The Year of the Rat by Clare Furniss Book Review

The Year of the Rat follows the story of 16 year old Pearl who previously lived happily with her mother and step-father. That is until her mum unfortunately dies giving birth to Pearl’s new half-sister who she immediately starts referring to as ‘The Rat’. The book follows Pearl through each month after the death of her mum dealing with the grief and trying to keep her life back on track. This book was quite emotional and did make me tear up at times.

Although I did really like this book I had a few issues with some of the characters. First of all I found that Pearl was way too selfish. I understand that what she was going through was very tough and I do get why she would act so selfishly but at times especially toward the end it was ridiculous how much she only cared about herself. Though one thing I really did like about Pearl was her character development and how she really grew and changed from the whole experience. The other character I was a little disappointed with was Finn. I felt like his character had a lot of potential but he was hardly developed and was left as just a2D typical male love interest character. I do understand though that he wasn’t really meant to be a main character which was probably why he wasn’t as developed.

A part of the story that also confused me was the fact that I don’t really understand if this book had paranormal themes in it. This probably won’t make sense if you haven’t read the book but if you’re planning on reading this jut be warned that some strange themes do run through this book.

In the end I ended up really enjoying this book and am really glad that I read it. I would overall give this book a 4.25 out of 10 stars. Also if you are planning on reading this book, which I definitely recommend you do, you might want to have a box of tissues on hand, just in case.