Rats in the walls is a short horror story that takes place in the early nineteen hundreds. It is a first person novel that follows a man that is known as Delapore. In the beginning of the book Delapore seems like he is a trust worthy narrator, but the more that the story unravels and develops you start to question if he is very reliable. Delapore moves from Massachusetts to his ancestor's land in England that has been uninhabited for many years, ever since there was a horrible tragedy where many family members died. He decides to restore the old home to its former glory, finally finishing he moves into this new place with his black cat. Unknowing most of his families past he is confused about why most people in the town avoid and dislike him. His cat and he eventually start to hear rats running in the walls and all over the place.           

At this point Delapore talks about a curse that has been affecting his family for generations and how the rats have something to do with this curse. The more that Delapore researches and looks around, he finds out that the house is built upon an ancient roman temple, and that his family maintained and underground city. The city was there raising "human cattle." The rats that he hears are extremely evil creatures and they were known to feed on the men that were kept in the underground city. The only problem with these so called rats is that Delapore is the only person that can hear these rats. All of this building up is too much for Delapore to handle and he eventually loses it and kills another man. When they find him he is eating the man, and is instantly thrown into an insane asylum. This is where you really begin to question if Delapore is a trustworthy narrator, or if he is just an insane person that just hears things in his head and he just made up the entire story.  On the other hand the curse that Delapore talks about could be the reason why no one can hear the rats but him. This is where you have to deeply read the text to decide for yourself if Delapore is insane or not.

The author of this short story, H.P. Lovecraft, did a very good job of writing the story in a way where the reader can interpret the story in his or her own way. The story starts out with Delapore sounding like a very straightforward man that is like a standard main character but he quickly changes throughout the book leaving it up to you to follow what side of him you want to keep in the back of your mind. You can decide when reading if you believe Delapore, and that his family curse is part of the reason why he is in the insane asylum, and that there really are rats in the walls that only he can hear. On the other hand you can read the story and believe that Delapore started to believe all the tales that the people in the city told him, eventually going to his head and he started to hear rats running around in the walls of the house which led him to killing one of his friends. Either opinion you chose to read with can greatly affect your view on the entire book and its outcome. When I first read the story I was convinced that Delapore had truly gone crazy, but upon reading it a second time I picked up on some details in the story that I had missed the first time. While reading I noticed quotes such as "The hideous tale of Lady Mary de la Pore, who shortly after her marriage to the Earl of Shrewsfield was killed by him and his mother, both of the slayers being absolved and blessed by the priest." (33 H.P. Lovecraft) To me this tells me that not only do the town's people not like the de la Pore family, but they are also willing to cover up and help out with covering it that up. 

This quote and another quote saying "The general whispered sentiment being that he had purged the land of an immemorial curse." (35), leads me to believe that Delapore is an innocent man that is made out to be an evil crazy person just so the people in the town can get rid of his family and burn down his home.

The story started off at a slightly slow pace but did a very good job of hooking you and making you curious as to what would be happening next. Despite the slow start the book picked up pace and it got into a good rhythm dragging you deeper into the twisted story line. I liked how descriptive H.P. Lovecraft got in the story and the words that he chose to use. Most authors chose to use the same smaller words to describe things that are going on in the story. H.P. Lovecraft on the other hand, did an amazing job about choosing very detailed larger words that help paint a better more graphic picture of what is happening. Instead of using something like, I hated the beasts, he would use a sentence like "flabby beasts whose appearance filled me with unutterable loathing."(37 H.P. Lovecraft) Sentences like this make the book a much better read and keep the reader much more interested in what is going on. It causes you to read the story much closer and in much more depth because if aren't paying close attention you could miss little details that can have a large impact on the overall story line. When you read a book that has amazing detail in it you can picture everything that the author is saying and it allows you to almost make a little movie in your head about every little scene that you read about.
