Adorable little book.
I really enjoyed it.
It was an easy palette cleansing read.
And it had a cat on the cover ! That’s the most adorable cover I saw in a long time

A married couple in a high-rise flat get a cat. Over the next sixty short chapters follows a trippy, slightly dippy, treatise of cat appreciation. It is charming and so unusual that it is difficult to let go.

The author uses magical realism to chronicle the life of humans’ least likely friend. The text weaves itself cat-like then veers off wildly before coming bang down to earth. The effect is like a guided meditation you are reluctant to join. Lulled in by the soothing tones and spare prose, you suspend your disbelief that you are falling for this malarkey and are soon ‘in the zone’ and loving it.

Yu Yoyo puts her poets’ pen to work with close observations and word pictures. The explanations of cat behaviour are more art than science, but they give you pause. Besotted and suffering like a cat-loving Kahlil Gibran she also dips her toe into speculative physics the way Richard Bach did with ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’ or another new age cult book ‘The Celestine Prophecy’ by James Redfield. None have cats in them, but Yu Yoyo’s book shares their cult star quality. Translator Jeremy Tiang has pulled a blinder because the language, the feel and the sensitivity are poetry in motion.

The book is a definite hit for cat lovers, and while not a user’s guide, gives a deep insight into these mysterious creatures. I once read ‘The secret life of cows’ by Rosamund Young which elicited the same magical appreciation for an overlooked animal friend. Thanks to NetGalleyUK and Fourth Estate for the eARC.

I’ve only recently (the last 12 months or so) got into Japanese fiction, literature.
Initially I found the genre quite difficult to get into but once I changed how I read it, and came at it, it really became an experience and a delight.
This particular book is a shorter read, but written in such a beautiful way I thoroughly enjoyed it.
The word “whimsical” has been used a lot in other reviews regarding the story but it’s absolutely right, it’s full of Whimsy and the style of writing has an almost poetic cadence to it.
I really did enjoy this book, and I’d absolutely recommend this to everyone. Truly lovely.

what a light and quick read but it’s just not really great to give a better rating i guess. this book is actually whimsical and very lyrical. i adore how charming and imaginative the writing was. this book offers blend of the reality and the imagination of cats and humans.

as a mother of 5 cats i enjoyed reading this and recognised LOTS OF CAT BEHAVIOURS AND HOW THEY INTERACT WITH HUMANS. it’s very heartwarming. also the little illustrations in this book make it more interesting and i liked it.

the thing in here is probably i was expecting something more but i do still recommend to cat lovers. it could’ve been shorter bcs there’s some chapters are seemed repetitive. also there’s a bit lacking in which direction the narrative wants to go with this story.

overall i enjoyed it and do recommend to people who loves cat.

Had no idea to expect when I started reading this but it was such a little delight. I love Japanese fiction.

Whimsical, warm and wonderful, this is a delightful story wrapped up with delicately beautiful illustrations to make it a whole reading experience.

I adore stories about the magical influence cats can have our lives, but most stories I can find come from Japanese writers and folklore so I was intrigued to read one originally written in Chinese - and it was done so with excellent translation.

It was dreamlike, imaginative, full of metaphorical imagery that stuck in my mind in a beautiful way. The prose was poetic, almost musical and so vivid. With short chapters that move quickly, we watch a patchwork come together of our narrators life with their cat Doughball along with poetic interludes and trains of thoughts. At times the flow of time felt a little wobbly but it was easy enough to find your place again.

A stunning debut tale that anyone who has ever been loved by a cat will connect with.

Less of a story and more of a collection of happenings in the character's home life. If you are looking for an easy , sweet and whimsical recount of the love for a pet.

Thanks: Received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I initially struggled to sink my teeth into Invisible Kitties - it didn’t read like a novel, or a short story even. It’s only when I realised that Yoyo is actually a poet, and decided for myself that I would read her book as though it were poetry, that I started to enjoy it.

Look - I enjoyed most of it. Yoyo’s style is lyrical, and rings so true to cats and their people. Some “chapters” are odd - almost incomprehensible to me, and I wonder if they make more sense in her native tongue. (Described as “Chinese” - which I assume to be Mandarin, but perhaps the publishers can clarify that.)

All considered, I feel that Yu Yoyo is in league with T.S. Eliot for her descriptions of cats and their antics.

I wanted to love this so bad but just could not get into it. Unfortunately, I did end up DNFing - I'm going to try to go back to it at a later date though.

Thank you so much to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the arc. 🫶🏻

I received a review copy of this book from 4th Estate and William Collins via NetGalley for which my thanks.

A short series of connected sketches, all around life with a cat—from a time the narrator has no cat or has one only in her imagination to it materialising into reality and then living with the narrator and her husband, changing life as they know it—this is a book weaving real and fantastical in a whimsical manner with some situations simply changing a perspective on ordinary, everyday occurrences and others going far beyond into complete fantasy territory.

Even before she acquires a ‘dream cat’ who expands so as to fill her whole flat, our narrator imagines ‘cat rain’ where
In a blink of an eye, every cat plummeted in raindrop form. Splish, splosh, splash. … Ten thousand drops of cat rain mean ten thousand kitties. Rain from cats, cats in rain, one and the same. The cat rain vanished as it plopped onto the ground, leaving behind countless paw prints.

In this dream phase for our narrator, cats already share her home (at least in her dreams), they can be planted and grow, just like melons and then are picked, until the day her dream seems to become reality as cat enters her (and her husband’s) life and home.

