The book by the talented young prose writer Alexander Terekhov includes the novel “Rat Slayer” and the story “Memoirs of Military Service.” The first pages of the novel may shock some unprepared readers, while others will pay tribute to the courageous courage of the author, who chose a professional rat slayer as his hero. And the reader, if he does not put the book aside, indignant at the unaestheticness of the theme and descriptions, will want to tune in to a somewhat production novel. And in vain! Because Terekhov’s prose breaks the original structure and develops into an acutely social grotesque, into a meaningful and merciless allegory. And the hidden mechanisms of influence are no longer exposed on vile creatures, but on beings of a higher order - on people. The earlier story “Memoirs of Military Service” in a different form and on different - army - material raises the same topic - leveling, enslavement of the individual.