a fun read

The Rook by Daniel O'Malley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I found the concept of this story compelling; a "new" person waking up in someone else's body and life situation. The modeling of amnesia in this way was pretty cool. But to me, the telling of the story felt contrived and shallow. There were a few times it almost grabbed me - the reunion with a family member for example. And there was no shortage of plot turns, action, and suspense. I did not expect it to wrap up in the way it did. But in the end, it felt two dimensional, and oddly enough, familiar. The message and method of the story seemed to me like a combination of a bunch of stories i already knew: X-Men, Harry Potter, The Hitchhikers Guide, Clue, Ghostbusters, MIB - as if they were all thrown together into a big box and shaken vigorously. In the end, the story felt too familiar to grab me afresh, although it must have been great fun to write. I really wanted to love this book, two of my Goodreads friends loved it, but i just couldn't pull it off. It's a fun read.

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