Talbot, Bryan - The Tale of One Bad Rat

This is not actually a story about a rat, although a pet rat plays a pretty big role. It's actually a story of a runaway named Helen who is trying to get over being sexually abused by her father, and how she manages to make peace with herself.

Talbot has had pet rats, and he writes that rats have a misleadingly bad rep. They're actually very smart and clean, but often get called dirty and nasty, and as such, he parallels the misunderstood rats with his runaway and other victims of sexual abuse, who are often told that they are bad and dirty, when they have done nothing wrong.

The art is fairly realistic and doesn't gloss over or stylize what happens to Helen and how she manages to live as a runaway.

And, in case anyone was wondering, the rat drawings are immensely accurate! I squeed when I saw them, because Helen's pet rat is a hooded rat and looks just like Fool-rat.

I have to admit, I read this mostly for the rat stuff, even though there's not that much of it. I was vastly amused because I read this while letting my own rats run roughshod over me, and they were snuffling away and standing on their hind legs and sniffing at all sorts of random things.

So... eh, yes, it ended up being much more on the therapeutic-ness of having pet rats than on the important topic of child abuse for me. But I suspect that is a highly idiosyncratic response.

Talbot does handle the subject well, though I feel the book is a little too short -- I would have preferred more time spent in Helen's head.

Dickinson, Peter - Sleep and His Brother

Inspector Jimmy Pibble, recently laid off, managed to stumbled into the McNair House for cathypnic children, courtesy of a tip from his wife. Cathypnic children tend to be sluggish and very, very sleepy, with low body temperatures; some of the staff call them dormice. They seem to be vaguely creepy and yet loveable and tend to inspire obsession in people for some reason.

The atmosphere of this book is great; it's slow and creepy and draws you in little by little. I particularly liked the portrayal of the cathypnic children; some of the characters in the book become enamoured of the idea that they are somehow telepathic and that Pibble may be a telepathic sender.

Unfortunately, I seem to do very badly with any sort of mystery when they don't involve characters that I like or find myself drawn to. That, plus my current inability to keep track of complex plot (or possibly I was always unable to do so?), made reading this very difficult.

The plot honestly isn't that complex, but the small hints and tips that make a mystery are entirely too subtle for me, and I ended up not picking up on any of them. I ended up having to reread the entire middle of the book because I had no idea what was going on, but I lost track of who was who and what their motivations were on the second time round as well.

I'd probably rec this to people who were a fan of claustrophobic mysteries in which nothing is quite solved, but alas, I don't seem to be one of those fans.

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rachelmanija's review