Among the strong points of Rats are the descriptions of its settings. Zindel creates a strong sense of place, as in this passage: The pier stretched out into the Hudson River, thousands of pilings reaching up from the black water like dark fingers clutching the main pier and its extensions.

The beginning of the pier was covered with a flow, like dark lava. Sarah stared down from the chopper window at the lights and vast nets of the golf range.

Everything was ablaze with floodlights except for the amusement park annex. Its metal-tube roller coaster, Ferris wheel— all the rides—sat in darkness like the skeleton of a leviathan carcass.

As this description shows, creating a feel for a place depends on more than just identifying what can be seen. It requires words chosen for their connotations, so that not only is the place described, but...