Saturday, October 23, 2021

The Rook (The Checquy Files #1) by Daniel O'Malley ★★★★☆

Chyler Leigh giving the camera a gimlet eyed knowing smile
“You think I'm in a daze because you're handsome, I'm in a daze because I could crush you."
- Myfanwy Thomas

So you've lost all your memories; I have good news, bad news, and worse news. The good news is that you have tremendous psychic abilities and that you are a highly placed geek queen in a secret cabal of X-Men (non Marvel). The bad news is that you use to be a cowardly mouse no one respected. The worse news is that someone is trying to kill you. 

Fabulous premise for a book and the good news continued.

The character of Gestalt is freakiest invention I have ever read in urban fiction. If you've ever read, or googled, Gestalt psychology it circles the premise that the whole is other than the sum of its parts. 

O'Malley has made this literal with Gestalt and it is still messing with my mind. He/She/It was born quadruplets, male twins, and a boy and a girl - all one mind. Not a hive mind the way you think of individuals psychically connected with a dominant personality - no each body is like an arm of an octopus.  

Eventually, it gave each body a different voice and mannerisms to ape individual personalities - not to fit in, but to mess with you.  Shiver.

Now for the bad. This book suffers from infodumpitis and some awkward pacing.  I feel like this has to do with being a new author and a series starter.  Dead Witch Walking had similar faults, but I love that series. 

With the world building done, and Myfanwy Thomas now fully comfortable in her skin as a bad ass, this series has nowhere to go but up. 

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