HOW TO PLAY:
Choose a rat from the pictures below then find their name in the drop down menu under the pictures to find the title of your next read. All titles are adult fiction.
P.S. If you're interested in learning more about rats as pets, ask Marissa at the Youth Desk! She has loved and cared for all the little cutie pies you see pictured here.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
Why:
You chose Remi's gentle side! Settle in with him to journey through chance encounters, paths not taken, and process a full spectrum of emotions in this intricately-plotted, thought-provoking novel.
Description:
In this exhilarating novel, two friends, often in love, but never lovers, come together as creative partners in the world of video game design, where success brings them fame, joy, tragedy, duplicity, and, ultimately, a kind of immortality.
On a bitter-cold day, in the December of his junior year at Harvard, Sam Masur exits a subway car and sees, amid the hordes of people waiting on the platform, Sadie Green. He calls her name. For a moment, she pretends she hasn't heard him, but then, she turns, and a game begins: a legendary collaboration that will launch them to stardom. These friends, intimates since childhood, borrow money, beg favors, and, before even graduating college, they have created their first blockbuster, Ichigo. Overnight, the world is theirs. Not even twenty-five years old, Sam and Sadie are brilliant, successful, and rich, but these qualities won't protect them from their own creative ambitions or the betrayals of their hearts.
Spanning thirty years, from Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Venice Beach, California, and lands in between and far beyond, Gabrielle Zevin's Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow is a dazzling and intricately imagined novel that examines the multifarious nature of identity, disability, failure, the redemptive possibilities in play, and above all, our need to connect: to be loved and to love. Yes, it is a love story, but it is not one you have read before.
Voice Like a Hyacinth by Mallory Pearson
Why:
If you thought this cute floral picture of Cozy playing hide and seek would bring something light to your TBR list, you're mistaken. Cozy happens to be frolicking in my Midsommar-inspired May Queen crown, making this ritualistic horror a perfect fit!
Description:
Art student Jo Kozak and her fellow classmates and best friends, Caroline, Finch, Amrita, and Saz, are one another's muses--so close they have their own language and so devoted to the craft that they'll do anything to keep their inspiration alive. Even if it means naively resorting to the occult to unlock their creativity and to curse their esteemed, if notoriously creepy, professor. They soon learn the horrible price to be paid for such a transgressive ritual.
In its violent aftermath, things are changing. Jo is feeling unnervingly haunted by something inexplicable. Their paintings, once prodigious and full of life, are growing dark and unhealthy. And their journey together--as women, students, and artists--is starting to crumble.
To right the wrong they've done, these five desperate friends will take their obsession a step too far. When that happens, there may be no turning back.
To Shape a Dragon's Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
Why:
I could tell you you should read this YA fantasy because it's a great blend of historical fiction and fantasy by an own-voices author, but really, it was chosen because Florence looks like she is a fire-breathing dragon in this photo!
Description:
A young Indigenous woman enters a colonizer-run dragon academy—and quickly finds herself at odds with the “approved” way of doing things—in the first book of this brilliant new fantasy series.
The remote island of Masquapaug has not seen a dragon in many generations—until fifteen-year-old Anequs finds a dragon’s egg and bonds with its hatchling. Her people are delighted, for all remember the tales of the days when dragons lived among them and danced away the storms of autumn, enabling the people to thrive. To them, Anequs is revered as Nampeshiweisit—a person in a unique relationship with a dragon.
Unfortunately for Anequs, the Anglish conquerors of her land have different opinions. They have a very specific idea of how a dragon should be raised, and who should be doing the raising—and Anequs does not meet any of their requirements. Only with great reluctance do they allow Anequs to enroll in a proper Anglish dragon school on the mainland. If she cannot succeed there, her dragon will be killed.
For a girl with no formal schooling, a non-Anglish upbringing, and a very different understanding of the history of her land, challenges abound—both socially and academically. But Anequs is smart, determined, and resolved to learn what she needs to help her dragon, even if it means teaching herself. The one thing she refuses to do, however, is become the meek Anglish miss that everyone expects.
Anequs and her dragon may be coming of age, but they’re also coming to power, and that brings an important realization: the world needs changing—and they might just be the ones to do it.
Nothing...
If you are like Hugo, you might be too tired to read. Might I suggest a nap instead?
Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon
Why:
If you chose this brain-eating rat named Mindy, chances are you're interested in zombies...
Description:
Coldbrook is a secret laboratory located deep in Appalachian Mountains. Its scientists had achieved the a gateway to a new world. Theirs was to be the greatest discovery in the history of mankind, but they had no idea what they were about to unleash.
