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Nightshade Chronicles #1
Nightshade City
Deep beneath Trillium City, a modern metropolis, lies the Catacombs, a kingdom of rats of extraordinary intelligence and ability. The once peaceful and democratic colony has become a harsh dictatorship ruled by the High Minister Kildeer and his henchman, Billycan, who runs the Kill Army and collects weekly Stipend from the terrified subjects. The two of them rule with iron fists. With most of the adult rats wiped out in Killdeer's Bloody Coup and the subsequent great flood, orphaned young male rats are forced into the army and the females into servitude or worse. But change is coming. . . .
Two orphan brothers, Vincent and Victor Nightshade, sons of a hero killed in the Bloody Coup, manage to escape from the Kill Army and meet up with Juniper Belancourt, leader of a rebel group seeking to overthrow their oppressors and restore peace and democracy in a new city. The brothers are quickly caught up in Juniper's cause: "We survive by cover of night. We live in the shadows, waiting for our redemption! Our name must symbolize our burning spirit. . . . Tonight and forever, we are Nightshade City!"
Juniper's plans are complicated by many factors. His lovely young niece Clover has been picked by Killdeer to be his next Chosen One, so the rebels and their allies the Earthworms must work fast to save her. Can the rebels locate their enemies' War Room? Can Juniper's former love, now holding a position in Killdeer's Ministry, be trusted? Will the rebels be able to execute their plans without the aid of a young Topsider (human)? And how will Vincent and Victor fare in battle will they honor their father's legacy of courage?
NIGHTSHADE CITY is rich with memorable characters: Vincent, who comes of age in this time of change; his worshipful younger brother, Victor; beautiful, intelligent Clover; Mother Gallo, a canny survivor who discovers her lost love only to risk losing him again; the charismatic Juniper, a kind and courageous leader whose vision carries the rebels into great danger; Killdeer, a decadent narcissist with surprising depth; and Billycan, a truly demented former lab rat, brilliant, vicious, and Juniper's sworn enemy.
This enthralling animal fantasy, in the classic tradition of Redwall and Watership Down, encompasses timeless themes of honor and loyalty, family ties and lost love, alliances and betrayals. Readers will respond enthusiastically to this surefire page-turner, set in a brilliantly imagined world filled with easy-to-root-for heroes and villains they'll love to hate.
260 pages, Hardcover
First published October 1, 2010
47 people are currently reading
1618 people want to read
About the author
Hilary Wagner
6 books187 followers"It sounds simple, but it’s true. If you want to be an author you must master your craft. Try, fail, and master again. Everyone’s road to publishing is different and few of those roads are easy. Easy isn't rewarding. Keep moving forward!"
“Fans of Redwall and the Warriors series will love this heroic tale of good versus evil in a subterranean society of rats. The world of the Catacombs is so compelling readers will wonder if it really might exist under our city streets. Expect great adventures in Nightshade City.” ~ Rick Riordan, Author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
ABOUT NIGHTSHADE CITY:
Deep beneath a modern metropolis lies the Catacombs, a kingdom of remarkable rats of superior intellect. Following the Bloody Coup, the once peaceful democracy has become a dictatorship, ruled by decadent High Minister Killdeer and his vicious henchman Billycan, a former lab rat with a fondness for butchery. Three young orphan rats--brothers Vincent and Victor and a clever female named Clover--join forces with Billycan's archenemy, Juniper, and his maverick band of rebel rats as they plot to overthrow their oppressors and create a new city--Nightshade City. This impossible-to-put-down fantasy explores timeless themes of freedom, forgiveness, the bonds of family, and the power of love.
Find out more about the rats of NIGHTSHADE CITY at www.nightshadecity.com
NIGHTSHADE CHRONICLES:
Book I Nightshade City
Book II The White Assassin
Book III Kings of Trillium
“Fans of Redwall and the Warriors series will love this heroic tale of good versus evil in a subterranean society of rats. The world of the Catacombs is so compelling readers will wonder if it really might exist under our city streets. Expect great adventures in Nightshade City.” ~ Rick Riordan, Author of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
ABOUT NIGHTSHADE CITY:
Deep beneath a modern metropolis lies the Catacombs, a kingdom of remarkable rats of superior intellect. Following the Bloody Coup, the once peaceful democracy has become a dictatorship, ruled by decadent High Minister Killdeer and his vicious henchman Billycan, a former lab rat with a fondness for butchery. Three young orphan rats--brothers Vincent and Victor and a clever female named Clover--join forces with Billycan's archenemy, Juniper, and his maverick band of rebel rats as they plot to overthrow their oppressors and create a new city--Nightshade City. This impossible-to-put-down fantasy explores timeless themes of freedom, forgiveness, the bonds of family, and the power of love.
Find out more about the rats of NIGHTSHADE CITY at www.nightshadecity.com
NIGHTSHADE CHRONICLES:
Book I Nightshade City
Book II The White Assassin
Book III Kings of Trillium
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 94 reviews
March 20, 2011
I'm a teacher at a boy's school and going into this book, I thought it would purely be a "boy" book that my students may like, but it's a book for all children. The two main female characters, out of a large group of males, stand out well. The story is compelling and rich with detail of the underground world the author has created. This fits in well with other animal series, such as Redwall, Ga'hoole, etc, but it stands on its own two feet. It deals with issues of oppression and corrupt government, but ends triumphantly as any children's book should. If you have a reader who likes underground fantasy worlds and likes their "bad guys" rotten to the core, this is the book!
September 30, 2010
Okay, let’s talk about this book, starting with its title: Nightshade City. Actually, I don’t really have anything to say about the title other than I like it. It’s just plain cool. It’s a title, like the title Watership Down, that doesn’t really tell us much about the book, and yet is intriguing just the same. If memory serves, Watership Down is actually the name of the hill near Hampshire where Richard Adams’ rabbits who think and even act a little like people live. Well, Nightshade City is the new location where Hilary Wagner’s anthropomorphic rats live (breaking out the big vocab words this week). Many reviewers will likely compare Nightshade City to the classic book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh, and that is an apt comparison, but in style and spirit I think it’s closer to Watership Down. More on that in a moment.
I should probably take a stab at a providing a summary of the book without giving too much away. Except one of the things I love about what Hilary does in Nightshade City is that she avoids scenes of direct exposition. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K, Esteemed Reader, so to speak. There’s something very odd going on in the catacombs where Hilary's rats live. Early in the book, we learn: Ordinary rats lived for only a handful of years, four or five at most. Catacombs rats lived decades upon decades, just like Topsiders. The extended years were thought to be a gift from the Saints, but Vincent had sometimes wondered if they might be a curse. Why should one have to live so long surrounded by misery and constant disappointment?
Why indeed? I’m not going to tell you, Esteemed Reader. This question drives a part of the narrative, sort of like the question of “what’s the deal with that freaky island” drove the suspense of Lost. As the tale unfolds, we pick up clues about what may have happened to these rats who are so unlike rats anywhere else in the world. But at the start of the novel the reader is sort of like Charlton Heston landing on a strange planet not unlike earth, but inhabited by talking apes, struggling to figure out just what’s going on here.
