Rattus, New Yorkus

Creature feature in perfection!

This story does everything right: from super-scary creatures, which are already scary enough in real life, to likeable main characters with just the right sense of humor. I must admit I easily imagined Chris to look something like the exterminator in The Strain series, but I guess that's due to the fact that I've not seen that many exterminators so far. Also, I think they share a similar kind of humor, which seems to be a necessary quality in order to do the job without going nuts. It was so sweet to observe how Chris cared for his beloved, but separated, ex-wife 'Benny' Benita, and I was not disappointed to read how the story ended - he totally deserved it!

Of course, the story also featured the mandatory show more wise-ass scientist who is to blame for the catastrophe because he missed to do some field-study and made the fatal (hehe!) assumption that wild rats would behave and react like lab rats.

Finally: the rats - nasty and annoying little creatures, but manageable if encountered alone. Give them a hive-like mind and highly increased aggressiveness, and they turn into mankind's worst nightmare. I was impressed by the sheer masses of them, which enabled them to literally overrun everything the humans threw in their way - walls, fire, you name it. Note: if I remember correctly, rats featured in the first creature horror I ever read (thanks to Mr. Herbert), and I guess that left a lasting impression...

Put together, it was a pleasure to read this fine work of genre fiction and I enjoyed every last page of it. Highest recommendation! show less

I am a sucker for monster tales. Big or small, creature rampages are always a hit with me! Hunter Shea has entertained me with man eating lizards in Florida, the Jersey Devil, swamp creatures, Loch Ness.....lots of monster goodness. This time....it's very angry, swarming rats attacking New York.

Rats are definitely in my top 5 of things I don't like. Not just because they helped spread the fleas that killed millions during the various outbreaks of plague several hundred years ago, but because they are still spreading disease, biting people and popping out from unexpected places even today. I have not had the joy (note sarcasm) to meet a New York rat up close, but I have heard stories. Where I live in NC most rats invade derelict or show more abandoned homes and then wreck havoc on others who own surrounding properties. Yuck! The thought of millions of rats....angry....clawing, biting...CHASING people.... EEEEEKKKKK!

The basics: A well meaning scientist creates a new bait for rats which is supposed to sterilize them, preventing them from breeding and increasing the rat population. He gets an exterminator to test the new product on several locations in New York so they can track its effect on the rat population. Unfortunately, the chemical just makes the rats super aggressive, violent and seemingly even more intelligent than normal. New Yorkers are resilient, but what will they do when faced with millions of Super Rats?

I enjoyed this story! Very creepy and just an entertaining fun read. At 112 pages Rattus New Yorkus is an afternoon's entertaining creepy read. I sat on my porch with a big glass of iced tea and let myself just enjoy being creeped out by a story about rats. Lots of Rats. Angry rats. Rats that want to eat people. All the people. That night I kept waking up thinking I heard skittering and squeaking. It was my foster kitten, not a rat....but it did prove that Hunter Shea managed to creep me out once again!

For those who love cheesy monster stories, this book is perfect! And I'm definitely up for the next Hunter Shea book! :) I wonder what he will scare me with next time? :)

**I voluntarily read an advance readers copy of this book from Kensington via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own. No rats were harmed during the writing of this review.** show less

How much more fun could this book could be? The answer is none! None more fun!



I had to hold myself back from finishing this novella in just one sitting. I wanted to try to savor it, but it was too hard. A man and his soon to be ex-wife run an extermination company in Manhattan and are chosen to try out a new rat poison. After dispensing some healthy doses they thought their job was done, but it turns out the poison seems to have backfired, (isn't that always the way?), and now there are more rats than ever. Not only are there more, but they're more aggressive AND let's just say they're happier in their little rat bedrooms. Soon, they've taken over the sites where they were treated and many more sites as well. Can Manhattan escape this show more scourge of aggressive and horny rats? You'll have to read this to find out!

RATTUS NEW YORKUS is flat out FUN! It doesn't get bogged down in philosophical questions or literary mumbo-jumbo. We're here for people killing rats and boy, do we get them!

I've been slow to come around to Hunter Shea and I'm not sure why, exactly. Maybe I was trying to fancy myself as more of a literary reader? Don't get me wrong, I love literary horror, cosmic horror and all kinds of stuff, but lately? Creature features have been bringing it as far as I'm concerned, and Hunter Shea is up there with the best writers of them, EVER. I love me some James Herbert and Guy N. Smith, but Hunter? This is pure unadulterated fun and if you want some for yourself? Pick up RATTUS NEW YORKUS when it comes out. You won't be disappointed!

