Book Reviews: Why They're Important and a Review of Ratgirl: The Song of the Viper by Gayle C. Krause

Dear Alison,

I do love book recommendations. Sometimes my #TBR pile resembles the leaning tower of Pisa. If I discover that a book towards the bottom of pile is a MUST read such as PAX, I pretend I'm playing Jenga and yank that book out. Normally, I manage to win the teetering game. Other times, I lose and need to re-stack. 

This past month, I've been eyeball deep in writing Book Two of the Starr Fall series, Starr Lost. Happily, I submitted Book Two last Friday, and now I'm catching up on all the work I've neglected including my TB-Reviewed pile. My TB-Reviewed pile closely resembles my #TBR pile. 

Exhibit 1: 

Yep, it ain't pretty. Well, the books are certainly pretty, but the size of the pile is unsightly. You see Alison, as an author, I've come to realize just how important book reviews are. The more reviews a book receives, the more likely search engines, including the all-powerful Amazon, will bring that book to the top of their lists rather than let it get lost among the millions, YES MILLIONS, of other books. Only about 1% of people review books, and that's it, but a book review doesn't need to be long. In fact, it could be as simple as: "I loved XYZ book. It made me laugh, and the story was entertaining." Or even simpler: "Loved XYZ. Thrilled to no end."  

It's simple. It's easy. And Authors NEED reviews. Pretty, pretty please we do. 


Now, enough of my PSA for Book Reviews, back to my actual book review. Alison, I'm not sure if you can tell, but at the top of the TB-Reviewed pile is Ratgirl: Song of the Viper by Gayle C. Krause. 

While, I write contemporary YA and NA, I LOVE dystopias and fantasies. Love them I tell you, and Ratgirl did not disappoint. 

Here's the Book Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old streetwise orphan, Jax Stone is an expert at surviving in a dangerous city, where rats rival the homeless for food and shelter, but she’s an amateur at fighting the immoral mayor when he kidnaps her little brother. Desperation demands she quickly master the role of courageous opponent. In an effort to outwit the diabolical mayor, she uses her hypnotic singing voice to lead rats to their death, and all the children to safety, in a dying city cursed by the deadly sun.

Ratgirl is a gripping re-imagining of the Pied Piper, set against a backdrop of global warming and corporate greed. Jax Stone and her brother survive in a world where no one can be trusted and spending more than sixty seconds in the sunlight will kill you. The rich have fled to the New Continent. The poor have fled to the sewers. Within the old subway tunnels, the poor co-exist with the rats as best as humans can co-exist with an abundant and hungry rat population, which is to say they can't. The young, the old, and the sick fall victim to daily rat attacks.

Each night, when the sun sets, the rats, along with the poor, along with the criminals ascend to the surface to scrounge abandoned buildings for anything worth trading for food and other basic necessities. Jax and her brother dream of a better life. A life with food. A life where a person could feel the sunlight against her cheeks without fear of being scorched in less than sixty seconds. A life much different than the one they are living.

The Mayor considers the infestation of the rats and the poor unacceptable. When the opportunity to rid the city of the rat population presents itself, Jax accepts. She doesn't realize that the Mayor plans to rid the city of her friends, her family, and herself, along with the rats. 

So Alison, be sure to add Ratgirl by Gayle C. Krause to the top of the #TBR pile. The Amazon link in case you want to buy your own copy: Ratgirl: Song of the Viper

Sharing the writing love one letter at a time,
Kim