What Hilary doesn’t do is to start the book with one or two dense chapters explaining the rats of the catacombs and their culture. Such a chapter would clear up some of the initial confusion the reader may have, but at the expense of boring us and right at the start when readers are most vulnerable to setting a book down and walking away forever. Instead, Hilary plunges us into the world of her rats and opens with a chase scene: The Nightshades deftly took a sharp left, knocking an old toothless rat to the ground, his bag of candlenuts tossed into the air and scattered about the corridor. A lieutenant promptly stumbled over a nut, forcing the other soldier and Major Lithgo to skid violently through the dirt, landing atop one another in a muddled heap of tails, claws, and ears.
This is an exciting way to get us started and draws the reader right in, but with the question: “wait, was that rat carrying a bag of candlenuts? What sort of rats are these?” As the tale unfolds, we meet rats who act both like rats and like humans. They have jewelry, one of them drinks wine, and yet they are still rats living in the world of rats. Because there is no chapter explaining the rules, we have to learn them as we go. This is trickier to pull off than it sounds, but Hilary is up to the challenge.
Opening a story with a chase scene is pretty common, except that if a story opens with a chase between humans, the reader can quickly orient himself. One of the humans in a chase is Burt Reynolds laughing and flashing a crooked smile, which tells us he’s the handsome, likeable outlaw. The other human is Smokey, a fat southern sheriff in a police car, which tells us he has no patience for handsome outlaws and is probably a racist. Burt Reynolds is driving a special edition 1977 Trans Am, which tells us something about the time period we’re in, Smokey’s car tells us we’re in America, and we’re familiar with the concept of cops and robbers going in. It takes only seconds for the viewer of Smokey and the Bandit to understand the situation and to be drawn into the film.
That’s not quite the case in Nightshade City because the reader has no frame of reference. I can’t speak for you, Esteemed Reader, but I’ve never been in a lair of giant rats capable of human thought and speech. I was Heston on the Planet of the Apes. If a rat can carry candlenuts, can he carry a cell phone? Do some of the rats have guns? Do they have internet access? Do the rats live in nuclear families, or have they formed a Robert Heinlein nest where everyone loves everyone and they sit around grocking each other’s fullness?
Hilary never halts the story to lay down the rules, but we pick them up as the tale is spun. Perhaps I’ve spent too much time harping on this one detail in a 262 page novel filled with interesting details, but I just found this aspect fascinating. And the effect on the reader is at first disorientation. But after a few chapters as we learn about the characters and pick up those rules, the pages turn themselves and the reader finds himself fully immersed in a fantastic world and a fantastic tale not quite like any other I’ve ever read.
But seriously, Esteemed Reader, if you have trouble writing exposition in a manner that is not disruptive to the narrative, study Hilary Wagner’s novel. Because not only is she telling us about the world of the rats on the fly, she also has to tell us the history of the world of the rats to catch us up to the present action. We meet our heroes, Vincent and Victor Nightshade, in the middle of an epic saga that was begun long before they came along.
The quick, quick version: Once there was a kind and wise rat named Trilock, who ruled the catacombs and life was good. He had enemies, but they were banished outside of the major city. And then a great flood came, wiping out a large portion of the rat population, and during that time Trilock’s enemies murdered him and other good rats, including Vincent and Victor’s family. Flash forward several years and the catacombs are in bad shape under evil tyrant rulers who make life miserable for the other rats. Vincent and Victor flee the catacombs and meet up with some old school rebels who have formed a new home they name Nightshade City, in honor of our boys' father. But at some point, the reader knows that Vincent has to go after those bad rats who murdered his parents and the rebels have to, you know, rebel against tyranny.
What the deuce? I see we’re nearly out of time again this week and I have so much more to tell you. Well, I’ll limit myself to two more points and some sample passages from the text. I’m going to skip over the good guys, as likeable and well drawn as they are, so that I can tell you about the bad guys. Because for me, this book is all about the bad guys. In fact, and this is point one, the bad guys are so compelling and such a tremendous obstacle for our heroes to overcome, that they drive the story in a way that all the good guys in the world cannot. The bad guys make the Nightshade brothers and another heroic rat named Clover we don’t have time to discuss great simply by being so diametrically opposed to their goodness with their own extreme evil.
First off, there’s Killdeer, a nasty, drunken lout who: delegated most of his duties to Billycan, his second-in-command, which left the High Minister with nothing much to do but indulge his vices: eating, drinking, sleeping, and mating. Killdeer became the High Minister of the catacombs when: Enraged and humiliated by his banishment years before, Killdeer ambushed the Minister, assaulting the aging Trilok with primordial fury, slashing his jugular and tearing off his silver pendant, proclaiming himself the new High Minister.
This leads us directly to my second point. Did you happen to notice that there’s a character in a story being marketed to children who loses himself in sex and drunken debauchery, and is allowed to go around tearing out throats? How awesome is that? To be fair, the style of writing in Nightshade City is definitely intended to be upper middle grade to young adult, but old adults will enjoy it as well. Still, there is a wonderful freedom for writers working with anthropomorphic animals (used it in a sentence) that is simply not available elsewhere.
I want you to imagine a story in which hundreds of human families were drowned at the start and in which a human tyrant goes around “mating” and slashing people’s throats. Probably you can think of stories in which this has happened, but I bet those stories weren’t marketed to children. Yet somehow, the separation of these events occurring among human-like rats, but not actual humans, makes it okay.
And it does. I would encourage kids to read this book. They’re going to love it. Like the rabbits in Watership Down—I told you I’d get back to it—Hilary’s rats allow for us to view the story of human civilization as an animal one. She can speak frankly about the darker nature of human society because of the separation of being once removed from humans by way of talking animals.
As nasty as Killdeer is, he’s a figurehead. The real star of the show is Billycan, one of my new favorite fictional characters. He is Dick Chaney to Killdeer’s George W. Bush, the true leader in the shadows plotting torture and corporate rule while hiding behind an obviously flawed leader who nabs all the headlines and distracts attention from what’s really going on. Let me seal both of my points with these passages that show us not only how ruthless Billycan is, but how much awesome violence Hilary gets away with (and in case you’re eating, I’ll leave out the passages in which Billycan disembowels a cat and rips out another rat's eye):
They claimed Billycan was possessed--supernatural even. The old ones told how he once drove a rat to stab himself, mesmerizing him with his eyes. The rat lived through the ordeal, claiming that Billycan's eyes glowed like galvanized rubies, two glass bulbs filled with a red vapory substance, commanding him to take his useless life.
Once, a desperate young rat tried to palm off a rotting pear as Stipend. Billycan chained him to a post in the center of Catacomb Hall, leaving him to die of hunger for all subjects to see. The boy's parents wailed as their son took his final breath.
And there I have to stop because we are way over our usual word count, Esteemed Reader. But if I haven’t emphasized it enough, you have to read this book. It’s a journey to another world that will suck you in, show you a great time, and might just teach you something about the nature of our world, talking rats or no.
