2 out of 4 stars
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Revolt of the Rats by Reed Blitzerman is a suspense novella following two storylines: one is set in Depression-era America and the second in the automotive industry in the 1990s. Kahle Desireau applies for a job at Motomax automotive plant; he has just left the army after six years of service. His primary motivation for considering Motomax is that he wants to be near Beezor Wasikowska, the woman of his infatuation. The Frampton plant readily employs Kahle, and thus begins his new career as a factory rat. The second storyline focuses on Eli Steiner, a farmer struggling to keep his smallholding during the Great Depression. Once he recovers from smallpox, he establishes a second industry, a machine shop, on his land. He intends the shop to be a financial backup for his family should their crops fail.
I thought the theme of Revolt of the Rats is relevant since we all are born into a capitalist society that dehumanises people in the pursuit of wealth. The attention the author pays the toil and fate of the modern factory worker is necessary because their number and thankless service make them uncomfortable to contemplate. The Frampton factory is an infernal place of drudgery, which the author contrasts with Eli Steiner’s drought-stricken farm. Blitzerman creates two settings that are equally desperate: the farmer and his family to survive and keep what little they have, and the factory bosses to increase production to keep their plant from going bankrupt. Despite this shared fear of ruin, the moods of the two settings are distinct. The author had successfully contrasted the hectic pace of the modern factory with the slower, melancholic sense of waiting and seeing of the farming family. Blitzerman’s descriptions and similes are promising.
However, the settings outside of the farm and the factory are not always clear, which meant that I did not feel a sense of place while I read the book. For a book billed as a suspense story, the pacing was much too slow and meandering to build up any kind of tension. With this slow pacing, came distracting typesetting inconsistencies, such as mixing straight quotes and typographic quotes. The editing of the book could have been more careful because the correct use of the comma is one of the improvements this book needs. What also concerned me about the editing is that thru replaced through on page 53. I know this version of the word is a legitimate US variant, but it undermines the integrity of serious writing. The changes in viewpoint are not always apparent. I did not find out why the story switches between the 1930s and the 1990s, although I enjoyed Eli’s storyline more than Kahle’s because the characterisation is clearer and the sense of immediacy is improved. I could empathise with the Steiner family since the author took care to develop them and distinguish one character from another. Unfortunately, I can’t say that I felt the same way about Kahle and his character web; try as I might to get to know the main character, it just did not happen. Kahle remained distant and indistinct as if I were watching a man do things instead of being allowed to share his perspective and understand what he does and why.
My impression overall is that the story did not deliver what the premise proposed it would. Important aspects of the story are unclear, namely Kahle’s ability to see auras, his military background and what his story had to do with Eli’s. At times, I wondered if some details and characters were forgotten in the course of the writing. Because of this, the story had a stilted, perfunctory quality that made it difficult to read and confusing to navigate. It reads like a first draft, not a finished product. The end of the story never resolved the problems or questions set by the premise. I understand that this is the first book of a series, but a clear, resolved ending is more satisfying to a reader than a blunt one.
Since Revolt of the Rats needs professional editing and a tighter rein to keep the plot on track, I would not recommend it to readers, so I give it 2 out of 4. The editing and typesetting issues were the main reasons I could not give this book a higher rating, but the undeveloped nature of the story took it down another rating point. The theme of Revolt of the Rats has the potential to appeal to an audience living in a capitalist economy and certainly will once the story is polished, professionally edited and developed into a finished work.
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Revolt of the Rats: Book One
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