The author spends a lot of time bragging (At least it felt that way to me) about spending a year observing rats in an alley, but honestly most of the book isn't really about his observations. It's about everyone else's and the way that rats have abstractly influenced things. The scientist in me got excited when the early chapters mention rat kings, and how there can be masses of rats whose tails are tangled together. I was like "wow I want to know more about this." But that is the only time it is mentioned in the book. (Not even the chapter titled "Rat King") mentions it. When this happens, when a mouse runs past my foot while out in the yard, or, Heaven forbid, comes anywhere near the structure of our house, my screams often sound like the sound effects from the famous shower scene from Psycho. It suffers very much from “first novel syndrome”. We have a rather dull everyman lead (who may be the least interesting character in the entire book, save for some unnamed tourists... and the tourists are possibly debatable). The book is structured almost like a series of short stories, with most chapters being random citizens chased/devoured by rats in a new and creative way, while our lead just happens to tie together everything together in a few interconnected chapters. The Rats was written before scientist men invented masturbation for women. That is why this book features the character of a sexually-addicted woman who takes numerous lovers before she discovers–having read it somewhere–that there is such a thing as an orgasm and that a woman can have one if she lets a man put his thingy in her and go really fast. Unfortunately the man then goes to war and he and his thingy get squashed by a tank. This makes the woman so sad that she never thinks to use her fingers, a cushion, or her twin tub on a fast spin, and she never has another orgasm again. Instead she gets drunk a lot and ends up being eaten by rats.

Six teenage thieves must rely on their criminal skills as they plan the biggest heist of their careers against the most dangerous crime ring in the kingdom.” The Rats spinoff, with the no-brainer working title The Rats, will be a prequel series set before Ciri meets the Rats in Season 3. The length and structure of this spinoff are yet unknown. Jeremy suggests she seek help in moving Timothy from an owl who dwells in the forest. Jeremy flies Mrs. Frisby to the owl's tree, but the owl says he cannot help, until he finds out that she is the widow of Jonathan Frisby. He suggests that Mrs. Frisby seek help from the rats who live in a rosebush near her. ... In the spinoff, it will probably be a little cameo as Copley wasn’t too heavily involved, we heard. Our guess is that he will have an encounter with Brehen, after Brehen fails Houvenaghel.With his third novel, the ghost story The Survivor, Herbert used supernatural horror rather than the science fiction horror of his first two books. In Shrine, he explored his Roman Catholic heritage with the story of an apparent miracle which turns out to be something much more sinister. Haunted, the story of a sceptical paranormal investigator taunted by malicious ghosts, began life as a screenplay [13] for the BBC, though this was not the screenplay used in the eventual film version. Its sequels were The Ghosts of Sleath and Ash. [14] Others of Herbert's books, such as Moon, Sepulchre and Portent, are structured as thrillers and include espionage and detective story elements along with the supernatural. Oh my, you cannot know how profound, enlightening, and intellectual the discourse is, until you read it for yourself! Do not dismiss this formidable 1971 treatise about misunderstood animals by imagining a cute “Disney” tale. If I ignore my knowledge of “animal communication”, that all species, minds, and languages are equal via telepathy; the concept of chemically enhancing brains was interesting. These artificially augmented rats and mice had clothing and books but burrowed into nature’s houses. A farmer was going to level the field where Mrs. Brisby lived, during an illness when her toddler could not go out in cool weather. She was urged to consult an owl, who.... (you see what I did there) directed her to rosebush rats. In the valley of the River Velda, the caravan of manhunters was routed and massacred by a gang of Nilfgaardian marauders. All the manhunters and male captives were killed. Only the girls were spared. The girls didn’t know why they had been spared. Their ignorance did not last long. Asse, portrayed by Connor Crawford

Side note though, and I'm blaming this one on its age: the book is incredibly sexist. If you're a raging feminist, this book is gonna make you mad with all the stereotypes.

Reproduction and social structure

I understand that it is illogical and irrational that a creature so small should provoke such terror in me, but it's true. The Rats (1974) is a horror novel by British writer James Herbert. This was Herbert's first novel and included graphic depictions of death and mutilation. Rats are pretty gross. Not the pet rats you occasionally see in cages but full on wild, eating garbage, long tailed, with yellow teeth rats. Mrs. Frisby is the head of a family of field mice. Her son Timothy is ill with pneumonia just as the farmer Mr. Fitzgibbon begins preparation for spring plowing in the garden where the Frisby family lives. Lots of gory action from flesh getting ripped apart and thousands of humans getting eat. Yeah, don’t go into this book if you don’t like some gore and more. If you like your horror with scary creatures, this might be a fun book for you to read.