own. She soon learns that someone in the Checquy had betrayed her, and in order to find out who it is she must reintegrate herself in the organization and hope that no one would suspect her memory loss while also hiding the fact she knows more than she lets on as not to alert the traitor.
As I said, amnesia stories can either work really well for me or they can fall flat on their face, and happily this was a case of the former. Although the idea of a character working backwards to recover her lost memories is nothing new, the way it is done in The Rook feels very natural and creative, making this novel feel refreshingly original. Thomas’ letters to Myfanwy go beyond simply filling her in on who she is and what she does for a living; they also expand the world-building by providing a background to the Checquy and the other people who work there. Luckily for us, before her amnesia Thomas appears to have been something of an organizational wizard, putting together a binder of information about anything and everything about the Checquy, from employee profiles to the way the agency is structured. Myfanwy gets to find out more about her colleagues than she’d ever want to know, though as the reader I was completely fascinated by some of the details about those she works with, such as Rook Gestalt (a single mind who inhabits the bodies of quadruplets), Bishop Grantchester (who can expel chemical gases from his pores), Alrich (a vampire), Eckhart (who can manipulate metal with his bare hands), Lady Farrier (a leader of the Checquy who can enter dreams), Shantay (an American Bishop from the US version of the Checquy who can turn her body into metal), and many, many more.
In addition, some of Thomas’ anecdotes about her past experiences can almost be considered short stories themselves, and while I can understand how some readers might find such chapters superfluous and distracting, I personally adored them. A few of the stories, like the one about ill-fated dragon hatching or the incident with the fortune telling duck were downright hilarious in dark, morbid ways that meshed well with my sense of humor. As well, the various letters written by Thomas often contain hints or reference overlying themes that tie into the ultimate conclusion, letting the reader play detective along with Myfanwy as she pieces together her life and try to find clues to catch the traitor.
Best of all are the differences between Thomas and Myfanwy. Even though deep down Myfanwy knows they are the same person, her pre-amnesic self might as well be a complete stranger, which is why she gave her past self a separate identification in the first place. The Thomas she knows from the letters was a talented Rook but also painfully shy, which held her back from her full potential and made her fellow Court members look up on her with pity or scorn. However, the post-amnesic Myfanwy is more outspoken and confident with her supernatural abilities, making it extremely satisfying to watch her co-workers react to her new personality and stronger grasp of her powers.
It’s true that I didn’t know a whole lot about The Rook before I started it, but still, I hadn’t expected to be so thoroughly entertained. Now I can’t wait to dive into the next book! In the end Myfanwy accomplishes what she set out to do, but over the course of the novel she also mixes herself into a greater conspiracy involving the Grafters, a group that poses the greatest threat ever known to the Checquy. This larger storyline promises a lot more to come, and I’m really looking forward to continuing the series.
The BiblioSanctum 
Mmmm… intriguing! And I like the idea of a version of MI5 dealing with the supernatural 🙂
Adding to the list, than you!
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This was nothing like I expected at all! More humorous. I think the starkness of the cover gave me all kinds of wrong ideas 🙂
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I tried reading this and got as far as the bit where the main character says “Myfanwy” rhymes with “Tiffany” and laughed my way out… Very individual, I know, but it drives me nuts when people mangle Welsh.
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I actually went looking up the name when I first saw it in the book description, and ended up on a Welsh baby forum. Pronunciations ranged from “Miffany” to “Mefanwee” to “Mevanwee” to “Miffahnway” …it seems it’s one of those names even the Welsh can’t agree on how to say, lol.
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Huh. It’s “Ma-van-wee”, or thereabouts (I’m not good at phonetic spelling). If people are confused, it’s because they don’t speak the language, or possibly some regional difference. Welsh is phonetic, but some of the letters are different in our alphabet. Single ‘f’ is ‘v’, always, and ‘w’ has an ‘oo’ sound (which gets back towards the English ‘w’ when you’ve got a ‘y’ after it). ‘Y’ varies a bit more. But the most important things to remember are: w and y are vowels, dd = th, and f = v, ff = f. C and g make more or less the same sound, too, but that’s a bit more complicated.
Basically, the ‘f’ means it is never ever ever going to sound like ‘Tiffany’ unless someone decides to spell that ‘Tivany’ (and even then, the last syllable just… I can’t figure out why anyone who knows the language could possibly think it’d rhyme with Tiffany). I can’t think of any exception to that in Welsh, North or South.
