Reviews

A reasonable storyline, but also quite infuriating.

I guess it is a book of its time, but there was terminology such as "queer" and "coloured" in it which seemed so out-of-date and for a reprint of an old book I am not sure if it would have been possible to update the terminology to that considered acceptable today.

The other thing that irritated the hell out of me was that there was not one female in a position of authority - all of the women were either victims or sex objects. I found it very disturbing that a grown male teacher could be ogling two fifteen year olds on their way into school and only noticed bouncing breasts and short skirts. Other women & girls were shown in woeful stereotypes of being scared or screaming, etc, etc., totally unable to save themselves in the face of the horrific rat attacks, whilst the men were big, strong, chest beating heroes. Even the pathetic solicitors clerk. All very sad really.

I have Lair and Domain in the collection too, so will see if I can get onto those at some point, but it certainly won't be for a while

alexseekingspecfic's review

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

poucks_books's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Finished Reading:
The Rats by James Herbert
__________

⭐⭐⭐⭐,5/5
😰😱😰🤢🤯
Pages: 196
Genre: Horror
__________

"The rats may seem insignificant individually, but their collective force is unstoppable."
__________

I LOVED the book! I loved the absolutely unhinged scenes with the rats and the mutilations they created along the way!

The first thing I absolutely loved when I started the version I have of the book, is the introduction by Neil Gaiman! It really made me even more curious about the book and this is where I found out this is actually James' first horror novel, and it is a first in a trilogy?! So that was a nice surprise!

Then, I loved how the story was written, and how you get a very clear image of what is happening throughout London and how in depth James went with describing a person's life, how they got there and then how they inevitably met their gruesome death somehow. Each story in itself felt like a short story without a happy ending and I honestly enjoyed that a lot (does this make me a bad person? 😅)

Also, the rats themselves. The description of them, how different they are from the normal rats, their intelligence, their different looks and their abnormal strength and deadly bites... They are absolute nightmare fuel...

The only reason why it didn't get 5 stars for me, is because I feel like not a lot was explained about the rats. In the end, you do find out where they come from, but nothing much else was explained and I do understand, because there are other books, they can't tell you everything at once, but I would have loved to get a LITTLE more explanation 😅

All in all, I truly enjoyed the book and I can totally see why this would be anyone's favourite.

jeffcass's review against another edition

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3.0

It's a book about man-eating rats. What exactly did you expect, 5 stars? It's entertaining and rather funny but you're not going to find it in any Top 10 lists.

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