"The Rats" by James Herbert (1974)

"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" - when I bought a bird feeder for my backyard, it never occurred to me that the stupid birdies will spread the seeds all over the place and eventually attract the whole rat family. To my biggest horror, what was kind of cute little backyard now has a very sinister feeling to it and suddenly I am not so enthusiastic about it anymore - the place is exactly the same as it always was but I see it with different eyes and the pest company definitely has to be called in. All of this inspired me to turn to a novel I have never read before, but was aware of it - James Herbert is known as a British Stephen King and interestingly, it seems they started around the same time. Both "Carrie" and "The Rats" were published in 1974, both first novels by young and unknown authors who will eventually re-invent the whole horror genre and create quite a successful careers out of it. I have read few of Herbert's novels and found them entertaining - the very first one I came across was "Nobody True" and so far that was my favourite - not anymore. 

As expected, "The Rats" is extremely gory and disturbing. Herbert writes with a sadistic glee but he also has a relaxed, even funny moments. It is actually very good first novel - just as with King, with time the writing will eventually become more assured and fluid, but there is a certain excitement and raw power in this very first published work - all the pieces are already here, they just need to be carefully assembled and polished. Where some later of his works I found formulaic and uninspired, this one was bursting with white-hot inspiration and I must say that I gulped it in two days. Feverish reading trough the night. Apparently it was a huge best-seller (deservedly) and criticised as worst pulp fiction - interestingly, as today, some 46 years after its initial publication it actually still appears fresh and gripping. I dare you to stop reading once you have started. Not really sure why King is accepted as literature and Herbert is still considered to be pulp fiction, since they are really very similar.