English language
Published Jan. 30, 2012 by Little, Brown and Co..
incredible good book, started weird, got better and better in the end. A kind of secret treasure, and all that without romance in it. This was like the Korean Drama Iris in very british + some Neil Gaiman Paranormal Magic thrown in.
"Dear You,
The body you are wearing used to be mine."
All I needed was that one line, read on Tor.com, and I immediately went out and got this book.
It's like it was written for me. People with bizarre, esoteric powers. A secret agency in charge of monitoring supernatural events. Dry British humor. Extremely good gender representation, and a pretty good stab at race representation too. All it needs is an appendix of agent dossiers and it would be perfect (hint: ideas for a special edition? I'd buy it!)
It has some first novel stumbles — scenes where the text becomes overly descriptive where it should have been curt, other scenes that end a little too abruptly despite their importance. Scenes where characters expound in ways that don't entirely make sense unless they know Myfanwy is amnesiac, which they don't (looking at you, Frau Blümen).
Overall, though, this book …
"Dear You,
The body you are wearing used to be mine."
All I needed was that one line, read on Tor.com, and I immediately went out and got this book.
It's like it was written for me. People with bizarre, esoteric powers. A secret agency in charge of monitoring supernatural events. Dry British humor. Extremely good gender representation, and a pretty good stab at race representation too. All it needs is an appendix of agent dossiers and it would be perfect (hint: ideas for a special edition? I'd buy it!)
It has some first novel stumbles — scenes where the text becomes overly descriptive where it should have been curt, other scenes that end a little too abruptly despite their importance. Scenes where characters expound in ways that don't entirely make sense unless they know Myfanwy is amnesiac, which they don't (looking at you, Frau Blümen).
Overall, though, this book is extremely good. I really loved the format, jumping between present-day action and the informative letters from past-Myfanwy to her future self. I liked the characters, and I liked that even the most brief walk-ons were fleshed out enough that I felt sad at their deaths. No faceless cannon-fodder agents in this novel.
If you're a fan of X-men and Torchwood, or just good genre-crossing spy and mystery novels, you'll like this one. I hope O'Malley's working on his next because I'm going to snap up whatever he writes.
