Rook

by Sharon Cameron

In the Sunken City that was once Paris the guillotine rules again, while Sophia Bellamy from the Commonwealth across the Channel Sea tries to rescue as many of the revolution's victims as she can smuggle out, and some prisoners disappear from their cells, with a red-tipped rook feather left in their place--but who is the mysterious Red Rook and where does Sophia's wealthy fiancé, René Hasard, fit in?

• ISBN10: 0545676002
• ISBN13: 9780545676007
• Publish Date: 28 April 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publisher: Scholastic
• Imprint: Scholastic Press
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 464
• Language: English

Reviews

[Chelsea]

What I Loved

For some reason the main male character in this book reminded me of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. But in a good way? Very strange. I really loved him though and I’ve added him to my book boyfriend list. He was such an interesting character! You could never tell if he was lying or tricking someone (most often he was) but at the same time he could really surprise you! He really made this book for me.

I loved our main character as well. I loved that she was always underestimated for being a girl but she was still SO awesome! She would use the fact that people assumed that because she was a girl that she wasn’t strong or smart. She took that and became super awesome and saved so many people! It was really cool to read.

I also really loved the world in this book! It was as if France was back in the dark ages again. Technology was destroyed and feared but had existed at one point and there was a scary ruler who liked to chop peoples heads off. How cool does that sound??

Bonus points for not being a part of a series!

What I Didn't Love

The only thing I didn’t like about this book was that the beginning was a bit slow. There was enough interest to keep me going but I can see how some people would get bored and stop reading. (Though I hope you don’t!)

Who I'd Recommend To

I’d recommend this book to any dystopia lover who is tired of all the dystopia books taking place in the U.S.. It gets a bit tedious reading about the same kind of society all the time so this book was really refreshing for me. It also reminded me why I loved dystopia books in the first place.

[ross91]

I don't know how to judge this book. I'm kinda confused. I really liked the first part and the main protagonist. I thought I was reading a solid 4* story, but then the plot became tedious, the middle section was too long and forgivable and I really thought I was near the ending while actually I was only at 60%. The last section was ok though, so I think overall it deserves 3*.
The setting was cool but not very well explained, I liked all the references to the ancient times and all the artifacts that the Bellamys collected but the Sunken City remains a missed opportunity in my opinion.
I'm glad it's a standalone because I wouldn't have read a sequel.

[readingwithwrin]

4.5

"When all that could be expected from life was feuding, war, and the struggle to survive it. Personal fulfillment just wasn't one's top priority when the children were starving or raiders were cresting the hill. But Sophia Bellamy had not been born into those dark times. She had been born into an enlightenment, an age of privilege, art, education, living in a way that her Bellamy ancestors would not have dared to dream."

May Contain Spoilers



In this post-technology-earth destructed world everything is different. Or is it? The world seems to be repeating itself by going through the centuries of times past just with technological items falling from the sky occasionally. The time we are in during this story appears to be 17th century with the style of clothing and the little amount of "technology" being used. It takes place in the Sunken City and the Commonwealth previously know as Paris. It wouldn't be 17th century though if there wasn't some insane rulers trying to take over they're small portion of the world and using any means possible to keep the people under control.

While this story does switch perspectives it just adds so much more to the story and really shows you all sides of what's happening and how everyone involved is thinking.

Sophia Bellamy is a young lady who takes extreme risks in order to save other people. Risks that no one thinks a young lady is should be able to do or would even be capable of doing. Because of this though it makes her all the more lovable. She isn't fearless, which is so nice to see in a protagonist. She has fears and just wants to help people escape injustice. While she's doing this though she is putting her whole family's lives in peril as well as hers. If anyone finds out what she's doing they will lose it all!

René Hasard, Sophia's fiance and the person who is potentially going to help save her family from ruin. He is nothing like how you think he is in the beginning. He is such a changing character throughout the book and for a while you're going to wonder what he is going to act like next. But after awhile we start to see his true colors and what he really feels for Sophia and about the world they live in.

We also have LeBlanc who is insane there's no getting around that one. Seeing the way he thinks and what he believes the world should be like was terrifying and disgusting. He is not a villain that you can sympathize with in any way.

While there are many more characters involved including some important ones if I talked about them it would just spoil certain mysteries of the story sadly.

Every time I started to think I had it figured out who was causing, Sophia so much grief and trouble. I would end up wrong and have to start trying to figure it out again. This book has so many different twists and turns that you never get bored with it and you're always wanting to read just one more page.

There is some romance here and a slight love triangle which Sophia wanted no part of and tried to stop multiple times. The romance never became the main story line and if it was the focus for the moment there was always so much else going on that you don't mind it.


Overall I really liked/loved Rook. I kind of also wish that there was some companion novels/novellas to go along with it to show us even more of the world.

See more reviews like this on my blog!

[Angie]

I can't comment on how well Rook works as a retelling, since I'm not at all familiar with the story it's based on. But I can say that I was completely bored by it. The world is absolutely fantastic and fascinating, but it's wasted on characters with no personality and a plot that just drags on and on. It took me about 150 pages to even get settled into the story, since nothing was happening, and even then it didn't hold my interest. I only perked up when there was more world-building!