This gets my highest recommendation! You can pre-order your copy here: https://www.amazon.com/Rattus-New-Yorkus-Hunter-Shea-ebook/dp/B078LPXDK1/chashor...

*Thanks to Lyrical Underground and NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!* show less

Rattus New Yorkus is another fun, cheese-filled horror offering by Hunter Shea. Chris and Benny are exterminators contracted by New York to help control the pest population. At urgings from city and scientists, the city exterminators are testing out a new position called Degenesis. This new chemical is said to work against rat reproduction, making it impossible to sustain colonies. Unfortunately, that doesn't seem to be what's happening. Instead, Chris and Benny are finding evidence of an increase in rat population. And increased aggression and intelligence. When the rats take to the streets in a frenzy more than once, attacking citizens, it's up to the exterminators and military to track the main nest and attempt to wipe out the plague show more of rodents.

Rattus is #2 in the One Size Eats All series. I quite enjoyed Jurassic Florida, but monstrous iguanas are a little improbable. Chemically altered rodents less so. Humans are constantly altering animal behaviours with the crap we dump in the environment. Pesticides are no exception. Everything adapts to what you throw at it, and it's clear that wild rats responded radically differently to the Degenesis position than the test subjects did. I kept rats once, as pets, and as breeders for python food. I know how smart those rats were, and wild rats need to be a lot savvier in order to survive. This was a short read, more plot driven than character driven. Unlike Jurassic Florida, Rattus felt a little more serious. I imagine it goes back to that believability factor. It's much easier to see this actually happening. I'm interested to see what critter will be showcased in the series next! Bees? Bees would be fun. Wild boar? Crows?

***Many thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Books for providing an egalley in exchange for a fair and honest review. show less

Always be leery of any reviewer who says, "If you like, then..."

Why?

Because it usually means that if you pick up this book, you're gonna get eaten by horny rabid New York Rats juiced up the to gills on a super-potion, killing everyone in the most gruesome fashion ever.

Capishe?

Capishe.


Oh, I might want to mention that I would WATCH THE HELL out of this if it was a B-movie horror with an extra budget for all the special effects. It tickles all my fancies. :)

Shea usually does.

I picked this up with the hindsight that it was going to be a tongue in cheek b-horror kind of story and it certainly was that! But it is a quick entertaining read which kept me steaming through it and it's a perfect Sunday lazy afternoon kind of book.

I doubt it will leave many people scared unless you have a severe phobia of rats! If you do you best avoid this one

I wish I had saved some of the great lines peppered throughout it, my memory is terrible but I do remember one of them had something to do with tails being like satans ariels maybe? I'm going to have to flick back through it to find it as it amused me!

“Possibly a thousand rats were on our tail, their own tails bobbing like Satan’s spaghetti.”

Now that has got to go down show more as a classic surely?!! :-)

Throughly enjoyed this book and I will be hunting out more of Hunter Shea's books.

Rattus New Yorkus was published yesterday 21st August 2018 and can be purchased for the amazing price of £1.81 now from Amazon show less

Rattus New Yorkus is a book that would have been at home with the other mass horror books of the 1970s -- Earthquakes, giant crabs, killer bees, alligators in the sewers, and of course Willard. Rattus centers on a husband and wife exterminator team, Chris and Benita (Benny) Jackson. The Jacksons are going through a divorce, but still working together. A recently developed rodenticide, Degenesis, doesn't kill rats but rather renders them sterile. The idea was that if rats can't reproduce, they would eventually die out solving New York's rat problem.

Chris and Benny discover that Degenesis does not have the desired effects, in fact, it is creating a hive mind in the New York rats. What may have worked on lab rats certainly is having the show more opposite impact on the city rat population. The inventor is in denial. The city government begins to panic. Will man remain at the top of the food chain?

Written in the 1970s pulp horror style Rattus proves to be entertaining:

"I made the mistake of turning around. Jumping Jesus! Possibly a thousand rats were on our tail, their own tails bobbing like Satan’s spaghetti."

The idea is to present the horror, so it is a little short on the science as well as detailed personal information on the characters. That creates the downside in the page count. At only one hundred and twelve pages there seems a little more story could have been written. show less