Could you kill a rat knowing its blood helps to heal the sick?
The clock is ticking as the rats of Aaronsville grow wise and thirst for blood. In this suspenseful horror story, set in the British Countryside, humans must make a difficult decision when a deadly virus wipes out most of the rats used to heal the sick. After a few years, the rats that survived the virus are placed in a laboratory and bred, but when they escape, terror and chaos ensue. With the police trying to decide whether to recapture the rats or kill them, a few citizens help out to save the day.
Overall, this was a wholly enjoyable and rather fun genre novel. The main setup here, involving how the world has been devastated by a ravenous virus and a government project to study why rats are capable of surviving the virus so that the knowledge can be imparted to human safety, allows this to start on a strong note. With the detail here going in the need for the rats to keep humanity safe but slowly growing resentful enough that provides the impetus for them to go on a rampage in the town going through their own twisted brand of revenge for what gone on in the tests, the storyline here is quite detailed and makes for a rather fun dueling series of setups with this alongside the work of the town slowly being overrun by the creatures. With the knowledge about the history of rat experimentation going on while searching for the cure to what's going on and the sudden appearance of the creatures providing plenty of surprise long before they realize that the creatures are hunting and killing people, it all creates a fun, generally enjoyable setup.
That lets the book get quite a strong setup for the kind of attacks and encounters with the rats that are generally quite brutal. Starting strong with a frantic attack on a couple's farm and taking out not just them but also the other animals left behind, it all leads into later encounters where the other residents are confronted with swarms of the now-far-more intelligent beings that have a purpose for their series of vicious attacks that feature some gruesome bits of bloodletting alongside some tense and creepy setups. Even scenes of the team of survivors investigating the shattered lab, where it starts to point at the intelligence of the rats being more than what's being let on, as it's a great highlight of the main rat leaders' increased abilities that come from the trauma of their background. This does get slightly held down by the interpersonal drama about the townspeople who are going about their lives while the rats are working on the outskirts of the story, which makes the first part of this a bit wordy and overlong until it gets to the creatures, but it's really the main issue here.
4.5/5
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