waiter, waiter! more rats in my books!
emphasis on “in”. sister list to ‘absolutely rat-tastic’! for this list, rats do not have to be mentioned in the title, but they MUST be mentioned in the book, featured on the cover, or both! suggestions are extremely welcome🐀
created by shanethe_readingrat
last updated October, 2026
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all credit goes to @Lurdo for the idea of this list! they also made two extremely helpful shelves of books that feature/mention rats🐀
Loving the title! I now want to find out if there's a novelisation of Ratatouille...
ty! if there’s a Ratatouille novelization it will get added to this list with the utmost speed
how prominently does the rat have to be featured in the book? Because City of Bones has a very memorable rat scene. Rats are not central to the plot but that scene lives in my mind
also all of Fruits Basket (one of the characters is a rat occasionally)
oh and the entire Gregor the Overlander series has rats!
and also I remember a book I read as a child in which the main character has a pet rat. or wants a pet rat? I don’t remember anything else about the book, but I thought that was very cool. I love rats 🐀 will come back with the title/more info if I ever remember
Gregor the Overlander!! I haven’t heard that name in forever. makes me want to reread the series
I haven’t reread them since I was like 11 because I’m scared they won’t hold up 🫣 but the urge is always there ahh
this is a pretty fast and loose definition, but basically any book featuring a scene with a rat involved in it or more discussion of rats than just them being mentioned in a passing sentence would count! i'm not reading these before adding them to the list, so this is an honor system "this book totally definitely has rats" sort of thing
love the important work you’re doing for the rat lover community here 🫶
if i could go back in time and tell 16 year old me "hey thanks to picking a rat-related username for your storygraph, in 4 years you're going to be making extremely specific rat-themed lists on an app called Pagebound for your internet friends to see. also Pagebound doesn't exist yet" he would've been like "hey what the fuck are you talking about"
We fully support your ratto character arc.
i was OBSESSED with city of bones when i read it, i was convinced it was the finest literature. how did i forget about the rat scene, im literally cackling. feeling like i need to go steal it from my sisters bookshelf
that scene not being in the movie was legitimately my biggest critique. WHAT were they thinking, that was the best scene of all time 😭
i was also very very obsessed with the whole universe ahh I even did a book report on the first book in 6th grade 🫣🤣
omg the book report, i love that🤩
it’s honestly the weirdest series and i love it so much. by the last few books i was like this series just needs to end, and it took me a year to read city of heavenly fire (i read it off and on throughout the whole year lol) but i did it!
REAL like as a movie on its own it wasn't too bad but as an adaptation WHERE WAS THE RAT SCENE???? 😭
As a former rat foster mom, I appreciate this list so much!! Unfortunately, the only book coming to mind right now that isn't on the list/recommended is American Psycho - but the rat scene is the closest I've ever gotten to vomiting because of a book so I don't know if I can "recommend" it but it definitely was memorable!
just added! thank you🙂↕️
shane I found another rat! there’s one in Tress of the Emerald Sea, I ran here immediately after it showed up so I can’t tell you how important it is to the plot but. it certainly is important to me 🐀
YESSSS! happy rat day :)
I was about to complain that nobody mentioned the rat to me before, but tbf I think my friend literally pitched this book to me as “there’s a rat. read it” and I just forgot 😭🤭
haha that is an entirely reasonable and accurate pitch. :)
adding it now!
yay! by now I also figured out that the rat does in fact play a pretty big role in the story which obviously delights me hehe 🐀
yayyyy🐀🐀i read Tress a couple years back but completely forgot about the rat!
Omg my favorite book when I was a kid was Mrs Frisby and the Rats of NIMH 🐀🐀
dastardly of me to forget that book. just added!
We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin immediately came to mind
literally scrolled down and saw your rat-title list with this book, you got me covered!
haven't read it yet so idk if rats are in more of the book than just the title, but if they are lmk and i'll add it to this list too!
Malcolm at Midnight is a middle-grade about a rat. The main character is a rat who is so small people mistake him for a mouse. He has lots of adventures and has to learn to accept himself for who he is and use his unique rat-talents to save the day. The book has lots of facts about differences between rats and mice.
It was also influential in my daughter getting a rat for her first pet and naming him Malcolm after the character. 💕
officially added🫡
There's a book I read once as a kid called Emmy and the Incredible Shrinking Rat? I think that's what it was called 😂 if it fits better on "absolutely rat-tastic" that's fine. Idk why but this is making me think about the ratshaker game
just added it! completely fine with books overlapping on the lists as long as they fit both criteria
I'm not sure if you want to put kids books in this list but I liked Ratnip by Cam Higgins :')
Would work in your other rat list too!
just added to this one! wobbling back and forth on adding it to the other just because i haven't thought about if 'rat' in a series name but not a title works for that one (looked the book up and it looks like Ratnip is the name of the series?), i think i'll put it in anyways though :] ty!
If you get around to reading Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix you’ll find a few rat-centric horror books-the art is to die for!
sounds awesome!! just added🫡
I found the book on here- The Rats by James Herbert but check the editions to see the gnarly cover from 1974.
You should definitely look into Pests by Bethany Brookshire 🐭
added!🐀🐀
Oh what about The Rats by James Herbert? and The Judge’s House by Bram Stoker features rats very heavily 🐀❤️
just added both!
...it's not a particularly good book, but there is an entire rat scene in crafting for sinners if you want to add that to the list 😂
just added🙂↕️
Oh my gosh not the American Psycho inclusion 😭😭😭
haven't read it myself but it was rec'd for this list and i simply had to add it
Oh it's 100% a very valid inclusion to this list but it IS one of the most horrific scenes I've ever read 😭 But that's just American Psycho in a nutshell cause, satire 🤣
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