I’ll leave you with a few choice descriptions from early in the book I really admired. There are a lot of excellent descriptions of fur throughout Nightshade City. In fact, I never would have guessed there were so many interesting descriptions of rat fur at a writer’s disposal. But the passages I’ve chosen describe feet. Enjoy:
The fire smoldered softly, infusing the room with a warm caramel glow, the ideal setting for a midday nap.
His legs draped over his silver throne like two dead gray rabbits.
Her tiny feet dangled above the ground like small fish flopping in distress.
To read an interview with Hilary Wagner, or to read interviews with other writers and literary agents, log onto my blog www.middlegradeninja.blogspot.com.
I should probably take a stab at a providing a summary of the book without giving too much away. Except one of the things I love about what Hilary does in Nightshade City is that she avoids scenes of direct exposition. Strange things are afoot at the Circle K, Esteemed Reader, so to speak. There’s something very odd going on in the catacombs where Hilary's rats live. Early in the book, we learn: Ordinary rats lived for only a handful of years, four or five at most. Catacombs rats lived decades upon decades, just like Topsiders. The extended years were thought to be a gift from the Saints, but Vincent had sometimes wondered if they might be a curse. Why should one have to live so long surrounded by misery and constant disappointment?
Why indeed? I’m not going to tell you, Esteemed Reader. This question drives a part of the narrative, sort of like the question of “what’s the deal with that freaky island” drove the suspense of Lost. As the tale unfolds, we pick up clues about what may have happened to these rats who are so unlike rats anywhere else in the world. But at the start of the novel the reader is sort of like Charlton Heston landing on a strange planet not unlike earth, but inhabited by talking apes, struggling to figure out just what’s going on here.
What Hilary doesn’t do is to start the book with one or two dense chapters explaining the rats of the catacombs and their culture. Such a chapter would clear up some of the initial confusion the reader may have, but at the expense of boring us and right at the start when readers are most vulnerable to setting a book down and walking away forever. Instead, Hilary plunges us into the world of her rats and opens with a chase scene: The Nightshades deftly took a sharp left, knocking an old toothless rat to the ground, his bag of candlenuts tossed into the air and scattered about the corridor. A lieutenant promptly stumbled over a nut, forcing the other soldier and Major Lithgo to skid violently through the dirt, landing atop one another in a muddled heap of tails, claws, and ears.
This is an exciting way to get us started and draws the reader right in, but with the question: “wait, was that rat carrying a bag of candlenuts? What sort of rats are these?” As the tale unfolds, we meet rats who act both like rats and like humans. They have jewelry, one of them drinks wine, and yet they are still rats living in the world of rats. Because there is no chapter explaining the rules, we have to learn them as we go. This is trickier to pull off than it sounds, but Hilary is up to the challenge.
Opening a story with a chase scene is pretty common, except that if a story opens with a chase between humans, the reader can quickly orient himself. One of the humans in a chase is Burt Reynolds laughing and flashing a crooked smile, which tells us he’s the handsome, likeable outlaw. The other human is Smokey, a fat southern sheriff in a police car, which tells us he has no patience for handsome outlaws and is probably a racist. Burt Reynolds is driving a special edition 1977 Trans Am, which tells us something about the time period we’re in, Smokey’s car tells us we’re in America, and we’re familiar with the concept of cops and robbers going in. It takes only seconds for the viewer of Smokey and the Bandit to understand the situation and to be drawn into the film.
That’s not quite the case in Nightshade City because the reader has no frame of reference. I can’t speak for you, Esteemed Reader, but I’ve never been in a lair of giant rats capable of human thought and speech. I was Heston on the Planet of the Apes. If a rat can carry candlenuts, can he carry a cell phone? Do some of the rats have guns? Do they have internet access? Do the rats live in nuclear families, or have they formed a Robert Heinlein nest where everyone loves everyone and they sit around grocking each other’s fullness?
Hilary never halts the story to lay down the rules, but we pick them up as the tale is spun. Perhaps I’ve spent too much time harping on this one detail in a 262 page novel filled with interesting details, but I just found this aspect fascinating. And the effect on the reader is at first disorientation. But after a few chapters as we learn about the characters and pick up those rules, the pages turn themselves and the reader finds himself fully immersed in a fantastic world and a fantastic tale not quite like any other I’ve ever read.
But seriously, Esteemed Reader, if you have trouble writing exposition in a manner that is not disruptive to the narrative, study Hilary Wagner’s novel. Because not only is she telling us about the world of the rats on the fly, she also has to tell us the history of the world of the rats to catch us up to the present action. We meet our heroes, Vincent and Victor Nightshade, in the middle of an epic saga that was begun long before they came along.
The quick, quick version: Once there was a kind and wise rat named Trilock, who ruled the catacombs and life was good. He had enemies, but they were banished outside of the major city. And then a great flood came, wiping out a large portion of the rat population, and during that time Trilock’s enemies murdered him and other good rats, including Vincent and Victor’s family. Flash forward several years and the catacombs are in bad shape under evil tyrant rulers who make life miserable for the other rats. Vincent and Victor flee the catacombs and meet up with some old school rebels who have formed a new home they name Nightshade City, in honor of our boys' father. But at some point, the reader knows that Vincent has to go after those bad rats who murdered his parents and the rebels have to, you know, rebel against tyranny.
What the deuce? I see we’re nearly out of time again this week and I have so much more to tell you. Well, I’ll limit myself to two more points and some sample passages from the text. I’m going to skip over the good guys, as likeable and well drawn as they are, so that I can tell you about the bad guys. Because for me, this book is all about the bad guys. In fact, and this is point one, the bad guys are so compelling and such a tremendous obstacle for our heroes to overcome, that they drive the story in a way that all the good guys in the world cannot. The bad guys make the Nightshade brothers and another heroic rat named Clover we don’t have time to discuss great simply by being so diametrically opposed to their goodness with their own extreme evil.
First off, there’s Killdeer, a nasty, drunken lout who: delegated most of his duties to Billycan, his second-in-command, which left the High Minister with nothing much to do but indulge his vices: eating, drinking, sleeping, and mating. Killdeer became the High Minister of the catacombs when: Enraged and humiliated by his banishment years before, Killdeer ambushed the Minister, assaulting the aging Trilok with primordial fury, slashing his jugular and tearing off his silver pendant, proclaiming himself the new High Minister.
This leads us directly to my second point. Did you happen to notice that there’s a character in a story being marketed to children who loses himself in sex and drunken debauchery, and is allowed to go around tearing out throats? How awesome is that? To be fair, the style of writing in Nightshade City is definitely intended to be upper middle grade to young adult, but old adults will enjoy it as well. Still, there is a wonderful freedom for writers working with anthropomorphic animals (used it in a sentence) that is simply not available elsewhere.
I want you to imagine a story in which hundreds of human families were drowned at the start and in which a human tyrant goes around “mating” and slashing people’s throats. Probably you can think of stories in which this has happened, but I bet those stories weren’t marketed to children. Yet somehow, the separation of these events occurring among human-like rats, but not actual humans, makes it okay.
