Shannon's Library

LET’S GET EXCITED ABOUT THIS BOOK!

Eight hundred years in the future, Paris is on the brink of a revolution. All those who oppose this new revolution are arrested and brutally executed. Some prisoners, however, escape the guillotine with the help of a mysterious figure, who leaves behind a red-tipped feather in their empty cell. This action-packed, adventure story is a post-apocalyptical reimagining of “The Scarlett Pimpernel,” and it could not be more fun! If you are in the mood for a swashbuckling good time, read this book! My full review is below. After reading the book and my review, please leave a comment so we can talk about how fun this one is!

Shannon’s Rating — PG-13 (the bad guy is creepy enough to stop me from giving it a PG rating)

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LET’S TALK ABOUT THIS BOOK!

I have to be honest. This book sat on a shelf in my library for probably a year before I read it. I’m not sure why. I think I just kind of forgot about it. I originally bought the book because I’m a big fan of Sharon Cameron’s book, “The Forgetting.” Anyway, I ended up lending “Rook” to a friend of mine who loved it and couldn’t believe I hadn’t read it yet. I finally picked it up and it was such a fun read! If I’d taken the time to look at the plot of the book before shelving it and dooming it to gathering dust for a year in my library, I’m certain I would have read it immediately.

Here’s the plot… (and tell me if it doesn’t convince you to immediately go and read this book!) The story takes place 800 years in the future after an apocalyptic event has wiped out civilization as we know it. A slight shift in the magnetic poles of the earth occurred, causing a catastrophic loss of life from both sun radiation and the complete collapse of all technology. Paris and London are two of the surviving cities. Paris is undergoing a revolution of sorts. The wealthier, upper-class members of society are starting to use their resources to bring back technology. A faction of the lower-class society has started a revolution to curb these technological advances. The wealthy families are being hunted down, thrown into prison and beheaded at the guillotine. Meanwhile, a mysterious figure has started rescuing families that have been sentenced to death and sneaking them across the channel to safety in London. This person leaves behind a red-tipped rook feather as a calling card and is known to use all manner of tricks and disguises to pull off these rescues.

 So…is this starting to sound familiar yet? Yep. Rook is a post-apocalyptic reimagining of “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” by Baroness Emma Orczy.  How great is that?! “The Scarlet Pimpernel” has always been one of my favorites of the “classics.” It has romance, spies, daring rescues, a beautiful heroine and a handsome hero. Rook, has all of these same elements but in an updated, more modern and accessible way.

I love Cameron’s book dedication at the very front of the novel. Very simply she says, “For the lovers of story.” Then at the end of the novel in her Author’s Note she says, “Being swept away by story can be powerful, sometimes life-changing, and I think the adventure and heroism of books like The Scarlet Pimpernel are the essence of what story is. So the novel that became Rook is not so much a retelling as it is an homage…Rook is a tribute to story.”

And what a story it is!  I think it was quite genius how Cameron found a way to write a story that takes place far into the future but in a world without technology. Without technology, the societies in which “Rook” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel” take place are very similar. There are sword fights, parties with billowing dresses and corsets, wigs, horses and carts, and of course, the guillotine. Both “Rook” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel” begin their stories with the hero saving a family from the guillotine. Both heroes use deception and disguises to accomplish this act. But right away, readers will realize a big difference. In “Rook,” our hero is a female, Sophia Bellamy. I love this twist! While I loved Marguerite St. Just in “The Scarlet Pimpernel,” she missed out on most of the exciting action in the story because she was a female. This is absolutely not the case with Sophia. She sword fights, scales buildings, climbs roofs, gets stabbed, and still manages to appear at her fancy balls dressed and ready to act the part of a submissive fiancé. I’m all about a heroine who sews explosives and knives into her dress folds and lock picks into her gloves! Although I loved Sophia the most, Rene Hasard, her male counterpart is equally intriguing. He also gets to play a part in the author’s reimaging of “The Scarlet Pimpernel.”  In the original novel, The Scarlet Pimpernel hides his true identity by playing the part of a bumbling idiot or “an empty-headed nincompoop!” Rene gets to play this type of character in “Rook.” While Sophia is the actual Red Rook, Rene also has his secrets that he is hiding both from Sophia and the society around them. I won’t give away any spoilers, but Sophia and Rene are equally as loveable as Sir Percy Blakeney and Marguerite St. Just in “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” You will find yourself rooting for them, loving them and anxiously hoping that they will get the happily-ever-after they deserve.

My favorite scene in the novel is when Sophia shows Rene a few scraps of paper that her grandfather found in the walls of their home. The scraps contain writings from the original novel, “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” It’s from these scraps that Sophia gets the idea to rescue those families in prison awaiting the guillotine and to leave a red-tipped feather in their place. As Rene ponders all of this he asks, “Have you ever thought that perhaps all of this could have happened before? That the people of the Time Before, no matter how weak we think them, that they were only making the mistakes of their ancestors, and that we, in turn, are only making the same mistakes as them? Technology or no? That the time changes but people do not, and so we are never really moving forward, only around a bend? That the world only ever turns in circles? Do you think that could be so?” Sophia replies, “I don’t know. But even if that’s true, then don’t you think there is always someone who can change it? Who can break the pattern? Or could try? If they choose to?” Of course, Sophia and Rene choose to stand up to the evil happening around them, like the true hero and heroine that they are, and it makes for a fun-filled ride for us readers along the way.

“Rook” is an action-packed adventure filled with twists and turns that will keep the reader guessing.  It is a story with witty banter and lots of comedic scenes that had me laughing out loud.  It is a quintessential romance filled with misunderstandings, mistrust and eventually true love. Sharon Cameron set out to write this novel as a tribute to storytelling and I absolutely believe she accomplished just that!