A review by ketutar
Nightshade City by Hilary Wagner

4.0

A fascinating little tale. I liked it and plan on reading the sequel.
There are thing that irritate me, like how the author has changed rats to fit her story, instead of fitting the story to how rats are and function. The ages were difficult to follow... I really don't know how old these rats are supposed to be; in rat years or human year.
I'm also not quite happy with the story. A bit... too... easy, perhaps? Written for young children. On the other hand, it is written for young children, so being too easy isn't a bad thing. I'm sure I would have loved it if I was 40 years younger :-D
I also like the nod to [b:Watership Down|76620|Watership Down (Watership Down, #1)|Richard Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1405136931s/76620.jpg|1357456]
I don't like how females were brushed aside. I mean, they had been working on this new city for years, and had - or should have had - important female rats among the leadership, but they aren't mentioned, nor do they get any influence in the new city leadership. The only females in the new leadership are there due to nepotism.
Also, females are only interested in cooking, clothes and babies.
I was really hoping Clover to be more important.