Honestly, a 3.75/5 stars! I did not know what to expect but I know it was about a cat. Imagine my surprise to see that the setting is a dystopian world. Would I recommend it? Maybe. The writing's pretty basic but the plot was interesting enough.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
This is not what I was expecting going into the book! Maybe I should stop guessing what's behind the cover based on what's on the cover... I *was* expecting a really cute story with an adorable magical cat. What I got was an interesting story with a cat who's not exactly cute, but definitely a cat.
I really liked the storyline and the set-up of the world this story happened in. I loved Eleanor and Gloria, and really wanted to see what happened to Eleanor throughout the story. The mystery in this book was intriguing but not super interesting. But that is okay. The book is not mystery fiction. The mystery is just part of the plot line. Overall, this is a charming book with an interesting story and can keep you engaged throughout the telling.
What I struggle with this book is the elements that has to do with Stan. Now, let me say first that my struggle has more to do with my own discomfort and less to do with what the author believes in. Stan is not a very likable character and definitely someone I'd avoid in real life. The story makes it quite clear Stan is not intended to be likable. That said, his appearance and the entire Liberty still irks me to no end when reading this book. In some sense, it is the successful world and character building on the author's part that achieved this effect. But it did make it hard for me to go from liking this book to loving this book.

A fun weird story about a cat and a witch! It took me a bit to get into but overall the worldbuilding was god, both characters were fun and interesting to read! would reccomend

A DNF for me. Unfortunately although the story was intriguing the writing style wasn’t for me. It felt juvenile and perhaps undeveloped

A book featuring witches and a talking cat is right up my alley. A dystopia that made me laugh and think because, even if the author did an excellent job in keeping the mood light, there's some very serious topics in the world building.
I loved it as it made me laugh and think, kept me hooked and turning pages.
The author did an excellent job in developing the characters: Eleanor and Stan are both memorable even if Stan is the guy you like to hate or the a quite realistic depiction of how a human turned cat could be.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

This was my first time reading a novel by Heuler, but I was intrigued by the recommendation that The Splendid City would appeal to fans of Alice Hoffman, always a favorite of mine. This dystopian novel revolves around a young witch named Eleanor. After turning her irritating coworker Stan into a cat, the two of them have been banished to Liberty, part of the United States that has broken away from the rest of the country after a recent contemptuous election. The current president is represented by talking mechanical heads and crowds of people are distracted from the latest disasters by tasty nougats. The Splendid City is clever, thought provoking and filled with dark whimsy that provides plenty to chew on. Can Eleanor solve the case of the missing witch that might also be the solution to the water shortage? Will Stan find the mysterious treasure? This novel is a quirky political satire written as surreal fairytale/fable for adults.

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for the eARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

What a peculiar book! After a particularly fraught election cycle, Texas secedes from the union. After Eleanor transforms her dreadful coworker Stan into a cat, she is exiled by her witches' coven from New York to Liberty, the new nation set up in former Texas, to look for a missing water witch. At its best, The Splendid City is a wry piece of social satire on what happens when the words a political movement uses become more important than their actual politics. Liberty is a nation founded quite literally on the premise of bread and circuses, constructed on a foundation of appealing to the lowest common denominator. Stan the cat, though absolutely vile in many ways, is the highlight of this book - quixotic and social-media obsessed, he's a kind of Ignatius J. Reilly for the Instagram generation.

Sadly, I'm not sure this one quite sticks the landing. It's quite hard to tell where Heuler is being sincere and where she is being satirical - for example, there seems to be some strange moralising about whether or not Eleanor was wrong to transform Stan into a cat and, I dunno, I think it seemed perfectly justified. Maybe I have some flaws I need to work on. The characters all seemed strangely aloof too , and whilst it felt intentional I felt that it occasionally veered into poor character construction. I'm not sure quite what the author had set out to do when writing this book, which is why I'm struggling to toss it a fourth star.

Ultimately, a really whimsical idea for a book, but just doesn't quite go the distance with its subtext.

The Splendid City is a delightful offering in the surreal/magic realism genre. The story is told in three parts. The first, which sets up the current situation/predicament of Stan (a talking “cat") and Eleanor (a witch), is exceptional, with Heuler’s tone and dialogue dripping with satire and (appropriate) absurdity. Part two, which is a bit of a rewind that shows how the two lead characters came to be in their current predicament, is also quite enjoyable. For me, the third part, which ties everything together/brings the story home, felt slightly “off” in tone compared to the first two parts, though not to the point that it prevented me from enjoying the read holistically. The Splendid City was my first read of Karen Heuler’s work, but it won’t be my last.

