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 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 ( )

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 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.** ( )

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. ( )

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 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!* ( )

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 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. ( )