emreadingabook's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
eclectictales's review against another edition
2.0
I received an ARC of this novel courtesy of ArmchairBEA 2014 and the publishers. This review in its entirety was originally posted at caffeinatedlife.net: http://www.caffeinatedlife.net/blog/2014/08/07/review-the-twyning/
The author created a very peculiar world with The Twyning, a twist on your good ol’ exterminator vs the rat population. The world he created in this novel reminded me of Brian Jacques’ Redwall series and Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere with the overall gloomy atmosphere, the mysterious atmosphere and the underground world. The rat kingdom has its own society and practices that was quite complex, especially as various factions begin to vye for power.
While the characters–both rat and human–come from different backgrounds and life experiences, they weren’t really interesting or garnered my attention enough to care about the events that unfolded for then. Caz was the only character who had an interesting back story that had me really intrigued, but otherwise I honestly wasn’t compelled to know what happened next, except to know whether everyone made it through their respective ordeals.
The Twyning was weirdly interesting enough with a curious world-building involved but otherwise it wasn’t really for me. I’m also not sure if the target audience will enjoy this novel; I thought the language used was a little too stiff, more for adult fantasy, than for children’s/young adult fantasy. But each to their own. I may not have enjoyed it but I’m sure there’s some young readers out there who would relish this story.
The author created a very peculiar world with The Twyning, a twist on your good ol’ exterminator vs the rat population. The world he created in this novel reminded me of Brian Jacques’ Redwall series and Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere with the overall gloomy atmosphere, the mysterious atmosphere and the underground world. The rat kingdom has its own society and practices that was quite complex, especially as various factions begin to vye for power.
While the characters–both rat and human–come from different backgrounds and life experiences, they weren’t really interesting or garnered my attention enough to care about the events that unfolded for then. Caz was the only character who had an interesting back story that had me really intrigued, but otherwise I honestly wasn’t compelled to know what happened next, except to know whether everyone made it through their respective ordeals.
The Twyning was weirdly interesting enough with a curious world-building involved but otherwise it wasn’t really for me. I’m also not sure if the target audience will enjoy this novel; I thought the language used was a little too stiff, more for adult fantasy, than for children’s/young adult fantasy. But each to their own. I may not have enjoyed it but I’m sure there’s some young readers out there who would relish this story.
jessicafee86's review against another edition
3.0
Solid 3, not bad, but not great either. Way, way darker than I thought it would be, but it got happier at the end.
nobodyatall's review against another edition
2.0
the world building is really good for the first third of the novel, then it seemed to lose its way. nothing to keep me going to the end.
thefussyreader's review against another edition
4.0
I've never read a book about a rat before, much less one told from the perspective of a rat. I had no clue what it was about so had zero expectations going into it, but I actually really enjoyed this one in the end. I found the alternating perspectives between rat and human quite fascinating.
Top tip: Before reading, check out the glossary at the back of the book. It's not huge but it does explain what some of the rat lingo means and will make for a more enjoyable and understandable experience.
Top tip 2: To tell the difference between each chapter, there is a set of human footprints on the children's chapters and a set of rat paw prints on the rat chapters
Characters
Two rats: Efren and Malaika. One wild, one a pet.
Two Children: Dogboy and Caz. Both street kid with tragic pasts, abandoned by their parents.
Dogboy earns his small living in the rat business, either catching rats with Bill Grubstaff, or exterminating them with Dr Ross-Gibbon.
Caz is the companion of Dogboy and his very reason to keep living (not in a romantic way - she's simply the closest thing to family he has)
The Rats communicate with each other through thought, or 'Revealing' as it's called here. Efren and Malaika can both Reveal to humans as well, a skill that very few rats can do. It just so happens that Caz and Dogboy are also able to Reveal and understand them.
The friendship between the four characters is one built primarily on Caz and Malaika's love and devotion to one another. Efren regards it with distrust while Dogboy regards it with disdain. But when it comes to it, all four realise they have each other's backs. It's quite a satisfying progression of trust.
Plot
This is a book with no happy beginning, no happy middle, but an eventual happy ending (thankfully). This novel is so bleak, but not in a bad way. There were moments that I found really distressing and I considered not continuing but I persevered because I had a feeling it was worth it.
I like to try unconventional books and I've been waiting for an uncomfortable read. Something a little unsettling. The Twying was just the ticket.
A war is brewing between the human race and the rat race. The rat kingdom is governed in an impressively sophisticated way with
courts depending on a rat's skills; the court of warriors for the strongest, the court of tasters for food foragers - testing the food for rat poison, the court of spies who work above ground. It's all quite clever.
When the rat king becomes ill and renounces his throne, he takes to the world above to die in peace. One young rat, our hero of the story, Efren, does the unthinkable, he follows the former king above ground. It's there he witnesses the king captured by rat-catchers. He returns to the kingdom below to tell the court of governance that the king has been taken by the enemy.