And it does. I would encourage kids to read this book. They’re going to love it. Like the rabbits in Watership Down—I told you I’d get back to it—Hilary’s rats allow for us to view the story of human civilization as an animal one. She can speak frankly about the darker nature of human society because of the separation of being once removed from humans by way of talking animals.
As nasty as Killdeer is, he’s a figurehead. The real star of the show is Billycan, one of my new favorite fictional characters. He is Dick Chaney to Killdeer’s George W. Bush, the true leader in the shadows plotting torture and corporate rule while hiding behind an obviously flawed leader who nabs all the headlines and distracts attention from what’s really going on. Let me seal both of my points with these passages that show us not only how ruthless Billycan is, but how much awesome violence Hilary gets away with (and in case you’re eating, I’ll leave out the passages in which Billycan disembowels a cat and rips out another rat's eye):
They claimed Billycan was possessed--supernatural even. The old ones told how he once drove a rat to stab himself, mesmerizing him with his eyes. The rat lived through the ordeal, claiming that Billycan's eyes glowed like galvanized rubies, two glass bulbs filled with a red vapory substance, commanding him to take his useless life.
Once, a desperate young rat tried to palm off a rotting pear as Stipend. Billycan chained him to a post in the center of Catacomb Hall, leaving him to die of hunger for all subjects to see. The boy's parents wailed as their son took his final breath.
And there I have to stop because we are way over our usual word count, Esteemed Reader. But if I haven’t emphasized it enough, you have to read this book. It’s a journey to another world that will suck you in, show you a great time, and might just teach you something about the nature of our world, talking rats or no.
I’ll leave you with a few choice descriptions from early in the book I really admired. There are a lot of excellent descriptions of fur throughout Nightshade City. In fact, I never would have guessed there were so many interesting descriptions of rat fur at a writer’s disposal. But the passages I’ve chosen describe feet. Enjoy:
The fire smoldered softly, infusing the room with a warm caramel glow, the ideal setting for a midday nap.
His legs draped over his silver throne like two dead gray rabbits.
Her tiny feet dangled above the ground like small fish flopping in distress.
To read an interview with Hilary Wagner, or to read interviews with other writers and literary agents, log onto my blog www.middlegradeninja.blogspot.com.
June 1, 2010
In underground catacombs live a city of rats. Once a peaceful city now ruled by two violent and relentless rats, Billycan and Killdeer, who thrive on controling their own kind.
However, there are some rats who won't stand for it much longer. Brothers Vincent and Victor escape the catacombs and go Topside for the chance at a better life. Topside the brothers find another city of rats, ones who have fought when Billycan and Killdeer took over their city in the catacombs and they plan to overthrow both Billycan and Killdeer.
Vincent and Victor team up with Juniper and the other rats of Nightshade City to free the rats of the catacombs.
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway and it was very good. It was an enjoyable read and teaches good things like about love, family and working together. There is too many characters to name each and every one. So I will just say I really liked all of the characters. The characters are very memorable, even the bad guys.
I think this is a book that children and adults will enjoy. It also seems as if there is going to be another book. I hope so and I can't wait to read it if there is.
However, there are some rats who won't stand for it much longer. Brothers Vincent and Victor escape the catacombs and go Topside for the chance at a better life. Topside the brothers find another city of rats, ones who have fought when Billycan and Killdeer took over their city in the catacombs and they plan to overthrow both Billycan and Killdeer.
Vincent and Victor team up with Juniper and the other rats of Nightshade City to free the rats of the catacombs.
I won this book in a goodreads giveaway and it was very good. It was an enjoyable read and teaches good things like about love, family and working together. There is too many characters to name each and every one. So I will just say I really liked all of the characters. The characters are very memorable, even the bad guys.
I think this is a book that children and adults will enjoy. It also seems as if there is going to be another book. I hope so and I can't wait to read it if there is.
July 20, 2010
I feel privileged to have gotten the chance to read Nightshade City three months before it's release date.
This story warmed my heart, made me laugh out loud and cry solid fall down the cheek tears. A huge range of emotion I did not expect.
I fell into the world lock stock and dirt tunnel never leaving until there were no words left to climb. Each character formed solidly in my mind, their hopes, dreams and fears digging their way into my soul. Especially Noc, my favorite.
A wonderful story of what family really means, and how no matter what, that is most important. I loved every word.
All I can say to finish is, Hilary...I NEED The Kings of Trilliam!
This story warmed my heart, made me laugh out loud and cry solid fall down the cheek tears. A huge range of emotion I did not expect.
I fell into the world lock stock and dirt tunnel never leaving until there were no words left to climb. Each character formed solidly in my mind, their hopes, dreams and fears digging their way into my soul. Especially Noc, my favorite.
A wonderful story of what family really means, and how no matter what, that is most important. I loved every word.
All I can say to finish is, Hilary...I NEED The Kings of Trilliam!
January 8, 2011
**Disclaimer**: ** This going to be an explicit review, as this was a very intense book and I think anyone thinking of recommending it to a young person will benefit from knowing some of the content and situations in it, if they have not read it yet.**
This book was billed as an adventure story. But it is not. It was a book about war and conflict. It was extremely violent and included a lot of graphic descriptions of violence and the threat of violence in many different situations. The first half of the book, a good 150 pages, contained as the primary focus the threat of a forced marriage of a young girl to a much older man and the subsequent forced consummation/rape that would occur. It also included an attempted rape. Throughout the book there were numerous descriptions of beatings, killings, maimings, and torture. And these were written in detail. Also, none of these descriptions seemed to really lend to the story or enhance a reader’s understanding of these types of situations. Instead, they were a constant barrage of different violent acts and situations, and really seemed to be there for mere effect. The same was true for the forced marriage situation. This part of the book was not about forced marriage/rape but instead used this idea to further the plot and create suspense. Something I take great issue with.
Also, women and girls were nearly absent in this book and when these characters did appear they were only there to further plot rather than have a true voice in what living in a military or oppressive regime might be like. It was almost solely written from the males’ perspective and even that was a more surface perspective. They were the main players and focus. Even in the group that was trying to overthrow the oppressive regime the women/girls rarely took an active participatory role. It was men rule/make decisions, women at their sides. Another inaccuracy when extrapolating this story from metaphor into real life situations.
This book is truly a “fantasy” version of life in an oppressive regime. And I use the word fantasy here in its most negative sense. For true, good fantasy illuminates reality. It opens one’s eyes to life. It creates a metaphor, that when read, shows the reader more truths about life that otherwise may have been hidden or hard to grasp or express. The fantasy world in writing allows for a metaphoric backdrop which enables the exploration of intense and hard to express situations. This book does a serious injustice to what really occurs in these types of horrendous situations and leaves readers thinking that a young girl can just immediately move on from an attempted rape to falling in love all in the same night, and that a rebel group can overthrow a government, transform its’ brainwashed youth, and live a happy and free life all in a one night showdown, and with barely a life lost. This provides a very inaccurate view that could seriously misguide youth who may have no other understanding of these types of situations. Also, I have no idea why this book is in the juvenile section, and not in young adult, other than the characters are rats rather than humans, something that is easily forgotten as one reads the descriptions. I would definitely not have anyone under 12 years old read this book.
