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We Could Be Rats by Emily Austin

Contemporary fiction

We Could Be Rats

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by Emily Austin

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Quick take

In the midst of a horrific event, two sisters write a series of letters attempting to express the inexpressible.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Emotional

    Emotional

  • Illustrated icon, Multiple_Viewpoints

    Multiple viewpoints

  • Illustrated icon, LGBTQ_themes

    LGBTQ+ themes

  • Illustrated icon, Siblings

    Siblings

Synopsis

Sigrid hates working at the Dollar Pal. Having always resisted the idea of “growing up” and the trappings of adulthood, she did not graduate high school, preferring to roam the streets of her small town with her best friend, Greta, the only person in the world who ever understood her. Sigrid was never close with her older sister, Margit, who is baffled and frustrated by Sigrid’s inability to conform to the expectations of polite society.

Sigrid’s detachment veils a deeper turmoil and sensitivity. She’s haunted by the pains of her past—both distant, like when she pretended her parents were swamp monsters when they shook the floorboards with their violent arguments, and more recent, as she grapples with losing Greta’s friendship amid the opioid epidemic ravaging their town. As Margit sets out to understand Sigrid and the secrets she has hidden, both sisters, in their own time and way, discover that reigniting their shared childhood imagination is the only way forward.

Content warning

This book contains mentions of suicide, sexual assault, and domestic abuse.

Free sample

Get an early look from the first pages of We Could Be Rats.

We Could Be Rats

Attempt One

Sorry. I tried to pick a date that would be least inconvenient for you. I was tempted to do this in December, but I drew Jerry’s name for Secret Santa, and I couldn’t stomach the idea of everyone unwrapping their gifts while Jerry got squat.

It’s always a pain when people try to squeeze things in over the holidays, so I held out. I appreciate that this is annoying, no matter the season, and hope you won’t let it ruin your Groundhog Day. I don’t know if a note will make it any better. I figured I should write one just in case it might. I’ll leave it up to you to decide. If you think this will make it worse, burn it. Pretend I never wrote it. Tear it into pieces and flush it down a toilet.

If you decide to read this, please keep in mind it’s my first suicide note, and I’m a bad writer.

By the time you kick the bucket you’re supposed to have wisdom to impart, but I don’t have any. Most people die more experienced or well-read. I did read this book once where a rat goes on a veritable smorgasbord at a fair. He feasts on candy apple cores, salted almonds, and rejected hot dogs. He’s a gluttonous rascal, so he has the time of his life, wolfing down trash until his belly distends and he becomes a fat rat ball.

I’m not sure I’d recommend taking the advice of an uneducated, twenty-year-old dead woman, but if you insist, I might say you should try being like a rat at a fair. To be clear, I don’t mean that you should gorge yourself on carnival garbage. I just think you should try to collect days like that. Do whatever will turn you into a rat ball, so to speak.

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Member ratings (130)

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New and recent add-ons
View all
The House of My Mother
We Could Be Rats
A Sea of Unspoken Things
What Happened to the McCrays?
Water Moon
The Stolen Queen
Playworld
More or Less Maddy
Most Wonderful
Rental House
I Might Be in Trouble
A Home for the Holidays
Where the Library Hides
Is She Really Going Out With Him?
The Courting of Bristol Keats