The shame, the dishonor of it all. Life is surely a deceiving harlequin who makes promises of joy and love but upon her embrace she thieves away your every possession. That is much how I have felt over the course of these past couple weeks. I think I have thrice complained about my lack of time to write reviews and regularly check in with you fine people. That is because my final quarter of university study has proven to be riddled with expository duties so horrendous that they would bring even the most seasoned of scholars to a whimper. I feel a bit jostled by the amount of essays I must write. Kind of like this…

And the worst of it all is, I have finished reading The Rook but I will not be able to write a review for it, sharing the fate of The Passage. Oh sad times. I will keep updating everybody on the cool new stuff going on in the literary and film world around me but it will have to be in short tidbits. My infinite apologies. If I may offer some words of encouragement to my fellow readers, please DO read The Rook and The Passage. If I cannot officially review them, at least I can urge you to read these fantastic books. 

12 months ago

I Don’t Know How To Read: The Rook

Okay, let us be honest- I actually do know how to read. Hence why I am able to dish out these posts in nothing flat while listening to an obnoxious techno band from New York without losing brain cells. Yeah, I’m kind of awesome, didn’t you know? Anywho, I purchased a book a few weeks back, just around the time I was being caved in by textbooks for my spring quarter classes (finished in three weeks!). This book is known as The Rook by Daniel O’Malley. And let me tell you- amazing.

If any of you have read Hellboy or BPRD (which are comic books for the non-graphic novel-ly educated bunch) you will be at home with this book. It is a supernaturally themed novel that spans between the action and mystery genres. In many ways it is like a discreet James Bond novel with superpowers. But the narration is excellent and the characters are diverse, not speaking solely about their powers either. What is amazing is how there are technically two different protagonists but they are the same person. I won’t explain how that works, go read it. I am only half way through but I can already say this is one of my favorite books of this year if not ever.

1 year ago