With their breakthrough comes disease, and now it is out and ravaging the human population. The only hope is a cure, and the only cure is genetic: an uninfected person amongst the billions dead.
In the chaos of destruction there is only one person that can save the human race.
But will they find her in time?
A Psalm for the Wild-built by Becky Chambers.
Why:
The dedication reads, “For anybody who could use a break.” Nora loves taking breaks, tea breaks to be specific. So this cozy, atmospheric, sci-fi book about a tea monk who travels around the world listening to problems and serving tea is the perfect fit.
Description:
Centuries before, robots of Panga gained self-awareness, laid down their tools, wandered, en masse into the wilderness, never to be seen again. They faded into myth and urban legend.
Now the life of the tea monk who tells this story is upended by the arrival of a robot, there to honor the old promise of checking in. The robot cannot go back until the question of "what do people need?" is answered. But the answer to that question depends on who you ask, and how. They will need to ask it a lot. Chambers' series asks: in a world where people have what they want, does having more matter?
Deep End by Ali Hazelwood
Why:
Peanut's looking a little scruffy in this photo, but that's just because he just finished diving for peas. That's right, he loves swimming in his little pool looking for tasty snacks. You could say the main character in this spicy romcom is looking for a tasty snack too. ;)
Description:
Scarlett Vandermeer is swimming upstream. A Junior at Stanford and a student-athlete who specializes in platform diving, Scarlett prefers to keep her head down, concentrating on getting into med school and on recovering from the injury that almost ended her career. She has no time for relationships—at least, that’s what she tells herself.
Swim captain, world champion, all-around aquatics golden boy, Lukas Blomqvist thrives on discipline. It’s how he wins gold medals and breaks records: complete focus, with every stroke. On the surface, Lukas and Scarlett have nothing in common. Until a well-guarded secret slips out, and everything changes.
So they start an arrangement. And as the pressure leading to the Olympics heats up, so does their relationship. It was supposed to be just a temporary, mutually satisfying fling. But when staying away from Lukas becomes impossible, Scarlett realizes that her heart might be treading into dangerous water...
Night Shift by Stephen King
Why:
Pip may be creeping, but she is not creepy... Unlike the rats from the infamous short story, "The Graveyard Shift". That's just one of the many unsettling tales you'll find this short story horror collection.
Description:
A collection of tales to invade and paralyses the mind as the safe light of day is infiltrated by the shadows of the night. As you listen, the clutching fingers of terror brush lightly across the nape of the neck, reach round from behind to clutch and lock themselves, white-knuckled, around the throat.
This is the horror of ordinary people and everyday objects that become strangely altered; a world where nothing is ever quite what it seems, where the familiar and the friendly lure and deceive. A world where madness and blind panic become the only reality.
The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Why:
Tallulah wants to show you the way to the Cemetery of Forgotten Books so you can get lost in this historical, mysterious, gothic tale.
Description:
Barcelona, 1945: A city slowly heals from its war wounds, and Daniel, an antiquarian book dealer's son who mourns the loss of his mother, finds solace in a mysterious book entitled The Shadow of the Wind, by one Julian Carax. But when he sets out to find the author's other works, he makes a shocking discovery: someone has been systematically destroying every copy of every book Carax has written. In fact, Daniel may have the last of Carax's books in existence. Soon Daniel's seemingly innocent quest opens a door into one of Barcelona's darkest secrets—an epic story of murder, madness, and doomed love.
Dungeon Crawler Carl by Matt Dinniman
Why:
If you haven't read Dungeon Crawler Carl yet, let this be your sign! When Remi is feeling wild, his chaotic good energy rivals the absurd nature of this dark-comedy.
Description:
You know what’s worse than breaking up with your girlfriend? Being stuck with her prize-winning show cat. And you know what’s worse than that? An alien invasion, the destruction of all man-made structures on Earth, and the systematic exploitation of all the survivors for a sadistic intergalactic game show. That’s what.
Join Coast Guard vet Carl and his ex-girlfriend’s cat, Princess Donut, as they try to survive the end of the world—or just get to the next level—in a video game–like, trap-filled fantasy dungeon. A dungeon that’s actually the set of a reality television show with countless viewers across the galaxy. Exploding goblins. Magical potions. Deadly, drug-dealing llamas. This ain’t your ordinary game show.
Welcome, Crawler. Welcome to the Dungeon. Survival is optional. Keeping the viewers entertained is not.