Finally, I would not recommend this book, nor would I read the next book in the series. And it’s too bad really, as the author is actually a good writer and the characters are intriguing. But, unfortunately, that is not enough to make up for the very poor and inaccurate storyline and graphic nature of the book.
If you’re looking for a book about war, oppression, and conflict I’d recommend Gregor the Overlander instead.
This book was billed as an adventure story. But it is not. It was a book about war and conflict. It was extremely violent and included a lot of graphic descriptions of violence and the threat of violence in many different situations. The first half of the book, a good 150 pages, contained as the primary focus the threat of a forced marriage of a young girl to a much older man and the subsequent forced consummation/rape that would occur. It also included an attempted rape. Throughout the book there were numerous descriptions of beatings, killings, maimings, and torture. And these were written in detail. Also, none of these descriptions seemed to really lend to the story or enhance a reader’s understanding of these types of situations. Instead, they were a constant barrage of different violent acts and situations, and really seemed to be there for mere effect. The same was true for the forced marriage situation. This part of the book was not about forced marriage/rape but instead used this idea to further the plot and create suspense. Something I take great issue with.
Also, women and girls were nearly absent in this book and when these characters did appear they were only there to further plot rather than have a true voice in what living in a military or oppressive regime might be like. It was almost solely written from the males’ perspective and even that was a more surface perspective. They were the main players and focus. Even in the group that was trying to overthrow the oppressive regime the women/girls rarely took an active participatory role. It was men rule/make decisions, women at their sides. Another inaccuracy when extrapolating this story from metaphor into real life situations.
This book is truly a “fantasy” version of life in an oppressive regime. And I use the word fantasy here in its most negative sense. For true, good fantasy illuminates reality. It opens one’s eyes to life. It creates a metaphor, that when read, shows the reader more truths about life that otherwise may have been hidden or hard to grasp or express. The fantasy world in writing allows for a metaphoric backdrop which enables the exploration of intense and hard to express situations. This book does a serious injustice to what really occurs in these types of horrendous situations and leaves readers thinking that a young girl can just immediately move on from an attempted rape to falling in love all in the same night, and that a rebel group can overthrow a government, transform its’ brainwashed youth, and live a happy and free life all in a one night showdown, and with barely a life lost. This provides a very inaccurate view that could seriously misguide youth who may have no other understanding of these types of situations. Also, I have no idea why this book is in the juvenile section, and not in young adult, other than the characters are rats rather than humans, something that is easily forgotten as one reads the descriptions. I would definitely not have anyone under 12 years old read this book.
Finally, I would not recommend this book, nor would I read the next book in the series. And it’s too bad really, as the author is actually a good writer and the characters are intriguing. But, unfortunately, that is not enough to make up for the very poor and inaccurate storyline and graphic nature of the book.
If you’re looking for a book about war, oppression, and conflict I’d recommend Gregor the Overlander instead.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2010
The coolest thing about this book was that while you never forget that the characters are rats, you actually sort of do. See, I have never liked rats. Something about the tail, I think. And maybe the plague. But while I was reading NIGHTSHADE CITY, I found myself wanting to hold one in my hand and pet its cute little tail, and maybe ask it over for dinner so I could give him a tiny plate with a tiny wedge of cheese and maybe a tiny tankard filled with a tiny amount of ale. It would be great fun to have an intelligent conversation with a rat that had a tiny little knife tucked into his tiny little belt.
See, this is how incredible Wagner’s rats are. They feel so real to me, so human. Just…smaller…and ratty. But I don’t lump them all together in my mind. Each of the rats has very distinct personalities and markings so that you quickly come to understand who each of the characters are without having to have them named—this in itself makes them seem more human and relatable. And so, too, does the story itself humanize the rats, as the story deals with some very common, but significant human themes and topics: good versus evil, love, friendship, family, honor, revenge, greed, suffering, and freedom.
And what a remarkable story, too. Fast paced and compelling. I was so caught up in it, flying through the pages, needing to know what was happening next. This is what I mean when I say that you sort of forget they’re just rats—because you think of them in sympathetic terms. You want the hero to triumph and the villain to get what’s coming to him. And when you read about some misfortune that has befallen one of them (such as a human rat trap), you feel so awful—and kind of guilty by association. You can’t help but invest your emotions in it, to root for the poor, downtrodden rats being sorely abused by the oppressive regime ruling their city. Your heart might even go out to the lowly earth worm, which is so mistreated.
All around, it’s just a great tale filled with tense moments, touching scenes, and some heart-thumping action. And did I mention there were some gruesome events in this? Totally creeptastic and awesome—just a few scenes where you sort of go, ewwww, but you lean in and read just a hair faster anyway (kind of like when Peter Pettigrew slices his own hand in HP?), but it’s not scary, just *whoa!*. And that ending? WOW. Wagner is so tricksy. Trust me, the kids will love this, but I think if you like a heartwarming, heroic tale, you’ll enjoy it as well.
See, this is how incredible Wagner’s rats are. They feel so real to me, so human. Just…smaller…and ratty. But I don’t lump them all together in my mind. Each of the rats has very distinct personalities and markings so that you quickly come to understand who each of the characters are without having to have them named—this in itself makes them seem more human and relatable. And so, too, does the story itself humanize the rats, as the story deals with some very common, but significant human themes and topics: good versus evil, love, friendship, family, honor, revenge, greed, suffering, and freedom.
And what a remarkable story, too. Fast paced and compelling. I was so caught up in it, flying through the pages, needing to know what was happening next. This is what I mean when I say that you sort of forget they’re just rats—because you think of them in sympathetic terms. You want the hero to triumph and the villain to get what’s coming to him. And when you read about some misfortune that has befallen one of them (such as a human rat trap), you feel so awful—and kind of guilty by association. You can’t help but invest your emotions in it, to root for the poor, downtrodden rats being sorely abused by the oppressive regime ruling their city. Your heart might even go out to the lowly earth worm, which is so mistreated.
All around, it’s just a great tale filled with tense moments, touching scenes, and some heart-thumping action. And did I mention there were some gruesome events in this? Totally creeptastic and awesome—just a few scenes where you sort of go, ewwww, but you lean in and read just a hair faster anyway (kind of like when Peter Pettigrew slices his own hand in HP?), but it’s not scary, just *whoa!*. And that ending? WOW. Wagner is so tricksy. Trust me, the kids will love this, but I think if you like a heartwarming, heroic tale, you’ll enjoy it as well.
October 18, 2010
Nightshade City is a wonderful tale of intelligent rats who are forced to live under the brutal High Minister Killdeer and Billycan, a ruthless former lab whose favorite activity is to torture and kill his innocent subjects. But Billycan's old enemy, Juniper, is planning his revenge.
This book is a must read for anyone nine and older.
This book is a must read for anyone nine and older.
June 26, 2010
Great tale of family and friendship. Wonferdul read from debut author Hilary Wagner - deserved every last word of Riordan's endorcement.
March 16, 2011
Nightshade City was a interesting read, about anthropomorphic rats living underground in a city called the Catacombs. Everything was peaceful, until one day some evil rats, led by the rats Killdeer and Billycan, killed the good ruler and took over, turning the Catacombs into a place of terror, where the rats lived in fear every moment of the day.