He is sent out into the world to find the king with two loyal warrior rats, but when they return, they find the kingdom quite different.
A new ruler, and a new way of life. Those who oppose it or speak against it are taken away to be 're-educated'. Those who know too much about the truth behind the former king's disappearance are simply removed from the picture.
Efren also discovers he is a hearer; he can hear things other rats can't and he can communicate through thought with humans.
This rare ability could make or break him in this scary new rat world, so he guards the truth with his life.
In the world above a young orphan boy known as Dogboy helps the local rat-catcher collect rats for fighting pits, though dislikes the work. For extra pennies, he works for a scientist who has made it his life's work to declare war on rats.
The war between rats and humans begins and despite the tragic and disturbing massacres (on both sides)depicted in this book, this is really a story about friendship and learning how to rebuild when you've lost everything. It's about finding courage to carry on.
Setting
The best way I think I can describe it is like Oliver Twist meets Ninteen Eighty-Four meets Watership Down with a little bit of The Nutcracker thrown in for good measure.
There is a distinct Dickensian feel to the human world above and a haunting Orwellian feel to the rat kingdom below. Both worlds are cold and hopeless and utterly terrifying.
The harsh, brutality of both is described best through the quality of its inhabitants. The worlds are simply worlds, but what makes them so unimaginable is the cruelty of the people within. It's just horrible, but very well done. I've never read a book where I can say the characters best describe the world they live in.
It is never stated when it is set but with talk of cobbled streets and carriages, I'd say Victorian or earlier. Also, I can't remember if it mentions where it is set. I assumed London but can't recall so perhaps it is all left open to interpretation.
Writing Style
I found the writing very easy to read. I never got confused about whose chapter it was and I really enjoyed hearing both sides of the story. Each side is told that the other is the enemy and it was interesting to see one side, Efren, who truly believed that, and Dogboy, who didn't.
I didn't find the writing overly descriptive, but that didn't stop me from imagining these grey, bleak worlds, both very different and both utterly cold. Like I said above, the characters become the world very effectively.
The chapters were very short, which I liked. 110 chapters over 386 pages. My only issue (and it's a small one) was that I felt some chapters weren't entirely necessary and just reiterated the characters thoughts. But it didn't happen often and those chapters were only short.
Final Impression
I wanted to enjoy this and I did. It was easy to read, yet hard, content-wise. Wouldn't recommend for the faint of heart or those triggered by any kind of animal abuse or cruelty. I very nearly DNF'ed because of it but made myself continued. Very glad I did.
A harsh, but oddly thought-provoking book.
Top tip: Before reading, check out the glossary at the back of the book. It's not huge but it does explain what some of the rat lingo means and will make for a more enjoyable and understandable experience.
Top tip 2: To tell the difference between each chapter, there is a set of human footprints on the children's chapters and a set of rat paw prints on the rat chapters
Characters
Two rats: Efren and Malaika. One wild, one a pet.
Two Children: Dogboy and Caz. Both street kid with tragic pasts, abandoned by their parents.
Dogboy earns his small living in the rat business, either catching rats with Bill Grubstaff, or exterminating them with Dr Ross-Gibbon.
Caz is the companion of Dogboy and his very reason to keep living (not in a romantic way - she's simply the closest thing to family he has)
The Rats communicate with each other through thought, or 'Revealing' as it's called here. Efren and Malaika can both Reveal to humans as well, a skill that very few rats can do. It just so happens that Caz and Dogboy are also able to Reveal and understand them.
The friendship between the four characters is one built primarily on Caz and Malaika's love and devotion to one another. Efren regards it with distrust while Dogboy regards it with disdain. But when it comes to it, all four realise they have each other's backs. It's quite a satisfying progression of trust.
Plot
This is a book with no happy beginning, no happy middle, but an eventual happy ending (thankfully). This novel is so bleak, but not in a bad way. There were moments that I found really distressing and I considered not continuing but I persevered because I had a feeling it was worth it.
I like to try unconventional books and I've been waiting for an uncomfortable read. Something a little unsettling. The Twying was just the ticket.
A war is brewing between the human race and the rat race. The rat kingdom is governed in an impressively sophisticated way with
courts depending on a rat's skills; the court of warriors for the strongest, the court of tasters for food foragers - testing the food for rat poison, the court of spies who work above ground. It's all quite clever.
When the rat king becomes ill and renounces his throne, he takes to the world above to die in peace. One young rat, our hero of the story, Efren, does the unthinkable, he follows the former king above ground. It's there he witnesses the king captured by rat-catchers. He returns to the kingdom below to tell the court of governance that the king has been taken by the enemy.