This was such an interesting read, and I loved the premise of the story. It was a fun easy-going story with hidden meanings that felt extremely relevant in today’s society. There were also twists and turns that managed to surprise me.

However, I never really felt like I connected with the characters. The beginning grabbed me but then after that the chopping and changing between Stan and Eleanor irritated me. I also really didn’t like the structure of the book. Part 2 goes back into the past and by that point in the book (about 40% into the book) I just wanted to read the story I was in not flip back to before the beginning.

Overall, I did like the book and the story. I think that if it had been a different structure to it, I would have liked it a lot more.

My thanks to Angry Robot for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘The Splendid City’ by Karen Heuler. I did a combined read/listen as its audiobook was available.

I was initially drawn to this genre-bending little novel by its playing card style cover showing a cat with gun and a witch with a wand. It proved a fun read.

It opens with a quote about witchcraft from The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov. For those unfamiliar with this modern classic, it features a large talking black cat. So does this novel.

Eleanor is a rebellious young witch currently on a mission set by her coven’s High Priestess to investigate the disappearance of Dana, a water witch, that may be linked to the water shortages in Liberty, formerly the state of Texas. In Liberty, water is rationed, free speech comes at a price, and paranoia runs deep. In a surreal touch animatronic heads of its president are scattered throughout the city, eager to talk to passing pedestrians.

Eleanor’s feline companion, Stan, used to be her co-worker whose obnoxious ways had led to her turning him into a cat: a talking cat that loves fish tacos, craft beer, wise-cracking, and guns (though he limits himself to shooting one person a day and only wounding them). Stan has recently caught the scent of a treasure hunt adding to Eleanor’s troubles.

‘The Splendid City’ is set in an alternative USA in which Texas has seceded and been renamed Liberty. Karen Heuler uses this as an opportunity for some wry political satire along with the novel’s other delights.

There was a great deal for me to enjoy, including how well she portrayed Eleanor’s introduction to witchcraft and the coven. I always appreciate it when an author takes the time to understand the Craft.

I was also pleased that Stan, who was a truly awful human, remained so after his transition though on occasion he is tempted to roll over and offer his belly. Still, I expect he would be the kind of cat to attack a stroking hand with bunny kicks.

Overall, a quirky blend of alternative history, urban fantasy, science fiction, politics, satire, feminism and witchcraft that I enjoyed very much.

Really quirky and not at all what I was expecting.

The author throws you straight into the deep end and slowly the author reveals what's happening.

The book is set in a dystopian Japan, where the government have made access to water very difficult. We follow the story of a witch who at some point turned a person into a cat. As punishment for her impulsive actions, she has to live with this cat while also searching for a missing valuable witch with water elemental powers.

The style is from the POVs of the witch and the cat. I found it quite difficult at times to really understand what was happening and the significance of it all.

This was not what I was expecting, and still not sure about my feelings on this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Eleanor is a witch accompanied by Stan, who was transformed into a cat, in this fictional world that takes place in a future where Texas has seceded from the United States and become its own nation known as Liberty. The novel itself is a satirical fantasy that attempts to comment on both issues that plague society today and potential issues that could, however far-fetched they may seem, affect society in the future. While this premise does sound promising, I unfortunately did not enjoy the writing. The story dragged, and I felt that the characters largely lacked development -- in part because the main conflict felt like it was resolved too easily and in an anticlimactic way. I also felt that the author's attempt to combine fantasy, satire, and dystopia almost made it too hard for any of these aspects to be fully delved into. Lastly, the story is split into three parts, but Part I and Part III occur chronologically whereas Part II takes place in the past. I felt that it would have made much more sense if Parts I and II were reversed, because the beginning of the story is admittedly confusing without context.

Content Warnings: misogyny, racism, sexual harassment, stalking
Overall, I would give this a try if you like modern takes on witches and relatively surface-level political satire. Sadly, it just wasn't for me.

This had a very promising start and one that I was very excited about - it felt very current, fresh, and critical all while maintaining a strong level of humour. The first part definitely introduced the world, the characters, and their motives very well and I was enthralled to see what happened next.

However, this is where it went downhill for me. The structure of the novel just seemed entirely off! I felt that it could’ve benefitted from Part 2 actually being Part 1 as I was left confused and the plot of Part 2 was left redundant. It didn’t really seem to have a point - unless maybe to give the protagonists some more personality and character. As I was reading this section I just felt that there was no aim or direction and we as the reader were just getting a backstory for the sake of it. Saying this, I did enjoy the ending and overall, I felt this story had such a critical mind that I was often left questioning the state of our society and the numerous hypocrisies it falls into. I especially loved the way it was written - the humour was impeccable and further aided the social critique.

