Why I picked up this book:

Several months ago, I stumbled across this book and NetGalley and couldn’t resist a good rat story. I loved The Secret of NIMH as a child and have a fond nostalgia for both the movies and books. So when I read the blurb for Balsara’s story, I instantly wanted it for my shelf.

However, the digital copy I received from NetGalley was broken. I loved the voice in the story, but the images had turned to black blocks jammed between text which made it difficult to read, so I originally had to stop reading around the 8% mark because those giant black boxes derailed the gorgeous story-telling.

A few weeks after my review, the lovely A. T. Balsara reached out to me and offered a fresh digital copy to read if I was interested. Of course, I leapt right on this because I was dying to know what happened to Fin and Ananda. And I made a new friend in the process. 🙂 So if you aren’t following this lovely author on Twitter, do so now.

This review may contain spoilers.

The Great and the Small

Deep below the market, in the dark tunnels no human knows exist, a war has begun. Led by the charismatic Beloved Chairman, a colony of rats plots to exterminate the ugly two-legs who have tortured them in labs, crushed them with boots, and looked at them with disgust for as long as anyone can remember. When the Chairman’s nephew is injured and a young two-leg nurses him back to health, however, doubt about the war creeps in. Now the colony is split–obey the Chairman and infect the two-legs with the ancient sickness passed down from the Old Ones, or do the unthinkable…

    

What I loved:

It’s not often I can say I’ve read a grimdark YA story, but I think I can finally add this to my list of lines. This book is very dark, and I loved it. Balsara doesn’t mess around with the themes, and gets right to the heart of what it feels like to watch those closest to you die, whether you be human or rat. Because of this, I found myself rooting for so many of the characters to survive, and yet not all of them did. It was the perfect blend of heart-wrenching that transports readers into the sewers below the city.

Nia’s character stole my heart right off the page, and then broke it all over again. As a mother, I felt every bit of her fear and pain when her children were in danger, and the fury as she fights their attacker. She had me crying in the first chapter as her story went from dark to tragic.

Fin also held my heart in his hand. He was the perfect blend of sassy and adventurous, unwilling to let even a mangled paw slow him down as he thrilled his way through life. Yet, even after a few hard knocks, his story was really a coming of age, a journey from a child living in his uncle’s shadow to a full-fledged adult able to stand on all four paws.

I couldn’t help but attach to Ananda’s character as well. New girl at school and she tries to make all the right decisions… to do good deeds, and her choices are always attached by others to the events going on in her world. So, no matter how hard she tries, this poor girl keeps sliding down – a theme so many people today can connect to as they navigate their own struggles.

Areas needing a touch of refinement:

This is purely subjective, but there were a few spots where the same scene played out from both rat and human perspectives. Personally, I thought the character emotions were understood enough to only see these scenes from one side for a more continuous story flow, but again, that’s just me and my incessant need to keep moving forward.

Overall:

I loved this book. The voice was beautiful, and I love the struggles both Fin and Ananda have to face. And not only the blurb reminded me of NIMH, but so many themes paralleled that childhood nostalgia I still hold onto.

If you haven’t picked up this book yet, do it. It’s a beautiful, tragic story, and the artwork interspersed within is stellar – offering the same feel and beauty as the Myst Trilogy did.

For my blog followers, stay tuned this Friday for an interview with A. T. Balsara. 🙂

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