He is sent out into the world to find the king with two loyal warrior rats, but when they return, they find the kingdom quite different.
A new ruler, and a new way of life. Those who oppose it or speak against it are taken away to be 're-educated'. Those who know too much about the truth behind the former king's disappearance are simply removed from the picture.
Efren also discovers he is a hearer; he can hear things other rats can't and he can communicate through thought with humans.
This rare ability could make or break him in this scary new rat world, so he guards the truth with his life.
In the world above a young orphan boy known as Dogboy helps the local rat-catcher collect rats for fighting pits, though dislikes the work. For extra pennies, he works for a scientist who has made it his life's work to declare war on rats.
The war between rats and humans begins and despite the tragic and disturbing massacres (on both sides)depicted in this book, this is really a story about friendship and learning how to rebuild when you've lost everything. It's about finding courage to carry on.
Setting
The best way I think I can describe it is like Oliver Twist meets Ninteen Eighty-Four meets Watership Down with a little bit of The Nutcracker thrown in for good measure.
There is a distinct Dickensian feel to the human world above and a haunting Orwellian feel to the rat kingdom below. Both worlds are cold and hopeless and utterly terrifying.
The harsh, brutality of both is described best through the quality of its inhabitants. The worlds are simply worlds, but what makes them so unimaginable is the cruelty of the people within. It's just horrible, but very well done. I've never read a book where I can say the characters best describe the world they live in.
It is never stated when it is set but with talk of cobbled streets and carriages, I'd say Victorian or earlier. Also, I can't remember if it mentions where it is set. I assumed London but can't recall so perhaps it is all left open to interpretation.
Writing Style
I found the writing very easy to read. I never got confused about whose chapter it was and I really enjoyed hearing both sides of the story. Each side is told that the other is the enemy and it was interesting to see one side, Efren, who truly believed that, and Dogboy, who didn't.
I didn't find the writing overly descriptive, but that didn't stop me from imagining these grey, bleak worlds, both very different and both utterly cold. Like I said above, the characters become the world very effectively.
The chapters were very short, which I liked. 110 chapters over 386 pages. My only issue (and it's a small one) was that I felt some chapters weren't entirely necessary and just reiterated the characters thoughts. But it didn't happen often and those chapters were only short.
Final Impression
I wanted to enjoy this and I did. It was easy to read, yet hard, content-wise. Wouldn't recommend for the faint of heart or those triggered by any kind of animal abuse or cruelty. I very nearly DNF'ed because of it but made myself continued. Very glad I did.
A harsh, but oddly thought-provoking book.
elephant's review against another edition
3.0
Set sometime in the past in London, an orphan boy known as Dogboy because he is good with dogs and a homeless girl named Caz become entwined in a politically driven war against the rats. Efren is the main rat character along with Malaika, his female rat friend/love interest. Efren lives in the rat kingdom in the sewers where the rats communicate by "revealing" their thoughts to one another mind to mind. Caz is able to hear the rats "revealing" and so she can communicate with them. Dogboy has two jobs - he works for a "doctor" who is fascinated with rats and helps start the war on rats and he also works for a man named Bill who supplies rats for pit fights where dogs compete to kill rats the fastest. Eventually, it is up to the children and the rats to stop the war on rats before all the rats are destroyed. I received this book free to review from Netgalley.
patchworkbunny's review
4.0
Dogboy lives in the dump with his best friend Caz. He earns pennies to feed them both by assisting the rat-catcher Bill Grubstaff. When he is offered work by a local scientist, he is soon drawn into a plot to declare war on rats. Below ground the rats are mourning the loss of their king and preparing to crown his successor. Young taster Efren, goes against the rules of the kingdom and follows his old king above ground, only to witness his capture and resulting torture. By the very man now employing Dogboy. As their two worlds cross paths, both sides are preparing to do battle.
Never has the death of rats been so upsetting. The dual narrative of The Twyning means the story is told from both human and rodent perspectives and boy, are those perspectives different. I loved the contrast in perception between the two. Above ground rats are a problem and killing them a normal every day act. Even our human protagonist is an assistant to a rat-catcher but he is never portrayed as evil. Down below, the rats see humans as the enemy (rightly so) but they also have their own social structure and governance. Their society is shown not to be better than humanity but in parallel to it. One regime may be fair and just but the next is corrupt and oppressive.
I found the rats remained rattish throughout. To get round communication problems, Blacker has made them communicate through a form of telepathy (hey, we can’t prove otherwise and real rats do use a supersonic form of communication). So no, there are not really talking rats, something their anatomy wouldn’t allow. Even their “pulse” is a real thing, a distress signal that rats send out when they need help. OK I’m starting to become fascinated by rats now!