TW: misogyny, racism, kidnap, stalking (minor), sexual harassment, sexism

Urban Fantasy has become a staple of the Fantasy genre in recent years, and you are as likely to find a book about a necromancer librarian or zombie private detective walking around a modern city as you are elves and dwarves in a version of the past. I thought I had seen it all; teddy bear detectives included, but none have been quite like Karen Heuler’s The Splendid City. It is not the working witch coven or even the talking cat that makes it different. It is all this combined with a surrealist humour.

Eleanor has only recently discovered that she is a witch and already she has managed to turn her annoying work colleague into a giant talking cat and got them both banished. Her punishment is to move to the new country of Liberty, a former US State, and find a witch that has gone missing. Her only ally is Stan, who happens to be the person she just turned feline. The pair of them must learn to work together if Eleanor is ever to going get back to New York and Stan to get apposable thumbs again. That is easier said than done – they hate one another.

Jumping into any science fiction or fantasy novel can be deep water and a reader may find themselves floundering for a few pages as they get their bearings. This is certainly true of Splendid as the opening act has a lot to take in. The characters of Eleanor and Stan may be odd, but it is a perfectly normal dysfunctional relationship. The odd couple being forced to work together. Heuler does take things further as Stan is borderline useless in helping Eleanor. He has the stereotypical personality of a cat; a little indifferent to the feelings of others, a tendency to just drift off. However, how much of this is just Stan? From what Eleanor can tell he has always been a selfish idiot, hence him being turned into a cat in the first place.

It is the country of Liberty that is so confusing. It is fascist, yet fun. This is what the President wants you to think anyway. Vans drive around belting out jolly tunes only to stop and snatch people from the streets. Everyone else does not mind as the vans often throw out candy as well. There are animatronic talking heads all over the place that give out information, but also keep a tab on the citizens. Everyday there are parades in the street to celebrate the greatness of Liberty, although it is awful. It is a very surreal parallel world, but one that satires our own. The willingness of people to look away from the suffering of others, the slow decent of a society in which the citizens are willing participants in.

The first act is a little confusing as the crime style case of the missing witch takes place in this surrealist backdrop. Eleanor and Stan are quite normal in comparison and bring their more moderated perspective with them from the east coast. Act two throws the odd nature of Liberty into stark relief as it is a flashback to how Eleanor and Stan met. This part of the book feels more like traditional Urban Fantasy where witches are real. Once the action returns to Liberty, having spent some time exploring the wider world, the surreal makes more sense and the book increases in pace and action.

Splendid is certainly an entertaining book with wry humour and some interesting, if odd, ideas. Fans of Jasper Fforde or the game We Happy Few will jump straight on board. Those used to their fantasy a little more routine may take a while to understand, but Heuler works in the book to make things make more sense and they do come into relief after act one. The characters of Eleanour and Stan make it a fun relation piece, if nothing else, although the way that Stan acts makes me think that he deserves to be something less than a cat.

The Splendid City
Author: Karen Heuler
Published: 14th June 2022
Angry Robot

Stan has a habit of getting annoyed with people who disagree with him, then shooting them.
If he was your average every-day mobster or the Michael Douglas character from 'Falling Down' it would be understandable.
But Stan is in fact, a rather large, talking bi-pedal black cat.
And Stan the cat was bound to Eleanor until the powers that be decided that they’d both learned their lessons. * We don't know at the beginning exactly what they're supposed to learn *
Luckily, in the meantime, to keep her busy and to stop her from killing Stan, Eleanor has a missing witch to find.
Liberty, the town in which they find themselves, is a strange, faux-bright dystopia.
For starters, the sound of a bell would precede the arrival of a van bearing gifts, or a van followed by the disappearance of random strangers; Latinx people, more often than not. Much like a bizzaro 'Childcatcher' from 'Chitty Chitty Bang Bang' someone is throwing random nougats around the streets for anyone who wants them. Distraction rather than action to fix the ills of the city.

