The Rat Queen, Pete Hautman
The Rat Queen, Pete Hautman
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

The Rat Queen

Author: Pete Hautman

Narrator: Laura Knight Keating

Unabridged: 8 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 10/25/2022


Synopsis

For Annie's tenth birthday, her papa gives her a pad of paper, some colored pencils, and the Klimas family secret.

It’s called the nuodeema burna, or eater of sins. Every time Annie does something wrong, she writes it down and sticks the paper in a hidden hole in the floor of their house. But Annie is quick to discover that her inheritance has a dark side.

With each paper fed to the burna, Annie feels less guilty about the mean things she says and does, but weird things start happening: she stops growing, and soon rats seem to be everywhere, even in her dreams. Annie confronts the secret of
the burna, but nothing can prepare her for the truth she unearths.

Pete Hautman masterfully spins a modern-day fairy tale that explores the emotional and moral responsibility that’s part of growing up.

About Pete Hautman

Pete Hautman is the author of many books for young adults, including the National Book Award winner Godless, the Klaatu Diskos trilogy, and Eden West. His middle-grade novels include The Rat Queen, Otherwood (winner of an Edgar Award), and Slider, which Booklist lauded for its “crystalline prose, delectable detail, rip-roaring humor, and larger-than-life characters.” Pete Hautman divides his time between Wisconsin and Minnesota.


Reviews

this book is a bit dark, but it doesn’t lean into the unsettling or horrific elements as much as A Thief of Always or Coraline do. many chapters contain original baltic-style fairytales, so the overall experience is more like a dark/unfulfilling fairytale than a children’s horror story. i dont think......more

2.5 stars Annie's father teaches her to write down all the bad things she does and feed the paper into a little hole in the floor of their house. After she drops the paper into the "sin eater" hole, her regrets and guilt go away and she feels better. Annie hears a mysterious skittering and chattering......more

Goodreads review by Julia

Starts off like a dark fairytale but then takes a weird turn and loses a lot of steam as the truth starts to unfold, becoming less creepy and more sad. It is an interesting peek into the generational impact of storytelling though and makes you wonder what underlying truths prompted this story into b......more

Goodreads review by Leah

This started strong and dark, but didn't quite follow through. I thought it was going to be a fable about accountability, it then took a direction I wasn't expecting and didn't pack a punch the way Hautman's previous works have. Writing is solid as usual. A middle grade that's probably more relatabl......more