It was interesting to see that the idea stemmed from scientific study into whether rats possess empathy. The actual study involved a rat freeing another from a Perspex box. Where there was also chocolate available in another box, the rescuer would still free the rat first and then share the chocolate, even going so far as to carry the treats over to the distressed rat! Scientists may argue over the motive for this but I think it shows that rats are capable of acting better than some humans. And that is something that’s important to the novel.
At times the tone becomes a little like a children’s book. It is certainly not aimed at children; there’s plenty of violence and at least one scene that can only be described as gruesome. Maybe it’s the effects of having a rat as a narrator, who is intelligent in his own way but maybe not to the standard of a human adult.
The Twyning of the title is what is called a rat king in the real world. I don’t think I quite understood what it was at first, imagining a sort of conjoined twin. A rat king is a litter of rats who join together at their tails, whether tangled up or through layers of dirt (and worse). These groups can have up to 30 rats bound together! Later on, it does become clearer (and actually re-reading the first chapter, I’m not sure why I didn’t pick up on it). I’m not sure if googling it is beneficial; there is a scary mummified rat king in a German museum which doesn’t quite fit the tone of the book. The Twyning is seen and some sort of sacred animal treated with respect and consulted on matters of importance to the kingdom. However you perceive the creature, its significance is felt and I did find myself worrying about it at several points.
Whilst there were aspects that weren’t perfect, I really rather enjoyed this unique and entertaining tale. I found myself tearing up in places and cheering on the rat army in others. If you have ever looked in a rat’s eye and seen a spark of intelligence, you will love this book.
Never has the death of rats been so upsetting. The dual narrative of The Twyning means the story is told from both human and rodent perspectives and boy, are those perspectives different. I loved the contrast in perception between the two. Above ground rats are a problem and killing them a normal every day act. Even our human protagonist is an assistant to a rat-catcher but he is never portrayed as evil. Down below, the rats see humans as the enemy (rightly so) but they also have their own social structure and governance. Their society is shown not to be better than humanity but in parallel to it. One regime may be fair and just but the next is corrupt and oppressive.
I found the rats remained rattish throughout. To get round communication problems, Blacker has made them communicate through a form of telepathy (hey, we can’t prove otherwise and real rats do use a supersonic form of communication). So no, there are not really talking rats, something their anatomy wouldn’t allow. Even their “pulse” is a real thing, a distress signal that rats send out when they need help. OK I’m starting to become fascinated by rats now!
It was interesting to see that the idea stemmed from scientific study into whether rats possess empathy. The actual study involved a rat freeing another from a Perspex box. Where there was also chocolate available in another box, the rescuer would still free the rat first and then share the chocolate, even going so far as to carry the treats over to the distressed rat! Scientists may argue over the motive for this but I think it shows that rats are capable of acting better than some humans. And that is something that’s important to the novel.
At times the tone becomes a little like a children’s book. It is certainly not aimed at children; there’s plenty of violence and at least one scene that can only be described as gruesome. Maybe it’s the effects of having a rat as a narrator, who is intelligent in his own way but maybe not to the standard of a human adult.
The Twyning of the title is what is called a rat king in the real world. I don’t think I quite understood what it was at first, imagining a sort of conjoined twin. A rat king is a litter of rats who join together at their tails, whether tangled up or through layers of dirt (and worse). These groups can have up to 30 rats bound together! Later on, it does become clearer (and actually re-reading the first chapter, I’m not sure why I didn’t pick up on it). I’m not sure if googling it is beneficial; there is a scary mummified rat king in a German museum which doesn’t quite fit the tone of the book. The Twyning is seen and some sort of sacred animal treated with respect and consulted on matters of importance to the kingdom. However you perceive the creature, its significance is felt and I did find myself worrying about it at several points.
Whilst there were aspects that weren’t perfect, I really rather enjoyed this unique and entertaining tale. I found myself tearing up in places and cheering on the rat army in others. If you have ever looked in a rat’s eye and seen a spark of intelligence, you will love this book.
undomiel's review
5.0
A modern-day 'Watership Down', I came across this book in The Works as part of their 3 for £5 sale, and chose it base don nothing but the cover art, and the fact it had an animal as the leading protagonist.
Such a beautifully written, gripping novel, that is at times funny, at other times sincere, other times sad, and by the end, a happy, powerful message.
Such a beautifully written, gripping novel, that is at times funny, at other times sincere, other times sad, and by the end, a happy, powerful message.
bookdancing's review
5.0
http://www.thebookbag.co.uk/reviews/index.php?title=The_Twyning_by_Terence_Blacker
athelredunready's review
2.0
Honestly, I couldn't finish this book. It's kind of astonishing to me how it can seem like nothing happened for the first hundred pages when if I were to summarize it for someone else it would sound like an awful lot has happened.
The concept is intriguing, but there are many better books about rats out there.
The concept is intriguing, but there are many better books about rats out there.