Was soll ich sagen... was für ein wundervolles Buch! Durch Zufall bin ich in das Buch reingestolpert, und konnte nicht mehr aufhören zu lesen. In nur zwei Tagen durchgelesen, das will schon echt etwas heißen.
Die Welt von Pearl bleibt stehen, als ihre Mutter stirbt. Was bleibt, ist eine Frühchen-Schwester, die sie "Ratte" nennt, und ein Vater, der nicht ihr leiblicher ist. Wie sie sich immer mehr in ihren Kummer verrennt, ihre beste Freundin vergrault, die Schwester nicht lieben will und dem Vater seine Liebe zu ihr nicht mehr zutraut... Das alles hat mich sehr berührt und am Ende mit Tränen in den Augen zurückgelassen.
Ein Buch über die Trauer, die Liebe und das Erwachsenwerden - und ein neues Lieblingsbuch! ( )

2.5 Stars
CW: Death of mother ( )

Pearl is sixteen with a mother she idolizes, a father she loves and a baby sister she is excited to meet. Then in a moment everything goes wrong. Her mother dies, her father pulls away from her in favour of the daughter that is biologically his and her long awaited baby sister is nothing more than a wrinkled ugly rat, not to mention the cause of her mother's death. Somehow no one else sees the rat as she does; no one else seems to care her mother is gone.

The Year Of The Rat is the longest, worst year of Pearl's life. One by one everything in Pearl's life goes wrong and everyone in her life abandons her in-favour of her baby sister, the rat. Her mother was her best friend, her world, and when she died Pearl's life changed in an instant, her world was thrown upside down and nothing would ever be the same again. A touchingly tragic story of grief, secrets, family and the unexpectedness of life. ( )

I have no idea why but I really didn't get on well with this book. I could probably have slogged through to the end, but fuck feeling guilty about not finishing books. ( )

Pearl's mother has died in childbirth, and Pearl is devastated and furious, with her mum and stepdad, with her premature baby sister, still in a hospital incubator, referred to as the Rat, and perhaps most of all with herself.

Bereavement and the emotions that go with it seem to be a popular topic for young adult fiction at the moment, but I found this particular account of a very difficult year in Pearl's life very moving. Pearl's dead mum remains a vivid character in the story, not only in her memories but as a ghost with some rather bad habits, who turns up smoking in Pearl's room to talk to her. Despite the heartbreak in the story's present, these conversations are often very funny. I found the characters very moving and am still wondering about Pearl and how she might be doing now, long after reading the end of the story. ( )