RATS

Zone Unknown #4

by Paul Zindel

When mutant rats escape from a dump on Staten Island and wreak havoc on the town's citizens, quick-thinking Sara and her younger brother stop the rats from taking over New York City and ending civilization as we know it.

Genres: Horror, Young Adult, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult Horror

176 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Paul Zindel was an American author, playwright and educator.

In 1964, he wrote The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, his first and most successful play. The play ran off-Broadway in 1970, and on Broadway in 1971. It won the 1971 Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was also made into a 1972 movie by 20th Century Fox. Charlotte Zolotow, then a vice-president at Harper & Row (now Harper-Collins) contacted him to writing for her book label. Zindel wrote 39 books, all of them aimed at children or young adults. Many of these were set in his home town of Staten Island, New York. They tended to be semi-autobiographical, focusing on teenage misfits with abusive or neglectful parents. Despite the often dark subject matter of his books, which deal with loneliness, loss, and the effects of abuse, they are also filled with humor. Many of his novels have wacky titles, such as My Darling, My Hamburger, or Confessions of A Teenage Baboon.

The Pigman, first published in 1968, is widely taught in American schools, and also made it on to the list of most frequently banned books in America in the 1990s, because of what some deem offensive language.

Reviews

[Eileen · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5⭐️ the beginning of this book was really promising, it had a fair amazing of body horror and gore in it for a young adult book. It gave me kinda Goosebumps vibes, but obviously not as good. When I got to the halfway point I just didn’t care about the plot anymore or the characters. But the body horror is what saved it honestly.

[Mackenzie Marrow · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nebraska Book Club Spotlight - August 26th, 2025

After 80 (!) Book Club Spotlights, I am still finding hidden gems in our collection. As a huge horror reader I always thought our collection was lacking in that genre, until I stumbled across Rats by Paul Zindel and was instantly sucked into his macabre world. Known for book titles with unique names such as ‘The Pigman’ , ‘Pardon Me, You’re Stepping on My Eyeball!’, and ‘My Darling, My Hamburger’, Zindel, dubbed the “Avatar of Teen Angst” by The School Library Journal, is best known for ushering in the realistic teen fiction revolution along with contemporaries like Judy Blume. The late author was never one to sanitize his work and spoke directly to an audience that was neglected by the publishing industry. Whether that was in his general YA fiction, or his action/horror adventure series, Zindel will give the truth to his readers in all their glorious and gory details.

On a hot summer day in the forgotten borough of New York, 30 years of rotting trash is being slowly buried under mountains of asphalt, trapping and poisoning the landfills’ rat denizens with methane gas. The unsuspecting citizens of the quiet Staten Island suburb are in the fright of their lives as hordes of mutated rats burst from the seams, with a taste for blood. Self-proclaimed rat expert Sarah and her little brother Mike must race to stop the murderous infestation before it takes over New York City. But little do they know, they have a mole amongst the rats.

“The dread of rats had been programmed into her young genes, into centuries of being human. Into mankind’s long evolution and deep, deep, cry to survive”

– Paul Zindel

Rats is a part of Zindel’s “The Zone Unknown Series” which are stand-alone horror/thriller books featuring young teens fighting to survive a mutated and perilous natural world. Teachers and librarians are always looking for the perfect book to get through to their reluctant readers, books that are engaging and exciting stories written with non-readers in mind. Since Halloween is only two months away, maybe you’re looking for a gnarly and visceral horror novel to hook your reluctant readers. In Rats, Zindel weaves his gross-out descriptions with prose that, at times, is startlingly evocative. It contains both emotional and environmental messages that can lead to good discussion. Students can learn about proper Landfill Capping, and the harmful effects of pollution. They will also read about personal and family strife. How to reach out for help and to not hide their problems from those who love them, letting it poison and fester until it’s too big to control.

If you’re a school librarian or are leading a preteen to teen book group, I do recommend giving Rats a look-over first to see if the graphic images and scenarios are right for your particular students. Some readers will be too squeamish while others will be thoroughly captivated. It takes all kinds!

