Springcleaning – Book 15 “The Regional Office is Under Attack” by Manuel Gonzales

The Regional Office is Under Attack by Manuel Gonzales is a book that I have often seen recommended and I assume that at some point I bought it in a secondhand bookshop somewhere – I can’t remember when or where. It certainly is one of the strangest books that I have read this year and the author is very imaginative, although I am not quite sure that this book really works for me. I did enjoy it though.

The main characters in the story are teenaged girls but the book is not a Young Adult title. The Regional Office of the title is a secret, underground bunker which trains young women to fight evil and to thwart those trying to take over the world. The story doesn’t show us the activities of the Office, how the operatives are so successful or what techniques they use. There are references to magic, interdimensional beings, foretelling the future via oracles, and other worlds but this is not the focus of the book which concentrates on what happens when the Office is attacked by a force of other young women who have been trained by disillusioned operatives of the Office – we really don’t understand why they do this or what their aim is, although there are hints.

There are two main narratives. That of Sarah, who is in the Office when it is attacked and who has a replacement, mechanical arm which is important in the story, and that of Rose who is one of the attackers. The viewpoint switches between these two characters and also between their past, when they were recruited, and their present. Other information is given to us in the form of a report which has been compiled long after the events are over and which fills in some gaps but also offers some alternative views about what happened and why. In the middle of the book there is also an eye-witness account by someone in the building when it is attacked. The story is, therefore, told in a series of short bursts, switching from the past, to the present and then to the future, and from lots of different angles. Although this sounds confusing I actually found it quite easy to follow and it’s a credit to the writer that he kept all the strands separate and made sure that every section added to the overall story.

Having read this book I still don’t know what to make of it. I thought the idea was clever and that the author managed to bring the whole narrative to a conclusion. I thought that there was a lot of great writing in how the individual characters handled their situations. I thought it was a fascinating idea for a novel. What was missing, for me, was all that detail that the author only hints at. I wanted to know so many things about the Office, the world in which it worked and the characters. I was left with a lot of questions which meant that, ultimately, the book wasn’t a totally satisfying read. It was bonkers, clever and unusual but I needed more than the author was prepared to give.

My copy of this book is in reasonable condition and I shall pass it on via a charity shop.