The residents of Splendid City face a similar cost of living crisis as we face right now (2022); everything is extortionate and there's also a black market for water. And speaking of water, Gloria, Eleanor's boss, isn't buying the president's excuses for the water shortages.
And she wants to know why the Liberty coven is so small, and where the missing witch is. And it's telling that Daria, the witch in question, is a water-witch.
All problems for Eleanor to solve. Thank goodness she has Stan who trawls through Whispers, a kind of Twitter thread for info.
Yes, there are plenty of jokes in here, but we also have social commentary, adventure and a mystery to solve.
The inherent racism in some residents along with other forms of prejudice is pretty clear; as is the fact that 'Liberty' is anything but what it is named for.
Stan the cat - formerly human - is kind of oblivious, selfish and narcissistic, but that is where a lot of the humour comes from.
The whole novel has a wonderfully absurdist humour to it, amidst it all, the painful truth about their 'benevolent' president, government control, abuse and poverty.
It reminded me a little of the Philip K Dick story, 'We Can Remember it For You Wholesale' filmed twice as 'Total Recall'.
It's a really well written book, with great characters and the frenemy games between Stan and Eleanor bring an extra dose of fun.
It's definitely one to remember.

I really loved the sound of this book so I was really excited read it and while did I enjoy it, I did also had some issues.
I struggled to like some of the characters and I found some parts of the story was slow and nothing interesting was happening.
I do still recommend this book as It was still an enjoyable read.
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a free e-arc in exchange for my honest opinion.

This was definitely a bit of a weird one that took me a bit of time to get into, but nonetheless enjoyed it once I did!

I feel there was some pacing issues and that it was a bit slow and uninteresting in some places, but it was okay!
3/5

Thank you to Angry Robot and Netgalley for the advance copy of this book.

A novel featuring witches and a wacky future Texas (which is more insane than it is now?)??? Sign me up. I loved this dystopian witch novel, filled with satire and political commentary. I personally wish I connected with the characters a bit more, but overall a good read!

If you pick up a book by Angry Robot, you’re more or less guaranteed a read that’s packed full of interesting ideas and will take you places that few other publishers are bothering to at the moment.
Karen Heuler’s The Splendid City is no exception. It’s part dystopian, allegory, part social satire and part supernatural/fantasy thriller. It’s compulsively readable and every few pages you do smile and nod at some of the conceits of Heuler’s well-drawn world.
But there is, I can’t help but feel, a problem with the balance of those elements. The dystopia is never examined too much depth, the satire isn’t quite as sharp as it could be, the fantasy is forgotten for long stretches of the narrative.
Take the character of Stan, for example. He’s a cynical and narcissistic store clerk who falls foul of the main protagonist Eleanor’s magic and finds himself, appropriately, turned into a cat. Much of the Stan portions of the book are enormous fun but not as much fun as I think they could be. He’s reminiscent in many ways of a Saki creation and if Heuler had instilled Stan with that level sophisticated savagery then I think he would have been a bit more memorable as a character. As it stands, I was left feeling rather indifferent to his machinations and neither particularly wanted him to succeed nor fail in his endeavours
Another slight flaw in the narrative, I felt, was the lack of a compelling antagonist. There are a couple of characters who nicely fit the bill — the distinctly Trumpian president of the city and the water witch who is a nicely malevolent presence but unfortunately is little more than a name for most of the novel. A few confrontations or some kind of personal connection, between her and Eleanor would, I think, have made all the difference.
But the book is very readable. It feels like it would most appeal to a YA audience but the ideas are such that readers of most ages would find something worthwhile within it. The ending seems to be set up for a sequel or series or some kind and perhaps I’m being a little unfair on and that the undoubtedly interesting ideas and characters will reach their full potential in any subsequent books.

One Sentence Summary: After accidentally turning Stan into a cat, witch-in-training Eleanor is sent to the new country of Liberty with Stan in tow to help find a missing witch, who might have something to do with the strange water shortage in Liberty.

Overall
The Splendid City presents an interesting social commentary using the backdrop of Liberty, which is the former state of Texas, where misinformation is rife and a witch and a cat are on different hunts, one for a missing witch and one for treasure, that inevitably have them crossing paths. The characters, Eleanor and Stan, were both deeply flawed and not completely redeemable or even very much likable, but Liberty was a fascinatingly strange place. Eleanor’s story felt like it wandered a little too much, but I enjoyed Stan’s story and, especially, how Stan adapted to doing things as a cat instead of as a human. But the entire middle dragged on for entirely too long. Still, the social commentary was interesting despite keeping more to a surface level.

Extended Thoughts
Texas has seceded and renamed itself Liberty, where the president ostensibly wants to make everyone happy so constantly asks their opinion via strange animatronic heads. But, underneath, there’s a serious water shortage and a missing witch. When New Yorker witch-in-training Eleanor accidentally turns her irritating jerk of a co-worker, Stan, into a cat, her coven leader punishes her by limiting her powers and sending Eleanor and Stan to Liberty to find the witch. But they quickly get more than they bargained for when a treasure hunt piques Stan’s interest and there might be a connection between the missing witch and the water shortage.

