Rats Saw God

A book that you read in one day.

Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas is a coming of age story about a young man named Steve York. He was a straight A student with a small group of friends and a girlfriend he was completely in love with. But somewhere along the way things went bad and he finds himself in the guidance office stoned, alone, and barely passing. When it is brought to his attention that he is one credit shy of graduating with his class he is given the option of writing a 100 page story to make up for it. Through this project he finds himself reliving the events that led him from a hopeful high school freshman to a distraught senior.

Rob Thomas does an amazing job with this book. I loved everything about it. The characters are believable and real, even to the point where you kinda love them all just because they are people, you can't hate everyone for no reason. There is no clear antagonist in the story because Steve feels apathy for everyone, even his father whom he seems so determined to hate, he just can't work up a good enough reason to do so. The plot is completely real, as well. When you are in high school you feel like everything is IT, the center of the universe, the end of the world. Steve has this egocentric mentality, but it doesn't drive you crazy and make you want to bash him over the head with his own book, because it just is. That's how he is supposed to be at that age, and it is perfectly written as normal.

Then you have the tone of the novel. You know something big went down to make this kid go from taking a final on the last of his junior year in Texas to moving across the country for his senior year of high school. Yet the book is humorous. It's wonderfully written and hopeful, even though the kid telling the story already knows how things turn out, because he is true to the story and writes things as he remembers them. Meanwhile he is slowly building his life back up and making it work. So even through the tough bits and the shocking bits, I found myself laughing often. 

I recommend everyone read this book. Everyone! It didn't make me miss high school or even be glad that I am no longer in that drama. No, instead it allowed me to relate to another person. Simple as that. It was a beautiful story wonderfully written that I think anyone can enjoy. I look forward to discussing it with my husband as soon as he gets a chance to read it. So until then, have you read it? What did you think? Let me know!