A male rat named Juniper, supposedly killed by Billycan during the Bloody Coup, is living in hiding with his niece,Clover, waiting for the right moment to strike his revenge. Secretly he is helping the abused and terrified families of the Catacombs escape and, together, slowly forming a secret city, where all rats will live in freedom!
This book was pretty interesting, although it wasn't my favorite. It was sort of weird how the evil rat Billycan spoke to himself in third person, and I thought some of the names could be replaced with a few "he's" and "she's". Also, the two "main" characters, Vincent and Victor...It was so easy to confused the two! The author must have loved V names, because besides those two, there was another guy with a V name, and it certainly got annoying when they were all in the same room! I wished one of the brothers had maybe an L name...XD
For example during the climax, when one of the brothers killed a bad guy, I thought it was the other brother but it really wasn't. It turned out the younger brother killed the bad guy, which was sort of surprising because he was barely mentioned...and then he just happens to kill one of the villains?!
AND, also! That rat Juniper I mentioned earlier. He got his eye clawed out by Billycan during the Bloody Coup...don't you think he'd at LEAST want revenge? In the end he didn't even DO anything, although he certainly had the time and weapons to. In the end Billycan, the main bad guy who caused the Catacombs so much misfortune, just...disappeared!
Also, WHY didn't the small group of rats led by Juniper take over the city in the beginning? In the end, it turns out a couple of rats was all they needed; Killdeer's 'army' was just a bunch of frightened--not LOYAL--rats, and they quickly joined Juniper to go to Nightshade City, where everyone would be free.
About ten rats was all that was needed to free the Catacombs, not all 262 pages worth of gathering rats!! Bottom line: I think the Climax was TOO EASY.
Hmmm I probably won't reread this book. It was sort of forgettable and I don't think I'll be reading the second one...
A male rat named Juniper, supposedly killed by Billycan during the Bloody Coup, is living in hiding with his niece,Clover, waiting for the right moment to strike his revenge. Secretly he is helping the abused and terrified families of the Catacombs escape and, together, slowly forming a secret city, where all rats will live in freedom!
This book was pretty interesting, although it wasn't my favorite. It was sort of weird how the evil rat Billycan spoke to himself in third person, and I thought some of the names could be replaced with a few "he's" and "she's". Also, the two "main" characters, Vincent and Victor...It was so easy to confused the two! The author must have loved V names, because besides those two, there was another guy with a V name, and it certainly got annoying when they were all in the same room! I wished one of the brothers had maybe an L name...XD
For example during the climax, when one of the brothers killed a bad guy, I thought it was the other brother but it really wasn't. It turned out the younger brother killed the bad guy, which was sort of surprising because he was barely mentioned...and then he just happens to kill one of the villains?!
AND, also! That rat Juniper I mentioned earlier. He got his eye clawed out by Billycan during the Bloody Coup...don't you think he'd at LEAST want revenge? In the end he didn't even DO anything, although he certainly had the time and weapons to. In the end Billycan, the main bad guy who caused the Catacombs so much misfortune, just...disappeared!
Also, WHY didn't the small group of rats led by Juniper take over the city in the beginning? In the end, it turns out a couple of rats was all they needed; Killdeer's 'army' was just a bunch of frightened--not LOYAL--rats, and they quickly joined Juniper to go to Nightshade City, where everyone would be free.
About ten rats was all that was needed to free the Catacombs, not all 262 pages worth of gathering rats!! Bottom line: I think the Climax was TOO EASY.
Hmmm I probably won't reread this book. It was sort of forgettable and I don't think I'll be reading the second one...
August 15, 2011
Always a sucker for middle grade, talking animal fantasy, I naturally had to read one that has been so positively reviewed here. Having been a huge Redwall fan for over a decade, I admit to being a little skeptical of Nightsahde City because of the publisher's obvious attempt to make the book 'look' like that series. I was actually pleased that the story doesn't resemble those books in tone or spirit, but rather is a very original story with wonderfully formed characters. Hilary Wagner certainly knows how to bring the world of the Catacombs to life. The barbarism of the Kill Army and its commanders is palpable and well-defined, as is the heroism of the rats of the newly formed Nightshade City. The story moves quickly, with enough action mixed in to keep the pages turning. I'm really looking forward to reading the next book.
However, the book did leave me with some questions. In the beginning of the book, there is a dark cloud that hangs over the plot. There is foreshadowing of a rape, which never occurs but still surprised me for a book geared to ages 9 and up. As an adult, I found it added to the sense of danger and was handled well, but as a children's author, I was simply surprised. But given that it was there, I was even more surprised that the concluding action of the plot is handled with so little violence. The entire book builds to a massive battle which never occurs. Which is noble, and also fits in with the theme of reason over brutality. But I couldn't help feeling that it somehow didn't fit the narrative structure set up in the beginning. None of this prevented me from thoroughly enjoying the book, and most people probably wouldn't notice these things, but as a writer, I found it a fascinating aspect of the book that I thought worthy of note.
However, the book did leave me with some questions. In the beginning of the book, there is a dark cloud that hangs over the plot. There is foreshadowing of a rape, which never occurs but still surprised me for a book geared to ages 9 and up. As an adult, I found it added to the sense of danger and was handled well, but as a children's author, I was simply surprised. But given that it was there, I was even more surprised that the concluding action of the plot is handled with so little violence. The entire book builds to a massive battle which never occurs. Which is noble, and also fits in with the theme of reason over brutality. But I couldn't help feeling that it somehow didn't fit the narrative structure set up in the beginning. None of this prevented me from thoroughly enjoying the book, and most people probably wouldn't notice these things, but as a writer, I found it a fascinating aspect of the book that I thought worthy of note.
January 9, 2020
"Expect great lack of originality in Nightshade City." I'm not sure how much Mr. Riordan actually supports the endorsement made on the cover of the book, but it's not exactly accurate.
Now don't get me wrong. This book was ok. It's not like it's washed up trash or anything, or even that it's bad. It's that it's just ok. And that's the problem.
First of all, nothing that happened in this book was unpredictable at all. You can call the ending from the first few pages, and since there's legitimately NO twists or anything of that sort in this story, you would be at least ninety percent right. This book was boring, not because there wasn't action, or characters, but because you knew the ending from the first 10 pages. I was half afraid half excited to get to the end of this book, excited because I imagined a whole lot of things the author could do to twist the story and make it meaningful and an interesting piece of literature, afraid, because from what I'd seen so far, in that all of my predictions had been made to be correct, had gone off without a hitch. There was nothing in this book that surprised me, even slightly. Mrs. Wagner does a good job of making you think she's going to twist the ending and then she goes and laughs in your face and it's the exact ending you were expecting.
Not getting into spoilers (although, there aren't any, really, because nothing happens you don't know will happen), but the basic set-up is this: there was this peaceful city of rats. Big rat and his evil henchmen overthrow the peaceful city and set up a dictatorship. Good rats set up rebellion to overthrow dictator. Does that sound like Star Wars to you? Yeah, sounds exactly like it to me too. There is no originality in this book. Everything you know will happen happens. There are no stakes because from what you see in the first hundred pages it's obvious the ending will be a happy one, where literally no one dies.