Rook did not engage me at all. Most of what I was reading simply didn't stick, and I found myself rereading many pages because I didn't know what had just happened. I also just thought the plot was dull. Sophia is the Red Rook; she frees prisoners from the cells beneath Paris. I don't have a clue why there are so many people who need to be freed though. Was it explained? I honestly don't know. Maybe it was just corrupt government, or convenience. Anyway. Her brother is arrested for being the Red Rook and she obviously now has to save him before he's executed. I didn't care about her brother at all. I was never given a reason to. This made it hard to care about the plot at all.

As for the world of Rook, it is amazing! It totally reads like a Historical, but it's actually futuristic. It doesn't say exactly how far into the future, but it's after an event known as the Great Death. Basically, there was a polar shift, solar storms killed a bunch of people, then technology failed, and more people died because of their dependence on technology. Now, machines are outlawed and humans live a simpler life. I loved when things from today were mentioned and the characters had no clue about it, or they've heard stories from grandparents and think they're ridiculous. Like CDs containing thousands of pictures and words! Impossible! It was so great!

I really, really loved the world of Rook and really, really wished some other story had taken place in it. I just did not care about any of these people! I didn't understand why they were doing what they did! Everyone is lying to everyone, or thinking everyone is lying to them. And it was just not interesting. There was also a problem with repetition, mainly with conversations between Sophia and her fiance. Their first languages are not the same and he was constantly saying the typical "How you say..." before saying anything. It got old fast, especially since she never did that when they spoke his language instead.

Read more of my reviews at Pinkindle Reads & Reviews.

[Stephanie]

I wanted to like this book so bad -- easily on my most wanted list this year. However, I have never had a book be interesting, drop into an annoying lull, then have such manic POV changes that I eye-rolled at their ridiculousness. Skip it. Just, skip it.

[shannonmiz]

4.5*

I really, really liked Rook. Like, a lot. It has a lovely spot on my "4 Stars and Up" shelf, right above my desk. So I am going to gush in a minute, but there is one thing that is stopping me from giving it a full five stars, and one thing that I think is super important for readers to know: It starts off really slowly.

The first 50 pages or so were painfully slow to me, but I kept going, because I was interested in the characters from the start. The problem is, in the beginning, there is a lot of information coming, and a lot of names too. And a lot of these names are French, and I got a little lost. So for the first bit of the book, I was bored, and I was confused, and I didn't think it was going to be a good experience. But, I am so glad I didn't stop reading, because things got really good!

What did I like about Rook, other than the obvious "set in sunken Paris" and "Red Rook saving people" thing? So very much:

• Sophia and René were fabulous. Sophia had me from the first page, I knew I'd adore her. She is strong, and brave, and basically she's pretty amazing. She isn't perfect, not by a long shot, she has her flaws. She's quite naive about so much, and she is stubborn too. But her flaws work for her, and she is believable because of them. René is... well, book boyfriend worthy. He is charming, and witty, and charismatic, and brave in his own right. Still, I was never completely sure that he was being authentic, which was good for the story. Very good.


• The other characters were amazing too! Even the more minor characters were very well fleshed out. Sophia's brother Tom and friend Spear were basically the people she'd grown up with. Tom was a good, if not particularly exciting guy, and Spear... I couldn't quite figure him out a lot of the time either (again, this is a good thing). The villain... well, I spent most of the book wondering if he was actually insane, like, requiring a legitimate diagnosis. Dude is messed up! Obviously, anyone who gets their jollies from beheading citizens is probably not going to be in his right mind but... wow. He brings it as the villain for sure! This is seriously just the tip of the awesome-character-iceberg, but I could go on and on, so I'll stop there.


• The plot is very captivating, after the initial slow start. Of course you want to know all about the Red Rook. Why is this person freeing prisoners? Why are the prisoners there to begin with? There's political turmoil, financial turmoil, and what is pretty much a guillotine. Basically, there are a lot of questions, and a lot of people who may or may not be what they seem (which, I loved trying to figure out)!


• The world is incredibly unique and has a pretty fascinating message in itself. First, it;s in Sunken Paris. I don't think settings get more unique or creative than that. This story is set years after a major cataclysmic event that basically decimated the Earth, and now, to try to prevent history from repeating, most people are very anti-technology. The setting is dark, and quite depressing, and it comes through very vividly. I love that we are getting to see a post-apocalyptic Europe too!


• The romance is slow, and swoon worthy, and lovely. Sophie and René are engaged mostly because her mess of a father is about a day away from losing their house due to some bad financial decisions. He isn't particularly concerned about Sophia in general, so it really doesn't matter to him. And Sophia doesn't trust René as far as she can throw him. This certainly makes things interesting, to say the least.

Bottom Line: Yes, it starts off slow, but give it a chance, because the slowness does not last. It is very worth it in the end!
This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight

**Copy provided from publisher for review**