The Splendid City caught my attention right away when it mentioned there’s a water shortage. Considering I live in California where we’re in various degrees of drought, reading about a water shortage kind of felt up my alley. Then there’s magic and a cat and, really, it’s so hard to resist a book with a cat in it. I had thought it would be a fun social commentary sort of story, but it ended up feeling a little simplistic despite the number of issues it touched on and the whole middle felt dragged out.

The Splendid City tells the stories of Eleanor and Stan, covering their relationship before they were sent to Liberty and what happened to them after they reached Liberty. They were both deeply flawed people, and not necessarily people I’d feel sympathetic to. Eleanor felt like she thought she should be more important than everyone else, which quickly grated on my nerves. Her better-than-you attitude carried all through the novel, though I think she learned a few good lessons by the end, so it was easier to soften towards her a little. Stan, on the other hand, was a jerk through and through. He had some strange delusions and ideas and, if I were Eleanor, I’d have a nice collection of restraining orders. I don’t think he was meant to be likable, but he was certainly amusing as a cat. All in all, though, both of them felt generally flat with little else to describe them. I did enjoy just how deeply flawed they were and how well it worked with the story, but they were also equal degrees annoying.

As for the story, both Eleanor and Stan are given story lines that nicely intersected, though, by the end I couldn’t figure out if it felt more contrived or more a happy accident that just happened to work out. Eleanor’s story felt a little slow and involved what almost felt like pointless traveling around the area. For half the story, she felt like she was just wandering around, meeting the lone witch left in the area, in her search for the missing witch. If it was meant to be a mystery, it didn’t work very well. The second half was a little more interesting, but it also felt like it wouldn’t have happened without an event that might very well not have happened under different circumstances. It also, overall, seemed to not be the major story line of the book. That honor felt like it belonged to Stan with his treasure hunt. I enjoyed how doggedly Stan pursued it. He got himself involved in quite some interesting things and always seemed to have some forward progress, even when it felt like he was just making things up. Overall, I felt Stan told more of the actual story than Eleanor did.

I do feel the social commentary was there, but I don’t think it really went into anything beyond a surface level. We see the effects of people speaking their minds, the effects of people being allowed to carry around guns (one of the interesting points in the description is that Stan has a penchant for shooting people, but this rarely actually happened), and the effects of misinformation. I was quite amused that it was Texas that decided to secede, and I liked that this version of it felt at least somewhat plausible. It was interesting to see certain consequences of behavior and how the terror of it was twisted into a more positive light. Liberty is riddled with misinformation and manipulation. It was interesting, but the ending left me with no sense of what was going to happen next as things felt a little too convenient. But the author touched on many, many topics, mostly in a more passing way. In the second part, the reader is taken back in time to before Eleanor turned Stan into a cat and we get a long interlude about her training and her relationship with Stan and this thing Stan introduces her where the point is to ask and write inflammatory things. It was amusing to see so many things mentioned, but there’s nothing beyond that, and definitely little rumination on any of it by the characters.

Liberty itself was interesting, and probably the strongest part of the book. Texas has seceded and renamed itself with its own president who lives in a castle. I didn’t get a strong sense of place, but the workings of the city Eleanor and Stan are in was well-thought out. The animatronic heads that regularly interacted with the citizens was a nice touch. It was both strange and interesting, and they clearly had consequences, though they were buried under amusing frequent parades to make the populace happy. I wish there had been more digging into how Liberty operates and a little more from what the people think, but I did enjoy how much Liberty was fleshed out and just how incredulous it all was.

Overall, I felt The Splendid City was a little simplistic in terms of the story. Eleanor’s hunt relied on a key event that could have been hit or miss. Stan’s story was only possible with Stan being Stan. There weren’t too many layers to this, making it a relatively quick read that required little thought. The whole second part did drag for me, though. It felt overly long and stretched out. It detailed Eleanor’s training, which wasn’t as interesting as other witchy trainings I’ve read, as well as her working relationship with Stan, which ended up feeling more creepy than anything else. While I enjoyed the first and last parts, the second part felt like a miss to me and I wish it had either been taken out or removed as it just went on too long.

The Splendid City was a fun social commentary, but it lacked depth. The characters were not entirely likable, though the minor characters were fun, sweet, and caring, for the most part. I very much enjoyed Eleanor’s coven. But Eleanor and Stan kind of felt made for each other, and the fact that Stan was a cat trying to do human things was just a lot of fun. The story, though, felt a little lean and the whole middle part dragged. But it was still an amusing read and I did find myself a little tickled by the social commentary.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.