Unfortunately the fact that Mrs. Wagner set herself up for a sequel worries me. She's not a terrible writer. As I said she's just ok. She should move on from this plot line (one that's been used countless times, except this one has rats and no light sabers or ewoks) and try to practice her craft and make something unique. Something not like this. Her actions scenes have ok detail, and for the most part they're not boring, even though you know what will happen. Her dialogue is hot garbage, and her character work is seriously lacking. The Catacombs (city ruled by dictator) lies underneath a modernized city: TVs, gardens, traps, etc. So the fact that all of the characters here speak like they're in a bad Shakespearean play is troublesome. At one point a character yells at big bad guy "my ill will towards you knows no bounds!" Unless Mrs. Wagner is living under a bridge, people don't talk like this anymore. And you could defend it, sure. You could say the rats aren't as advanced as a humans, which is true. But when Mrs. Wagner lets the humans talk, a human CHILD no less, and he sounds exactly like Shakespeare, I see a couple of problems with that. The dialogue is plastic and the characters either defined by one personality trait or none at all. Big bad is a bad guy. Henchmen is mean. Big good is good guy. Male protagonist is brave. Female protagonist is scared. K.
Again, this is an ok book. For fans of Redwall and those who are looking for a comfort story with no themes or deeper thought, or anything that involves stakes, this is a good read. Wagner's writing isn't atrocious, save the dialogue. If you have a kid it doesn't hurt at all to read it to them. Again it's not a bad book. It's not good either, or special. But it's not bad. Additionally, this was written by a first-time author, and Wagner can be forgiven for a large number of the mistakes she made in the crafting of this book. I'd look forward to any future work. For now, though, while a good first attempt, this book was unoriginal, with extremely formal dialogue which is painful to read at times, with no twists or turns whatsoever.
Now don't get me wrong. This book was ok. It's not like it's washed up trash or anything, or even that it's bad. It's that it's just ok. And that's the problem.
First of all, nothing that happened in this book was unpredictable at all. You can call the ending from the first few pages, and since there's legitimately NO twists or anything of that sort in this story, you would be at least ninety percent right. This book was boring, not because there wasn't action, or characters, but because you knew the ending from the first 10 pages. I was half afraid half excited to get to the end of this book, excited because I imagined a whole lot of things the author could do to twist the story and make it meaningful and an interesting piece of literature, afraid, because from what I'd seen so far, in that all of my predictions had been made to be correct, had gone off without a hitch. There was nothing in this book that surprised me, even slightly. Mrs. Wagner does a good job of making you think she's going to twist the ending and then she goes and laughs in your face and it's the exact ending you were expecting.
Not getting into spoilers (although, there aren't any, really, because nothing happens you don't know will happen), but the basic set-up is this: there was this peaceful city of rats. Big rat and his evil henchmen overthrow the peaceful city and set up a dictatorship. Good rats set up rebellion to overthrow dictator. Does that sound like Star Wars to you? Yeah, sounds exactly like it to me too. There is no originality in this book. Everything you know will happen happens. There are no stakes because from what you see in the first hundred pages it's obvious the ending will be a happy one, where literally no one dies.
Unfortunately the fact that Mrs. Wagner set herself up for a sequel worries me. She's not a terrible writer. As I said she's just ok. She should move on from this plot line (one that's been used countless times, except this one has rats and no light sabers or ewoks) and try to practice her craft and make something unique. Something not like this. Her actions scenes have ok detail, and for the most part they're not boring, even though you know what will happen. Her dialogue is hot garbage, and her character work is seriously lacking. The Catacombs (city ruled by dictator) lies underneath a modernized city: TVs, gardens, traps, etc. So the fact that all of the characters here speak like they're in a bad Shakespearean play is troublesome. At one point a character yells at big bad guy "my ill will towards you knows no bounds!" Unless Mrs. Wagner is living under a bridge, people don't talk like this anymore. And you could defend it, sure. You could say the rats aren't as advanced as a humans, which is true. But when Mrs. Wagner lets the humans talk, a human CHILD no less, and he sounds exactly like Shakespeare, I see a couple of problems with that. The dialogue is plastic and the characters either defined by one personality trait or none at all. Big bad is a bad guy. Henchmen is mean. Big good is good guy. Male protagonist is brave. Female protagonist is scared. K.
Again, this is an ok book. For fans of Redwall and those who are looking for a comfort story with no themes or deeper thought, or anything that involves stakes, this is a good read. Wagner's writing isn't atrocious, save the dialogue. If you have a kid it doesn't hurt at all to read it to them. Again it's not a bad book. It's not good either, or special. But it's not bad. Additionally, this was written by a first-time author, and Wagner can be forgiven for a large number of the mistakes she made in the crafting of this book. I'd look forward to any future work. For now, though, while a good first attempt, this book was unoriginal, with extremely formal dialogue which is painful to read at times, with no twists or turns whatsoever.
October 25, 2010
I LOVED The Rats of NIMH, when I was a kid. When I picked up Nightshade City, I was half really excited about reading a new novel about a secret civilization of intelligent rats and half really really worried that it could never live up to my memory of Mrs. Frisby and her children. Well, I was right on both counts. The secret civilization of intelligent rats is there and, in the same spirit of O'Brien's classic, they are very human little rodents and the descriptions and characterizations of them are simply magic. For example:
"Lamenting his large dinner, Lithgo leaned against the wall for support as sweat trickled down his thick russet brow and steam wafted from his now-filthy coat. The two young lieutenants stood without a sound, waiting for the major's orders. All that could be heard in the dusky corridor was Lithgo's weighty breathing." p.4
Can't you see that scene? You know what kind of major Lithgo is, the overweight, past his prime, spent kind. He's also really evil, but that's not the point of this paragraph. Wagner manages to describe the rats, especially when we first meet them, in a way that reminds you that they're rats but also reminds you that they're "people."
But this is not a novel about a sweet widow and her helpless children or even a society of rats who are fleeing humans. This is a novel about a just civilization of rats that was overthrown in a now legendary Bloody Coup. The bad guys are other rats, and they include a very large albino rat, escaped from some kind of testing facility, who delights in torturing and scaring those over whom he rules. This monster, Billycan, leads an army of orphaned male rats, teaching them to be killing machines and to police their former friends and neighbors before they even reach adulthood.
There are parts of this book that are definitely not for the faint of heart. Teenagers worry that their younger siblings are being tortured on their behalf; powerful leaders try to seduce young and beautiful girls; people (rats) die. Through all of that, Nightshade City and its early inhabitants never lose their resolve that things will turn out alright. Because of them, their normalcy and their senses of humor, the story never gets too scary or harsh. It's just important. What Vincent, Victor and the rest of the rats of Nightshade City are doing is of utmost importance and people will suffer greatly if they don't accomplish what they've set out to do. In this way, and in the way that violence and evil and other scary stuff is used, I think it is along the lines of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. What the characters are doing feels epic and like it will change everything. Maybe it will.
