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Heather Andrasik

English 1 Period 1

29 February 2019

The Rook Book Review

The Rook, written by Daniel O’Malley, takes place in the UK and focuses on the main

character, Myfanwy Thomas, who has recently had her memories stolen. While she tries to figure

out who she is by reading a few letters from her previous self, she must also try to keep up with

her responsibilities in the Checquy as a Rook. The Checquy is a British intelligence government

organization for the super natural, which Myfanwy Thomas proves to be apart of through her

ability to harm and control people just by touching them. Throughout the book, Myfanwy must

find out who has caused her to lose her memories, and why. Overall, the novel does an

exceptional job of obtaining the reader’s attention. It’s a book I would strongly recommend a

person to read if they like action and mystery.

One of the reasons why I felt this book was so well written was because of the author’s

ability to trap the readers with an amazing hook. It’s simple, Myfanwy has lost her memories and

the readers want to find out who the villain is just as much as Myfanwy wants to. What builds

the tension even more is the fact that the readers only ever know as much as Myfanwy does.

Whenever Myfanwy reads a letter from Rook Thomas, or meets a person from her previous life,

such as her sister, the readers are learning just as much from the experiences as Myfanwy is. This

allows us to create a special connection with the character, thus making the book even more

captivating.
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Reading the book is like unfolding a mystery; we must keep reading and gathering clues

in order to reveal who is opposing Myfanwy. O’Malley does a great job concealing who the

suspect is, but at the same time he offers a list of possible villains, and allows the readers to

question who the suspect might be. My favorite character in the book is Gestalt because the

author has done a wonderful job developing his character, and making him stand out from the

rest. Gestalt appears to hold a lot of power and is placed in a high position in the Checquay

called a Rook, which Myfanwy is also considered to be. Although I questioned the obviousness

of Gestalt being the villain, I still found myself paying careful attention to when he appeared in

the story. Gestalt encompassed a very interesting role. His supernatural power is explained by the

author as one mind controlling four bodies, and it is because of this that he is referred to as “it”

in the book.

Some books create a character’s appearance to be too straight forward; however, in the

Rook this is not the case. With each sentence that Gestalt takes part in, a new feature, or

characteristic of his, is unravelled. Just by reading the book and seeing how Myfanwy acted

around Gestalt, I was able to feel the intimidation she must have gone through being in his

presence. Just like Gestalt, the author has done an outstanding job creating the profiles of all the

other characters involved in the story. I appreciate the supernatural powers he was able to create

for each of them, and the drastically different personalities he was able to compose.

To conclude, The Rook proves to be an amazing book. It has enough action to get the

readers engaged, and just the right amount of mystery to have the readers sitting on the ends of

their chairs, yearning to read more. The book has a very satisfying ending where Myfanwy takes
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all victory. I find this book has something to offer to any reader, and I would strongly

recommend it.