"In 1969 I quit teaching altogether. I felt I could do more for teenagers by writing for them. I started reading some young adult books, and what I saw in most of them had no connection to the teenagers I knew. I thought I knew what kids would want in a book, so I made a list and followed it. I try to show teens they aren’t alone. I believe I must convince my readers that I am on their side; I know it’s a continuous battle to get through the years between twelve and twenty — an abrasive time. And so I write always from their own point of view." [x]

___________________________________________

3.5????

Finished this yesterday and I'm going to write a Book Club Spotlight on it for next week, but I had to come on here and say...….. Hey Paul? Why does a big rat sexually assault a 15 year old girl? What the fuck?

[Dan C. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Think of the things that would make a perfect book. Mutant rats? Check. Mutant MAN-EATING rats? Double check. Mutant man-eating rats headed from a dump on Staten Island towards Manhattan to feast on limitless flesh? Triple effing check. How could a book like this go wrong, especially when it's written by esteemed Pulitzer Prize winning young adult author Paul Zindel?

Let me count the ways.

As I alluded to, Rats is all about gigantic mutant man-eating rats that bred underneath a Staten Island dump that had been sealed over with asphalt. I guess it was the buildup of methane that caused them to mutate, but they escape and much calamity ensues. I'll admit that I picked up Rats partially because it is a paltry 203 pages, but I thought that with a set up like that, I couldn't miss. I'd have an easy entry into my 25 books AND have an enjoyable time. It sure starts out with a bang as a landfill operator on his last day on the job decides to take his BB gun out to kill some dump rats. Like something out of Creepshow, the rats descend on him until he is nothing but pieces. All of this is described in great gory detail as if this were a Stephen King or a Brian Keene novel.

Then the main characters got introduced and it was all downhill from there.

Because this is a young adult novel, the main characters are teenagers, the son and daughter of the widowed landfill director. When the rats start coming up through toilets and other pipes, they know something is wrong. What follows is a confusing and nearly unreadable mess that I'm not sure I would have even been terribly interested in as a 14-year-old boy. Plot lines show up and then are dropped. Things are never adequately explained. There's some business with their pet rat Surfer - does he or does he not communicate with the rats? The world may never know.

There is the inevitable meetup with the king rat but at that point, the book is so cartoonish I half expected him to be wearing a crown and holding a scepter. The ending is nonsensical and abrupt and left me scratching my head.

Needless to say, I don't recommend this book at all to anyone of any age. The gory parts were cool, but the parts with the whiny kids and the ineffective adults more than canceled that out.

I expected much more out of the man that gave us The Pigman.

[Brendan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had this in my classroom library 20 years ago, and it literally got read to death. Kids who never picked up a book would devour this in a day. I remember reading and liking it then, so I decided to read it again.

Hoo boy, this does not hold up well. There are some good things going on, such as fantastic, unapolagetic gore that's still kind of shocking in a book for this age group, and some brilliant, horrifying images that are both gross and disturbing.

Unfortunately, there's really nothing holding it together. The characters barely exist, and the writing is bad.
It's bad.
Bad.
Like this.
And then there's the part where the kid calls the rat "my best pal!" People, I am here to tell you that nobody has talked like that since probably the 1960's. I was in elementary school in the 1970's, and I have a clear memory of a bunch of kids in my 2nd grade class using "pal" ironically.

So, yeah. Some decent horrific images, but not much of a book.

[Kelsi - Slime and Slashers · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book doesn't seem like it has the highest reviews here. But I'm a sucker for animal attack stories, so I knew I was apt to like and enjoy this one. I was correct in my thinking. This book had some really gory and graphic descriptions for being a middle grade book. I loved that! And after reading a particular passage contained in this book about catching and processing tuna, I may never eat tuna fish again. The ending could have packed an even bigger punch for some, but I personally wasn't disappointed. The one criticism I can give is that one of the main kid characters isn't very likable. Otherwise, I really dug everything about this book.

Overall, I thought this read was a bloody good time, and because it's clearly geared towards younger readers, it was also a simple and fast paced read as well. I would recommend The Rats to any fans of animal attack or animal revenge stories who may be looking for a quick and easy read.

[Tamara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book years ago, and I still have issues with rats thanks to it. Thanks, Paul Zindel.

