lazygal's review against another edition
1.0
I started this. Read 40ish pages. Put it down. Read other books. Picked it up. Read another 100 pages. Decided I just didn't care: the writing wasn't holding my interest. The situation was too drawn out. The characters didn't interest me. DNF.
ARC provided by publisher.
ARC provided by publisher.
ramseyhootman's review against another edition
5.0
Can't afford airfare to China? Tag along with Ellie McEnroe... you'll see everything the "authentic traveler" dreams of: the back alleys, local dives, and idyllic off-the-beaten-path towns where natives still gawk at Westerners. And since this is fiction, you also get to experience the visceral thrills of Chinese intrigue, from lowlife thugs to high rollers with so much clout in the CCP that they're untouchable.
Hour of the Rat is a weird, cool hybrid - travel narrative plus mystery. Brackmann is amazing at providing just the right little details to conjure up authentic Chinese life. Having lived there for a year myself, reading Brackmann's books is just like taking a quick trip back... except Ellie is the one who gets to deal with smoke-filled trains and annoying backpackers, not me.
I enjoyed Hour of the Rat as much as I did Rock Paper Tiger - which, by the way, yes you do need to read first. This is a direct sequel and you'll miss a lot of character setup and background if you skip RPT.
Let's see, stuff I didn't like... well, okay, this is more of a suggestion: This book could really use a map. Ellie travels all over the place, hopping on a train or plane in every other chapter. Brackmann makes each locale feel different and unique (while still patently Chinese), but my very visual brain wanted a layout of the geography. Ideally, I'd have a map graphic at the beginning of each chapter with Ellie's position updated. I think it would have been a cool, helpful addition.
Also, I know it's customary for novels to skip over bodily functions, but I'll admit to wondering about how Ellie was getting around bathroom-wise.She injures her leg pretty badly at one point in the narrative, and after that rides a number of trains. About 3/4 of the way through the book she does finally use a squatty and has issues with it - but I kept wondering, what was she doing on train rides?! Especially drinking all that beer??? My bad... Apparently soft sleepers have western-style toilets. I preferred squatties, so I never noticed!
Okay, back to the good stuff. The plot is awesome because it tackles a ton of current issues with China, stuff you may or may not have seen in the news. GMOs, poisoned food, China's empty cities, pollution, etc. etc. I stay pretty current on Chinese stuff, and Brackmann has totally done her research. Even stuff that's not central to the plot gets mentioned along the way. Altogether, it makes the book feel utterly authentic.
In short: if you want to experience the shady underbelly of Chinese life, Hour of the Rat is your read.
Hour of the Rat is a weird, cool hybrid - travel narrative plus mystery. Brackmann is amazing at providing just the right little details to conjure up authentic Chinese life. Having lived there for a year myself, reading Brackmann's books is just like taking a quick trip back... except Ellie is the one who gets to deal with smoke-filled trains and annoying backpackers, not me.
I enjoyed Hour of the Rat as much as I did Rock Paper Tiger - which, by the way, yes you do need to read first. This is a direct sequel and you'll miss a lot of character setup and background if you skip RPT.
Let's see, stuff I didn't like... well, okay, this is more of a suggestion: This book could really use a map. Ellie travels all over the place, hopping on a train or plane in every other chapter. Brackmann makes each locale feel different and unique (while still patently Chinese), but my very visual brain wanted a layout of the geography. Ideally, I'd have a map graphic at the beginning of each chapter with Ellie's position updated. I think it would have been a cool, helpful addition.
Also, I know it's customary for novels to skip over bodily functions, but I'll admit to wondering about how Ellie was getting around bathroom-wise.
Okay, back to the good stuff. The plot is awesome because it tackles a ton of current issues with China, stuff you may or may not have seen in the news. GMOs, poisoned food, China's empty cities, pollution, etc. etc. I stay pretty current on Chinese stuff, and Brackmann has totally done her research. Even stuff that's not central to the plot gets mentioned along the way. Altogether, it makes the book feel utterly authentic.
In short: if you want to experience the shady underbelly of Chinese life, Hour of the Rat is your read.
virtuallori's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoyed this book and the first one in the series, Rock Paper Tiger. 4.5 for each of them. They're thrillers set in China revolving around the misadventures of an American Iraq War vet trying to put her life back together. Yes, you have to suspend some disbelief re: coincidences, characters with nine lives, and all that, but that's par for the genre. The descriptions of the country and day-to-day life there really captured my imagination; because I am only vaguely familiar with China from reading about it in some of the books I work on, I kept finding myself consulting Google Maps and reading a bit about the places she talks about to get a real feel for it. I'm looking forward to picking up her next book.
skylit's review against another edition
5.0
Very good! Great for casually learning more about places in China in a thrilling story.
lbolesta's review against another edition
3.0
Didn't realize this was part of a series. Felt like I was jumping in to the middle, but I'll probably look up the first book.
rachelreads15's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
rosseroo's review
3.0
I didn't realize this book was a sequel to Rock, Paper, Tiger when I picked it up -- had I realized, I might have given it a miss as I am generally a stickler for reading series or books with recurring characters in order. That probably would have been a good idea in this case, as Iraq War vet turned Chinese dissident artist's agent Ellie McEnroe is a colorful enough character to warrant having her backstory explained. Meeting her in this book for the first time, I was a bit lost at times as to why she was living in China, how she had connected with this artist, and why she was leery of some dude in State Security. After about fifty pages, I went online and discovered she has a whole series of adventures in Rock, Paper, Tiger that got her to to where she is at the start of this book.