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Yeah, it does seem very much dependent on geography and accent (as a couple of forum folks did say after everyone all said they were Welsh, or from a Welsh family). I imagine the “Tiffany” pronunciation is the result of bastardization after the name was used by non-Welsh, but I really can’t imagine why any one outside Welsh speaking areas would use this name since they’d pretty much be saddling their child with name misspelling/mispronunciation issues with their teachers/friends/coworkers for the rest of their lives!
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To keep a part of our heritage? I actually hate that I have a non-Welsh name just to make things “easier”. Mind, “Rhiannon” isn’t too hard for non-Welsh speakers to parse, so I might’ve been okay with that one…
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If you are of Welsh background of course I can understand, that goes without saying. What I meant was if you are non-Welsh, ie. not from a Welsh-speaking area/background/family-especially when it comes to giving your child a uncommon name you yourself don’t know how to pronounce. Rhiannon is common enough that I see it use everywhere in the world (and understandably because it’s a pretty name! Plus, easy to pronounce) but like, Myfanwy just seems to me like an odder choice if you are non Welsh. Any time you traveled outside non Welsh speaking areas I think people could easily mangle it, and if you weren’t Welsh speaking yourself/don’t know the original pronunciation, I imagine that’s likely how erroneous pronunciations like “Myfanway rhymes with Tiffany” first got its roots. There were at least two or three Myfanwy’s on that Welsh forum who say their name that way, but as you said, others say technically that is phonetically incorrect.
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I loved this book. I’m really looking forward to the sequel. It has taken far too long.
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Yeah, kind of glad I started late. Less time to wait 😛
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It definitely sounds unique and interesting. Reminds me a little of the movie Memento.
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One of my friends said the same thing in his review. It’s been far too long since I watched Memento for me to make that connection, lol.
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Your review brought back some great reading memories! I read this when it first came out, and I think I even reviewed it on my blog, back before I was getting review copies from publishers (must go search!). I absolutely loved it:-D
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Yeah, guess it’s been a while! Even the friend who first recommended this to me says he’ll have to reread before he picks up the sequel because he can’t remember a thing, lol!
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I’m so unlucky with this book. My sister bought me one copy for christmas and well she never got it so theu refunded her and she did it again with the same problem so I think she gave up but…. I wa,e the book!!!
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Sorry to hear you had so much trouble trying to get it! Maybe now will be the right time 😀
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*trying to pronounce the name*
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Haha, good luck! I still can’t find consensus.
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This has been on my wish list forever. I must read this now!
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It is so good. So good! I went and grabbed it from the library, it’s been so long since it came out, most of them should have them available (barring everyone else trying to borrow it to catch up before Stiletto!) 😛
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I must go and take a look but I’m sure I have a copy of this and your review makes me want to dig it out – either book version or kindle! ta
Lynn 😀
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I think you’ll really get a kick out of this one!
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I’m so glad you loved this!! It’s one of my favorites – the humor is absolutely spot on and totally jives with what I find funny! I laughed my way through this last year and can’t wait to do a re-read.
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Oh my, the humor was such a surprise! Maybe it ‘s the cover, but I did NOT expect this one to be so funny. What an awesome book 🙂
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Oh, I’ve had some serious bad luck with amnesia stories. They kinda scare me know, but glad to hear this one actually works!
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I used to have the worst luck with amnesia stories, but I have to say it’s been getting better 🙂
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I am very glad you said “Myfanwy” rhymes with “Tiffany”, because I was going with something that sounded more like “My-Fanny” XD
I didn’t know anything about this, except it was fantasy, but I think I get sucked in to the mystery of the story. I like how Thomas left her letters and clues to find out what happened; I like stories that follow that lay out, but I too have encountered many stories that do that type of amnesia very very wrong.
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The book/author/character said it rhymed with Tiffany (and the audiobook narrator also read it that way) but looks like there is some contention about that! 🙂
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I vaguely remember hearing about this one a while ago, but it somehow fell off my radar. It sounds interest! Amnesia stories are my guilty pleasure so this might work for me.
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I read this around the same time I read Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny which coincidentally also uses amnesia as a way to world-build/spool out the story – I think The Rook did it better! It’s definitely a tricky storytelling mechanism to do right.
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