“Dear You, the body you’re wearing used to be mine”// Review of “The Rook” by Daniel O’Malley

Title: The Rook (Chequy Files #1)
Author: Daniel O’Malley
Genre: Supernatural/mystery
Date Read: 16/09/2016 – 20/10/2016
Rating: ★★★

Review:

This book came highly recommended to me by fellow public service friends and colleagues, who touted its basis as “a supernatural public service”. And while it certainly was that, I did find that after a while, there was too much bureaucracy and not enough real action to hold my interest overall.

Myfanwy Thomas wakes in the rain surrounded by dead bodies, with no memories but a note in her pocket telling her who she used to be. She learns she is a Rook in a secret organisation known as the Chequy, which protects the people of the United Kingdom from supernatural threat. As Myfanwy tries to navigate the Chequy based on the notes that her predecessor left her, as well as trying to work out who is trying to kill her and who might have infiltrated the organisation.

Myfanwy is an interesting character in and of herself. While she has no memories of who she used to be, she still develops a fairly solid personality. The letters her past self left for her provide information about the organisation and other figures within. There was also evidence of a conspiracy that past!Myfanwy chronicled for memory-less-Myfanwy to continue investigating. Sometimes these were a bit too info-dumpy, but other times they fit well into the narrative.

The Chequy itself is set up very well, though to be honest, I did not find it easy to differentiate between most the characters, and the revelation at the end about who the traitor was didn’t mean much because I couldn’t remember who that person was.

While the author is Australian, he spent a significant amount of time living in America, and a lot of Americanisms snuck through, which was annoying in a book set in London. The language switched between “ass” and “arse” and the Brits were putting cream in their tea while talking on their cells. Little things, but they pulled me out of the story. I would also say that I got a much more sci-fi vibe from the whole thing than supernatural, so I was sort of put off by expecting one genre and getting another.

To be fair, I probably didn’t do the book many favours by reading in between other ones. It was borrowed by a friend and so it got put aside for library books and ARCs that had closer deadlines. It is possible that if I had read it over a shorter amount of time, I might have had a better experience. As it is, I probably won’t worry about reading the sequel.

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Book Review: The Whispering Skull by Jonathan Stroud

Title: The Whispering Skull (Lockwood & Co. #2)
Author: Jonathan Stroud
Genre: YA/Urban fantasy/Supernatural
Date Read: 28/8/14 – 30/8/14
Rating: ★★★★★

Review:

Last fortnight, I posted my review of The Screaming Staircase, the first book in the Lockwood & Co. series. I gave it four stars, and I expected this one to be at much the same level; to my surprise, this one was even better!

After what should have been a routine mission in a haunted cemetery goes wrong, Lockwood and Co. are trying to track down a very powerful and very dangerous psychic magic mirror which is connected to one of the most terrifying ghosts any of them have encountered. George is especially affected, but Lockwood and Lucy don’t really notice his new obsession with the magical mirror, as he’s always getting obsessed about something. Meanwhile, the skull that spoke to Lucy at the end of the previous book has finally started talking again. It seems to want to help them, but only to a point. And to make matters worse, not only is solving this case a race against time to protect the world from the mirror’s power, it’s also a matter of pride, as Lockwood has turned it into a contest between them and rival agents, Quill Kipps and his group.

In this book, Stroud expands on the alternate version of the UK that he established in The Screaming Staircase. We learn about relic-men, who scour graveyards and other possible Source locations for psychic items to sell to collectors on the black market. One of these, Flo, is a friend(sort of) of Lockwood’s, and helps him out from time to time, including on this case. I loved Flo’s unapologetic abrasive attitude, and that she was willing to be paid in liquorice. We also get to see inside the Fittes Agency and meet Penelope Fittes, granddaughter of the great Marissa Fittes, who founded the agency and wrote many of the books all agents rely on, whether they work for Fittes or not. It seems Penelope is involved with some suspect figures, but the exact nature of that we have yet to learn. While Lockwood remains almost frustratingly mysterious, we do get to learn more about both Lucy and George.