In any event, this book has Ellie bouncing around China looking for the missing brother of an old Army buddy/hookup. Some of this she does on her own, some she does with her oddball mother, who's visiting from the US, and some she does with various allies she acquires along the way (including a mysterious Chinese billionaire intent on adding to his modern art collection). This leads her into a tangled plot of GMO crops and Chinese big business vs. environmental activists. The story itself is really not that interesting -- but as a vehicle for insights into contemporary China, it's not bad. The little nuggets of local details that emerge from Ellie's adventures make the book worth checking out if you have an interest in China. But really, start with Rock, Paper, Tiger.
In any event, this book has Ellie bouncing around China looking for the missing brother of an old Army buddy/hookup. Some of this she does on her own, some she does with her oddball mother, who's visiting from the US, and some she does with various allies she acquires along the way (including a mysterious Chinese billionaire intent on adding to his modern art collection). This leads her into a tangled plot of GMO crops and Chinese big business vs. environmental activists. The story itself is really not that interesting -- but as a vehicle for insights into contemporary China, it's not bad. The little nuggets of local details that emerge from Ellie's adventures make the book worth checking out if you have an interest in China. But really, start with Rock, Paper, Tiger.
ramseyhootman's review
5.0
Can't afford airfare to China? Tag along with Ellie McEnroe... you'll see everything the "authentic traveler" dreams of: the back alleys, local dives, and idyllic off-the-beaten-path towns where natives still gawk at Westerners. And since this is fiction, you also get to experience the visceral thrills of Chinese intrigue, from lowlife thugs to high rollers with so much clout in the CCP that they're untouchable.
Hour of the Rat is a weird, cool hybrid - travel narrative plus mystery. Brackmann is amazing at providing just the right little details to conjure up authentic Chinese life. Having lived there for a year myself, reading Brackmann's books is just like taking a quick trip back... except Ellie is the one who gets to deal with smoke-filled trains and annoying backpackers, not me.
I enjoyed Hour of the Rat as much as I did Rock Paper Tiger - which, by the way, yes you do need to read first. This is a direct sequel and you'll miss a lot of character setup and background if you skip RPT.
Let's see, stuff I didn't like... well, okay, this is more of a suggestion: This book could really use a map. Ellie travels all over the place, hopping on a train or plane in every other chapter. Brackmann makes each locale feel different and unique (while still patently Chinese), but my very visual brain wanted a layout of the geography. Ideally, I'd have a map graphic at the beginning of each chapter with Ellie's position updated. I think it would have been a cool, helpful addition.
Also, I know it's customary for novels to skip over bodily functions, but I'll admit to wondering about how Ellie was getting around bathroom-wise.She injures her leg pretty badly at one point in the narrative, and after that rides a number of trains. About 3/4 of the way through the book she does finally use a squatty and has issues with it - but I kept wondering, what was she doing on train rides?! Especially drinking all that beer??? My bad... Apparently soft sleepers have western-style toilets. I preferred squatties, so I never noticed!
Okay, back to the good stuff. The plot is awesome because it tackles a ton of current issues with China, stuff you may or may not have seen in the news. GMOs, poisoned food, China's empty cities, pollution, etc. etc. I stay pretty current on Chinese stuff, and Brackmann has totally done her research. Even stuff that's not central to the plot gets mentioned along the way. Altogether, it makes the book feel utterly authentic.
In short: if you want to experience the shady underbelly of Chinese life, Hour of the Rat is your read.
Hour of the Rat is a weird, cool hybrid - travel narrative plus mystery. Brackmann is amazing at providing just the right little details to conjure up authentic Chinese life. Having lived there for a year myself, reading Brackmann's books is just like taking a quick trip back... except Ellie is the one who gets to deal with smoke-filled trains and annoying backpackers, not me.
I enjoyed Hour of the Rat as much as I did Rock Paper Tiger - which, by the way, yes you do need to read first. This is a direct sequel and you'll miss a lot of character setup and background if you skip RPT.
Let's see, stuff I didn't like... well, okay, this is more of a suggestion: This book could really use a map. Ellie travels all over the place, hopping on a train or plane in every other chapter. Brackmann makes each locale feel different and unique (while still patently Chinese), but my very visual brain wanted a layout of the geography. Ideally, I'd have a map graphic at the beginning of each chapter with Ellie's position updated. I think it would have been a cool, helpful addition.
Also, I know it's customary for novels to skip over bodily functions, but I'll admit to wondering about how Ellie was getting around bathroom-wise.
Okay, back to the good stuff. The plot is awesome because it tackles a ton of current issues with China, stuff you may or may not have seen in the news. GMOs, poisoned food, China's empty cities, pollution, etc. etc. I stay pretty current on Chinese stuff, and Brackmann has totally done her research. Even stuff that's not central to the plot gets mentioned along the way. Altogether, it makes the book feel utterly authentic.
In short: if you want to experience the shady underbelly of Chinese life, Hour of the Rat is your read.
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