The Year of The Rat

by Clare Furniss

I always thought you'd know, somehow, if something terrible was going to happen. I thought you'd sense it, like when the air goes damp and heavy before a storm and you know you'd better hide yourself away somewhere safe until it all blows over.
But it turns out it's not like that at all. There's no scary music playing in the background like in films. No warning signs. Not even a lonely magpie. One for sorrow, Mum used to say. Quick, look for another.
The world can tip at any moment … a fact that fifteen-year-old Pearl is all too aware of when her mum dies after giving birth to her baby sister. Told across the year following her mother's death, Pearl's story is full of bittersweet humour and heartbreaking honesty about how you deal with grief that cuts you to the bone, as she tries not only to come to terms with losing her mum, but also the fact that her sister - The Rat - is a constant reminder of why her mum is no longer around…

• ISBN10: 1471121712
• ISBN13: 9781471121715
• Publish Date: 24 April 2014
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 11 February 2016
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Ltd
• Imprint: Simon & Schuster Childrens Books
• Edition: Export
• Format: Paperback (UK Trade)
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[bumblingbookworm]

This review was originally posted on The Bumbling Bookworm

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting from the book, but I'd been wanting to read it for a little while as it was such a different subject matter to what I normally read. I'm pleased to say that I was not disappointed :)

Pearl's story is heartbreaking and her grief is palpable throughout the novel. I couldn't imagine losing a parent that suddenly and Pearl also had the added burden of being left behind with her stepfather and her new baby sister, his biological daughter. Her feelings of jealousy, fear, hatred and grief were very genuine and not at all gimicky or fake. Pearl also had to deal with learning truths about her mother and her biological father, truths that were completely different to what she'd been told by her mum her whole life. As you can imagine, this was difficult for Pearl and at times she was torn between her desire to honour her mum's memory and the truth. Furniss did a wonderful job of conveying this and I felt such sympathy for Pearl.

Check out the rest of my review here!

[Kelly]

http://www.divabooknerd.com/2014/05/year-of-rat-by-clare-furniss.html
Year of The Rat was an emotional read, and reminded me of Heartbeat by Elizabeth Scott. Same concept, in which the main character loses her mother and cannot cope with the introduction of the new baby left behind. I felt for Pearl, she carries so much anger and guilt and doesn't know how to let it out and begin to allow herself to heal. The storyline is told over a period of a year and begins at her mother's funeral. Pearl is a likable character, but copes with her loss with only her own feelings being considered. She's only fifteen, and I can't even begin to imagine how it feels to lose your mother at such a young age. She retreats within herself, refuses the call Rose by her name and believes that now her step father has his own biological child, she's no longer needed. But hope springs in the form of Finn.

Finn isn't her savior, he's barely a romantic interest, but for the first time since her mother passed, Pearl finds a reason to smile again. It's beautifully written, and first time author Clare Furniss takes the reader on an emotional journey following Pearl and how she needs to rediscover herself and her place in the world. I loved seeing Rose grow, the babbling baby noises and smiles as she grows is simply magic and holds a realism that we rarely see in contemporaries. The last page reduced me to tears, it was an emotional and heartwarming ending that endeared me to Pearl even further. I simply loved it.