[Mandy Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have just read this book before giving it to my daughter (age9) to check to see if I thought it would be suitable for her and I’m glad I did because I personally do not think it’s for younger readers!

I was a bit shocked to see the mention of vodka and cancer used in a story for the age it is aimed at however those words are only used once.

Other then that the animal attack scenes that are in the book I did really enjoy and some times had me on the edge of my seat but these are quite gory…maybe a bit too gory for the intended age.

The only thing that really let the book down for me was the description of navigating the boat the children own through all these different areas I found myself zoning out and had no clue what was happening.

If you like animal attack books then I definitely think that this is worth reading as it’s a fairly quick read. I would also recommend that if your looking at it for a younger reader to maybe read it before giving them it to see if you think it would be suitable for them.

[Ezekiel · Rating 2 out of 5]

So I'd read this back in middle school and remember being affected by how gnarly it gets--since it's ostensibly meant for a YA-and-under audience. Happy to report that the descriptions are still pretty raw. Might be a stretch, but I'd wager to say they'd affect even a sensitive adult. I wasn't surprised that I could no longer find the book on the shelves of the library where I'd initially checked it out all those years ago. The death scenes, in terms of sheer gross-out factor, is likely the best thing about this, though (in addition to a robust fascination on Zindel's part with the icky and rancid), as everything else is rather ordinary and cliche. Quick skim through memory lane.

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very disappointing book. It reads like something an 8th grader would write, filled with blood and gore and no story line. Giant, mutant rats come out of the landfill and eat everything in their sight--including humans. The story goes from the description of one person being eaten alive to the description of the next to the description of the next. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

[Scott E · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rubbish. No urgency or real high stakes. Characters had no characterisation and just existed to move the terrible plot along

[Wyatt Welch · Rating 5 out of 5]

rats are cute (not in this book)

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book in 7th grade and it got me into reading always have a soft spot for it

[Brenda Osborne · Rating 3 out of 5]

As an educator, I would recommend this book for those boys who are not that interested in reading. Large killer rats wreaking havoc in New York? What’s not to love?

[Wolverinefactor · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a literal bloody good time this is.

[Madi]

I wasn't scared of rats until I read this book (when I was young). A great horror read for preteens.

[Joe Newman · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is primetime Zindel, this is my go-to reference when it comes to gruesome and gory terror by one of my favorite authors growing up. The violence is tremendous and the stakes feel truly apocalyptic, especially when you have mountains of man eating rats flipping several tons of garbage trucks.
Our protagonist, always one of Zindel's strengths is a grounded and relatable teen. Something that Paul always nails so well is having a protagonist who is capable and competent without ever feeling god tier or plot armored. Their decisions make sense for their age, they're never pulling some 4D chess maneuver, and are easier to root for because of it.
That's definitely the case here in Rats with Sarah and her younger brother Michael. The pacing is nonstop from the first page, literally no filler, just rats coming from the drains and people being eaten alive. There are several scenes I remember reading when I was like 11 or 12 and they are exactly as visceral then as they are now.

[Krystl Louwagie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rats-Paul Zindel (audio book)

This was an audio book gotten for cheap from a library book sale. I got it because I think rats are cool. I assumed it was a YA-ish book because the cover had drawn rats on it, and the two main characters were like 13 and 10. But this book was flippin' gory and extremely detailed about it! It's about a neighborhood that is situated near a garbage dump that contains bad chemicals that just keep getting covered over with tar mounds-there are a lot of rats that live at the garbage dump. They become a little mutated, and very, very angry. So they go on a killing spree.

The 13 year old girl and her brother living there have a pet rat that they love, and she's studied rats for a lot of school projects, including science fair. Somehow because of this studying, she knows more about rats and how to fix the problem than, like, anyone else in the world. Which is just stupid, because yeah, she's done some research, but the people who wrote the research's she's reading probably know more than she does, duh. Also, I think this book's message was not to have pet rats, and I didn't like that. Also, either I was just day dreaming too much and didn't understand what happened, or the solution to the problem didn't make any sense at the end of the book.

The complaints being said, I found it quite impressive how descriptive and gory everything was. That was entertaining, at least. The book had a certain edginess at times that I liked. Plus, rats are interesting. So, the book kept me mostly interested. Still, it's being donated to the book sale.

