The Twyning

In this painful but mesmerizing tale, Blacker (Parent Swap) introduces a society of rats living in the sewers of Victorian London; his successful merger of sentience with the realities of rodent behavior is reminiscent of the rabbits of Richard Adams’s classic Watership Down. Thirteen-year-old Peter, who lives in a garbage dump with his younger friend Caz, scratches out a living catching rats for the local “sportsmen” and their dogs. He also works for Dr. Ross-Gibbon, a monomaniacal scientist who wants to wipe out all of the rats in London. Efren, an impulsive young rat living in the Kingdom of elderly King Tzuriel, is restless and has trouble following orders. When Peter captures the dying King for the doctor’s experiments, Efren reports this to his superiors, leading to outrage in the kingdom; matters worsen quickly after the doctor puts his deadly plan into action. Well-wrought characters (both human and rat), a compelling presentation of difficult moral questions, and a devastating portrayal of society’s dark underbelly make this novel hard to forget. Ages 12–up. Agent: Caroline Sheldon, Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency. (Sept.)