This is a whimsical children's story but it's not just a cutsie mouse story, there are elements of Horror for children. The rats peel mice, as in skinning, so probably for slightly older children with the disposition to enjoy things like Goosebumps.It is mostly about a mouse family who travel, one by one, through a grate that they know takes them into the territory of the rats. First the father goes on a whim, then his daughter goes to look for him and soon several mice are where they shouldn't ...

I loved this series as a kid, and re-reading it as an adult is a joy. I'm only sad that this Kindle edition doesn't include the artwork that was in the paperback :(

Classic tale of innocence taking up the "sword" against evil. Yes, it's fairly simplistic compared to something more adult like The Wheel of Time, but for a YA novel, it's well written and gripping.

I just wish they'd publish The Deptford Histories for Kindle to round out the series for me!

This is a fun read that pulled me through all the way to the end. It didn’t score higher principally because the lore of the book is very underdeveloped. In particular, there are several magical moments that seem more convenient than grounded in the logic of the book. Indeed, I never truly felt like the world made sense - which is a shame because I love the overall concept and feel this could have been a great children’s book if the ideas here were handled in a more cohesive and consistent way.

I brought this book, when I was a kid from either Blackbush or Brooklands market (both now long gone). I tried so many times to read it. I would get a couple of chapters in, lose interest and then come back to it a year or so later. I think I once read it all the way through but the only thing I can remember from the book is that there were evil rats in the sewer. Reading this as an adult was easier and I didn't lose interest, although the story is not that exciting and is fairly simplistic. The...

I forgot how dark these books are!! "The Crystal Prison" remains my favorite. During this reread I got annoyed at how dumb the mice were, running around the sewers. I guess the point was that the sewers had this "dark magical" pull on them that made them make bad decisions. But yeah, all the parts about the rats skinning mice and summoning dark gods are still deliciously horrifying. And I forgot how much I like Madame Akkikuyu (the Moroccan rat wannabe prophet) and the oracular bats as character...

I had to DNF this one. It's boring, and the plot is trite, and the pacing is weird. I didn't care about any of the characters, so after I stuck with it through 100 pages, I called it quits.The writing is really condescending, and points out the obvious over and over. In the beginning, the setting is described as a society of mice who are afraid of the sewers below their community because the evil rats live in the sewers and they eat any poor mice who go wandering down there. Then a mouse named ...

I'm on a bit of a Robin Jarvis kick at the moment, and it was when I reread 'The Dark Portal' (the first in the Deptford Mice series) that I came to realise something.I think that Jarvis taught me the concept of story, in a way. I think he taught me the concept of telling a single story within a greater whole. I am a fan of him, avowedly so, and love his work from the Whitby series to the Deptford books; from Aufwader to Green Mouse and everything in between. His books are big books. They are un...

UPDATE 15 Jan 2025: Just finished re-reading the revised version with new illustrations. Still holds up well as a read, particularly the grand finale. But this new edition, with now multiple illustrations per chapter and a vibrant cover, is phenomenal. The book glows and it's a lovely new edition.Original Review:This was one of my all-time favourite books as a kid and I've had a blast re-reading it to my daughter. It tells the tale of a group of anthropomorphic mice living in an empty house in D...

The Dark Portal is an enjoyable mixture of cutesy mice, bloody death, and black magic. All in all, a unique mixture that combines to give this book a certain deliciously dark character.The horror in this book is a little stronger and far more grisly than I expected: perhaps if I'd chosen the edition with the realistic rat's face, rather than the cutesy-poo anthropomorphic mice on the cover, then I would have been better prepared. What other book about talking animals would include demonaic rat g...

An interesting, unique, and original book.