This definitely one of my favorite books read this year, which is something I almost never say. I just LOVED this!
Book source: Review copy provided by the publisher
"Lamenting his large dinner, Lithgo leaned against the wall for support as sweat trickled down his thick russet brow and steam wafted from his now-filthy coat. The two young lieutenants stood without a sound, waiting for the major's orders. All that could be heard in the dusky corridor was Lithgo's weighty breathing." p.4
Can't you see that scene? You know what kind of major Lithgo is, the overweight, past his prime, spent kind. He's also really evil, but that's not the point of this paragraph. Wagner manages to describe the rats, especially when we first meet them, in a way that reminds you that they're rats but also reminds you that they're "people."
But this is not a novel about a sweet widow and her helpless children or even a society of rats who are fleeing humans. This is a novel about a just civilization of rats that was overthrown in a now legendary Bloody Coup. The bad guys are other rats, and they include a very large albino rat, escaped from some kind of testing facility, who delights in torturing and scaring those over whom he rules. This monster, Billycan, leads an army of orphaned male rats, teaching them to be killing machines and to police their former friends and neighbors before they even reach adulthood.
There are parts of this book that are definitely not for the faint of heart. Teenagers worry that their younger siblings are being tortured on their behalf; powerful leaders try to seduce young and beautiful girls; people (rats) die. Through all of that, Nightshade City and its early inhabitants never lose their resolve that things will turn out alright. Because of them, their normalcy and their senses of humor, the story never gets too scary or harsh. It's just important. What Vincent, Victor and the rest of the rats of Nightshade City are doing is of utmost importance and people will suffer greatly if they don't accomplish what they've set out to do. In this way, and in the way that violence and evil and other scary stuff is used, I think it is along the lines of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. What the characters are doing feels epic and like it will change everything. Maybe it will.
This definitely one of my favorite books read this year, which is something I almost never say. I just LOVED this!
Book source: Review copy provided by the publisher
May 6, 2010
I've read this book a couple times now, and Mr. Riordan's recommendation is entirely appropriate - this is a great book! I'm definitely Team Juniper. A caveat: I read this book in its ARC form & know the author -- but I'd love this book anyway, *especially* if I was a kid again. It really highlights family and togetherness, as well as being spooky enough for the average boy to enjoy. I can see this being a fan favorite!
I'm also super excited that Billycan - BOOK 2 - has been sold to Holiday House. I expect another great read when its released!
Five stars!
I'm also super excited that Billycan - BOOK 2 - has been sold to Holiday House. I expect another great read when its released!
Five stars!
December 19, 2010
Hi Hilary,
Here are the thoughts of my daughter Hannah on Nightshade City. (She's eleven)
"I love Nightshade City (as my dad has already told you). I love all the characters and that you describe them all. But I sort of had a hard time imagining Lali. I know what she looks like except for her color. I don't think you say in the book.
I was also wondering who are the rats on page 201?
I love your book and I can't wait for the next one to come out. and also as my dad told you, I'm on my fourth time reading it. Nightshade City is one of my favorite books. Hannah Wiley"
Here are the thoughts of my daughter Hannah on Nightshade City. (She's eleven)
"I love Nightshade City (as my dad has already told you). I love all the characters and that you describe them all. But I sort of had a hard time imagining Lali. I know what she looks like except for her color. I don't think you say in the book.
I was also wondering who are the rats on page 201?
I love your book and I can't wait for the next one to come out. and also as my dad told you, I'm on my fourth time reading it. Nightshade City is one of my favorite books. Hannah Wiley"
March 28, 2012
This is written in a literary style, very much like Watership Down and even Charles Dickens' works. More for 9 and up, rather than younger kids. That said, I thought it was a fast paced story, full of twists and turns. Each new chapter brought a new element to the mystery which all comes together at the end. It does have some violence, but no more than the HP series or other MG books I've read. I just finished the 2nd book, which I actually thought was better than the first, which is surprising for a sequel.
June 14, 2012
Always one to enjoy an animal fantasy, it was easy to see why I chose this book. The cover alone conjures up images of Redwall but what really got me going was the authors vivid descriptions and vibrant characters. I just love this description: "The fire smoldered softly, infusing the room with a warm caramel glow, the ideal setting for a midday nap." I enjoyed the pacing and the sense of good versus evil. Truly looking forward to the next one in the series.
November 30, 2010
This was a fun and action-packed animal adventure story. I was a bit skeptical at first, because I'm not usually a fan of animal books, but I was drawn into the action and found myself rooting for those rats! It was a lot of fun and I think kids who love animal books or just a great adventure will enjoy it. Full review at One Librarian's Book Reviews.
January 14, 2011
This is a very good children's book. These colorful rats have warm, real, sensitive personalities and care about each other. The opposing group is cruel, sadistic and controlling. While there is discussion of violence and descriptions of what has happened to those who object to the cruel group the author does not dwell on that aspect. A first book for Hilary Wagner, she uses the classic theme of good and evil.
October 18, 2010
This book was a really good book. The story was fantasic and the characters were great. The only thing that I didn't like was the whole rats... I could not get past the fact that they were rats. I really liked the book. One of the better books that I have read. Rats gross me out. Thank you Hilary for letting me enter the world of nightshade city. I really liked it, just not the rats so much ;p.
July 28, 2010
I've never read a book about rats before, so I was surprised when I fell in love with the characters in NIGHTSHADE CITY. There was plenty of action and suspense to keep me turning the pages as Juniper's faction rebels against Killdeer's in a battle of good versus evil. The author created a believable, well-defined world of an underground rodent civilization.
June 24, 2020
Starts out well but then becomes utterly stereotypical. The middle-end is a sing-song romp of the protagonists who at very turn thwart the bad guys. Everything works out perfect and lovely and happy-ever-after. You might think there would be bad casualties considering their had to overthrow a dictator right??? Hahaha, nope. A worm dies (and that's prior to the coup).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 7, 2014
This was quite the adventure. From start to finish, I was on the edge of my seat. I loved all the characters even though they were a little predictable. However, my favorites were the earthworms. They added a bit of mystery to the story. Them and Billycan. Very strange.
August 25, 2010
I can't believe my first book has an ISBN number! I hope you love it as much I do and thanks for reading Nightshade City!
May 5, 2010
Wagner creates a believable underground world and memorable characters, some you'll love and some you'll loathe!
October 1, 2010
A super fantasy for young people, Nightshade City has it all: adventure, bad guys, and really cool rats that you will love. Booklove review coming soon!
June 27, 2010
Read the ARC over the weekend--fabulous! It reminds me of all the classic books I read as a kid and the writing is terrific. NIMH 2.0!
November 4, 2010
Awesome debut that'll bring back memories of Nimh and Watership Down, and make you sad you have to leave the world when it's over!
December 27, 2010
I very much enjoyed this book, and I hope another one comes out. It was very interesting and emphasized the importance of family and how we should stick together. Very well done book.
December 27, 2010
Awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
January 9, 2011
I got this for my birthday. Read it in 2 days! I loved this book.
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