I had high expectations for Thomas’s first novel because I’m a fan of Veronica Mars, the teen noir television show he created. Ultimately, I ended up being thankful that he found his voice on the small screen, because he was a bit disappointing as a novelist.

Even so, despite long passages that seemed to serve no purpose in advancing the plot (although they were interesting to read for their own sake), Rats Saw God stands out as a teen classic because of Thomas’s signature wise-cracking, pop-culture-referencing style. The descriptions of Steve’s all-consuming headrush of first love – and the fall-out in his male friendships – are spot-on, and most teens would probably be intrigued by the somewhat graphic but faithful (and funny) descriptions of Steve and Dub’s first forays out of virgin territory: "We undressed each other as if the process would later be described in sonnets. ... Okay, the part involving shoe removal would have best been described as a limerick."