The action is fast-paced and, given the nature and target audience of the book, just the right amount of scary. I sadly didn’t have the same opportunity to stay up all night reading as I had with the first book, but I did find myself itching to go back whenever I had to put it down (like, you know, at work and stuff) because no matter where I left it, there was always something exciting going on. I read the Kindle version, which came out at the end of August. The print version only came out on September 16, so I know I’m going to be sitting about for a while with this problem:

Ah well. I’m pretty sure it will be worth it.

Book Review: The Screaming Staircase by Jonathan Stroud

Title: The Screaming Staircase (Lockwood & Co. #1)
Author: Jonathan Stroud
Genre: YA/Urban fantasy/Supernatural
Date Read: 07/08/2014 – 08/08/2014
Rating: ★★★★

Review:

It’s been a long time since I read a 400+ page book in a day. Well, nearly just one day, but it was only the last 40 pages on the second. Boyfriend needed to be up early for work the following day, and a) every room except the bedroom was cold so I didn’t want to move and b) the book was creepy enough for me to prefer to remain in his company and not read, then keep reading alone.

Anyway. Last year I read Jonathon Stroud’s Bartimaeus Trilogy and adored it. This book also came out last year, and I’ve been aware of it, but trying to clear out my bookshelves rather than get things from the library, so it’s taken me this long to get to it. Given how quickly I read it though, I probably needn’t have waited so long.

Like the Bartimaeus trilogy, Lockwood is set in an alternate version of London, though in this one, Londoner (and all of England, I think) are inhibited by the Problem, that is, an infestation of ghosts. The Problem has existed for fifty or sixty years now, but no one knows what caused it. All they know is that young children have a heightened sensitivity to psychic activity and therefore need to be on the front line of defence. We follow Lucy Carlyle, who has recently joined the Agency Lockwood & Co. in London after a disaster in her hometown left her alive but the rest of her team of child operatives dead. When Lucy steals an artefact during a case, it leads to them identifying a murder victim, and beginning an investigation into her death fifty years prior. Not only that, but they receive an offer they can’t refuse from one of England’s most powerful business men, which requires them to spend the night in one of the most haunted houses in England…

While the titular Screaming Staircase job doesn’t actually come into play until about 250 pages in, the novel is fast-paced from the beginning. The first chapter throws the reader into the action as Lockwood and Lucy investigate a vengeful spirit and accidentally burn down a house. After that, we learn a bit more about The Problem, about Lucy’s past, and the Lockwood company (the third and last member of which is George Crubbins, who is kind of gross and really annoying, but he is an important member of the team). From there, they deal with a ghost somehow getting into their home, an armed robbery, a debt of £60000 with only a month to pay, and finally the most dangerous case of their lives.

The quote from Rick Riordan on the front cover says, “You’ll want to sleep with the lights on!” and there were definitely moments where this was the case for me. Stroud’s world-building is great (there’s even a glossary at the back of all the different types of ghosts); he knows how to really build up the tension, and he creates characters that you really want to see escape alive, though sometimes you’re not sure if that’s going to happen.

The characters are all individual: Lucy with her troubled past, Lockwood has boundless energy but is also secretive and mysterious (he won’t talk about his parents and the house they live in belongs to him, but don’t ask about that third door on the landing; he won’t tell you what’s behind it), and George as… well. That kind of annoying one that you wish didn’t have to be there, but you know you’d be useless without him (where Lockwood loves to dive into a case without asking any questions, George can be found down at the National Archives doing as much research as he can before he sets foot in a haunted area). There are definitely hints of a romance between Lockwood and Lucy, but I’m hoping that won’t get too overpowering in subsequent books.

Basically, I loved this book. The only reason I didn’t give it five stars is because it is aimed at a younger readership and some of the actual writing itself did feel a bit young for me, and a few other little niggling things like Lucy not seeming hugely affected by the deaths of her teammates. The story itself definitely made up for that, though, and you will be able to read a review of the second book in the series, the Whispering Skull, in two Fridays’ time. At time of writing, it hasn’t come out yet, but I imagine it will be another read-in-one-night book. 😀

P.S. In case you don’t want to take my word for it, here is the book trailer. I haven’t actually been able to bring myself to watch it because it’s bloody creepy!