I have a feeling my next few reviews are going to be entirely James Herbert based!
The Rats by James Herbert is the the first book ever penned by the author. Based in London (like all of JH books I've read so far) where giant mutant rats with a zombie like desire and hunger for human flesh invade, no one is safe.
There are some rather shocking parts where I audibly said "he wouldn't" making reference to an up coming death scene, short answer is - he would! When it was first released in 1974 is was harshly criticised for its gore and poor writing style. I feel its stood the test of time well and JH did like to push boundaries to what was acceptable in a book. As for the writing style- I didn't notice, but I wouldn't know bad writing if it slapped me in the face.
The book is centred around Harris who is a school teacher come hero. All 3 of JH books I've read have had an unlikely male hero as the main role, an everyday guy who is in the wrong place at the wrong time. Let's just hope some of his later books might feature a strong female character, I'll just have to keep reading and see.
The book deals with quite a lot I feel, its not just a one man hero. It goes into the politics of how such a problem should be dealt with. It focuses on one particular politician who wants to save London and his political career. So its far more than a how can I kill people next kind of book.
At 181 pages it is quite short but I don't think it needed to be longer. There are two sequels which I've not read but haven't read great reviews either, still I'm interested enough to probably pick them up at some point.
If you like horror and gore, this is the book for you, with it being so short you could probably read it in a couple of days anyway!
I give it 4 out of 5.
Enjoy
