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The Rook
Daniel O'Malley
2012 · Fantasy
How it reads
The Rook is fantasy (urban fantasy, specifically), and its dominant mood is funny. The humour is the point, not garnish. It moves fast: plot-driven and hard to put down, the kind of book that carries you along even when you're tired.
It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, secrets and power and politics. In weight it's light and escapist — easy to fall into.
It opens a series. The ending resolves happily. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something funny
- you want a book that pulls you through
- you want an escape
Maybe not if…
- you need something melancholy, dark or tense
- you want dense, lingering prose
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- fantasy
- Author gender
- male
- Author experience
- debut
- Setting: place
- big city
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- funny
- Pace
- fast paced
- Tone / weight
- light and escapist
- Length
- medium
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- first in a series
- Themes
- identity, secrets, power and politics
- Ending style
- resolved and happy
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Confessions of a D-List SupervillainJim BernheimerShares: fantasy, funny mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
The Palace Job (Rogues of the Republic)Patrick WeekesShares: fantasy, funny mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced- Sinister MagicLindsay BurokerShares: fantasy, light and escapist tone, urban fantasy, fast paced
- Off to Be the WizardScott MeyerShares: fantasy, funny mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
- A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive BakingT. KingfisherShares: fantasy, funny mood, light and escapist tone, fast paced
KrakenChina MiévilleShares: fantasy, urban fantasy, fast paced, resolved and happy ending
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