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I give up. I made it to page 98 and stopped. I could not read anymore. What I read was alright, and I imagine in middleschool I would have quite enjoyed it. The gore would have felt thrilling and forbidden and the fluffy writing would have gone undetected. As an adult I'm only left wondering how a book about GIANT RATS can be boring. The book feels almost like two individuals wrote it. There are these intensely violent death scenes interspersed with ineptly written segments with the children.

Although I said I would have enjoyed this in middleschool, I can't recommend it to anyone younger than sixteen (and only then if they are mature for their age) because of how absurdly graphic the violence is. It is the type of indulgent imagery that appeals most to younger individuals because it makes them feel more adult to be reading such things, but isn't good for them to read.

That said I can't entirely hate this book. The dynamic between Sarah and Michael is wonderfully refreshing after reading so many books where the siblings are at each others throats and some of the characters that die are given such nasty traits that it's rewarding to read their grisly fate. In the end the worse crime commited by this book is that it was not edited harshly enough for pacing and was allowed to become boring.

[ØrionSof2014 · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like a story with violence and gore this is your book. Rats is about two kids Sarah and Michael, their father works for the city dump and they have a rat named Surfer. Then comes the rats, the rats of the dumpsters are tired of being treated badly and getting killed by humans so they go out of the dumpsters and attack the humans.

I can really make a text to text connection to Sarah. In the book Sarah will do anything to protect her brother, also Sarah loves her family and will never talk bad about them. I would never say anything bad about my parents ether. I love my parents and my brother and Sarah does too.

I would rate this book three out of five stars. I liked the book a lot but there were some parts that went on and on. Also sometimes in the book I would get lost and not know what was going on. I would recommend this book to a person who loves horror.

[Conal Cochran · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never knew Paul Zindel as the Pulitzer Prize winning young adult author. Nope, I knew him as the author of a handful of creature features which packed the gore and excitement that most YA horror material lacked (*cough* Fear Street*cough*). The Doom Stone is easily my favorites--hell, I still think it holds up pretty well--but Rats is the only one that genuinely frightened me.

Sure, it came about twenty years late and on the wrong side of the Atlantic to join the critter attack party that James Herbert kicked off with The Rats, but it has some of the nastiest stuff in YA fiction. It's not the gore so much as it is the fact that Zindel isn't afraid to show bad things happening to kids--to show them genuinely upset and in pain as they get attacked by these nasty little buggers. It packs a punch--and I highly recommend it as trauma material to budding young horror fans.

[Will · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this book was ok. They author did a very good job with describing things like the rats or the main characters. This book reminded me about another book I read and I think they are very similar. I chose this book because the cover looked good. so I pulled it out and red the back, and that is why I red this book.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

RATS is a 3rd person narrative that centers around Sarah and her brother Michael. The main conflict of the story is when rats living in the city dump is mutated (from gases) and wreaks havoc on the citizens of the city.
It is up to Sarah and her brother to stop the rats...

[Jose · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you like gory adventure stories Rats is your book. Paul Zindel gives delivers a hair-raising novel with a lot of suspense and excitement. When rats in town get infected it's up to Sarah and her brother to save the town from destruction. Will they succede or will it be too late? read to find out.

[Glenn.smith94 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the book rats because i like how they discribe a death with out looking at a picture or real life. I dont want to mess up the book for others to read but it's like reading a horror movie. The book is about rats that live in a dump but dont just rat trash and scraps.

[Megan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had the same thing happen every few chapters. I read it with my class and it was ok. It's story cloud have been better, if it didn't have the same thing happen every chapter. The ending was good though!

[Kimberly]

On my list. I am rat phobic. I am drawn to this. But I've heard it was good.

[Jo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Can't recommend this because it gave me nightmares. If you like Steven King.... this is for you.

[Chiara]

this book was awsome! rats is a great book if u want trill if u want excitment....... but when u get a chance read it

[Jennifer Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

A gruesome teen read. I heard far more about rats chewing on human flesh than I ever wanted to. The pacing was good and this would appeal to a 12-15 year old boy.

[Josie · Rating 2 out of 5]

too much detail in killing XP!!!