Looking for a spooky read for this fall season for your middle grader then you may want to check out Valley of the Rats by Mahtab Narsimhan.

On a camping trip to Ladakh with his dad, Krish is trying to prove that he can be brave just like his cousin. When they get lost and stumble into a hidden village in the mountains, Krish’s GF (gut feeling) is telling him this is not a friendly place but his dad is insistent on documenting the community for National Geographic landing them in serious danger.

From start to finish, this story gave me shivers up my spine. The way Mahtab Narsimhan describes the surroundings brings the readers right to the mountains in India. You can sense the danger of Imdur and you just know they are not what they seem. The rats are especially creepy!! If you are not a fan of rats, like Krish, this story may give you nightmares. The way the rats gather in large packs is just so gross! 

The rats were so outstanding in this story, every time there was mention of them I was totally creeped out in the best possible way. Mahtab’s writing is so compelling and descriptive, I was in the mountains with Krish and his dad the whole time and could picture the clusters of rats as well as the Imdur homes and ceremonies as clearly as if I had been there before.

In this story, Krish’s dad is a piece of work. He is certainly a character you do not want to root for. You know that he is only out to get the next big story and if his son becomes an unintended consequence so be it. Everytime he failed to listen to Krish or care how he was feeling, you just wanted to scream into the story. It was incredibly frustrating but made for some excellent suspense. Krish’s experience in the story may feel familiar to some readers and perhaps will help them gain confidence to confront those people in their lives who make them feel less than. 

I also appreciated how the story had an unexpected ending, at least in my mind. I thought I knew where the story was going and how it would all wrap up and I was pleasantly surprised with how all of the action was resolved. There are some incredibly tense scenes leading to the conclusion of the story so you may not want to read this one right before lights out.