Living with a cat is like living within a cat: no matter what’s happening outside, you won’t necessarily notice. The cat flat contained only cat and nothing else, not even memory.

And with cat becoming real, we begin to see the different aspects of interaction between cat and the narrator in their every day. Some episodes address what every cat owner may experience, the ‘hunting’ of plants or the kitties becoming ‘invisible’ (even when they’re very much in the house) to being within the cat’s circles—an invisible space that ties cat and human and keeps them ever close and even the animosities (magically turning to friendships) with visiting feline guests. Cat also teaches our narrator lessons in tidiness for he is happy to turn into a toy any stationery she leaves out of place at the end of her work day.

With her poetic and artistic eye, the author also puts interesting spins on the commonest of situations just by changing perspective, for instance, cat sleeping at his favourite window becoming a kind of physical obstacle in the path of the sun that wishes to set but simply can’t—not till cat gives way. The same becomes magical when cat manages to defer the sunset when the narrator and her husband are out later than usual.

Other scenarios are entirely in the realm of imagination be it the cat rain at the start or kitties materialising, not from plants as one might think but also fur balls including those coughed up by the humans living in cats’ company.

This collection of vignettes is very much a tribute to the felines we love and share our lives with—these little beings that often look down on us—capturing their natures—their love and also their selfishness, their need for company but also aloofness—their relationships with us humans and also other felines, all of which add something to our lives that we didn’t even know we needed. This was very different from what I was expecting (the title in fact had me a little worried that it would go into more melancholy territory of loss), about the little things of the every day, sometimes spun into completely magical or quirky moments from the author’s perspective and very enjoyable as a result. The two subtitles that the book has also give one a sense of this: ‘A Feline Study of Fluid Mechanics’ or ‘The Spurious Incidents of the Cats in the Night-Time’!

The illustrations, also by the author, are in the style of doodles and compliment the narrative’s whimsical nature. Translated from the Chinese by Jeremy Tiang (My ARC mentions Jeremy Samuel as the translator but I’m listing the name as on the cover).

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Invisible Kitties is a collection of stories and musings on cats by a Chinese author and poet Yu Yoyo that forms itself into a novel that verges on magical realism, about felines and humans' relationship to them.

Invisible Kitties by Yu Yoyo was such a delight to read from beginning to end, And while it is classed as a novel.

However it felt like a series of stories that could be read one after the other like a series but one which could be read out of order.

The 60 chapters were very short ,maybe about a couple of pages bu, each one was written with such love and care that they seemed to be longer, in a good way.

As a cat owner myself it felt such a pleasure to read as each story gave an insight to this mercurial creature that lives with use, that at times seems to be judging us with disgust, with moments of love.

All this makes Invisible Kitties by Yu Yoyo a delight to read and would highly recommend.

Thank you 4th Estate and William Collins | Fourth and Netgalley for the eArc of Invisible Kitties.

Being a cat lover, I loved this little whimsical book full of quirky little tales from a couple who adopted a kitten. It's almost cosmic as some of the little situations are magical and even a bit "out there". Still, You Yoyo portrays how much magic, love and utter joy cats can bring into ones life. I also love the illustrations throughout this book and brings everything to life.

4 stars

This was just the most beautiful book - though fair warning, it's one best enjoyed by those lucky enough to have been adopted by a cat at some time.

Written as a series of short vignettes, each one a love story to a different aspect of cat existence, the overall impression for me is that this is a fairy tale for cats, or perhaps a fairy tale written by cats - ever so slightly mad and completely enchanting.

I loved the illustrations throughout and there's a more than hint of surrealism to the author's style of writing but I just love how imaginatively playful the whole book is. Even the most mind-bending of chapters still feels very recognisable if you've ever shared a space with a cat.

We lost our much-loved cat to illness about a year and a half ago and I could not have read this book back then. I'm not even sure I could have read it 6 months ago. But now, I found myself thinking "yes she did that all the time too!" and smiling at the chapters where the author muses on Cat's ability to squeeze into the smallest spaces or enjoyment of playing parkour across the furniture or uncanny ability to be in all rooms at once.

Probably the most unusual book I've read all year and a true love story to our feline friends - definitely a book that I'll be coming back to time and time again.

I thought this was a whimsical style of writing but I couldn't get into it so didn't finish the book. This may be more interesting to cat lovers

What did I just read? Seriously—what was that? I haven’t been this utterly baffled by a book in a long time. I was completely unprepared for what lay ahead, nor could I have guessed or anticipated the sheer level of absurdity within these pages. Yet, here we are—confused, amused, and thoroughly entertained by invisible cats wreaking havoc on my sanity.

This book consists of 62 chapters that tell the story of a married couple and how they ended up with a cat—or, to be more precise, two cats. The chapters are short and snappy, almost like little vignettes that you could easily read aloud as bedtime stories for kids. But the content? Oh, the content. That’s a whole other story. I’ll admit, part of the shock might be my fault; I didn’t research the book much before diving in. The title was so irresistible that I couldn’t say no. And then I started reading. The deeper I got, the more bewildered I became.

A cat that stretches across an entire room. A cat that constantly dies and comes back to life. A cat that defies every known law of physics. And the pièce de résistance? A kitten born from a furball coughed up by the wife. Yes, you read that right. Unexpected. Shocking. Strangely adorable?

It didn’t take long before I started questioning the author’s sincerity. What began as innocent curiosity quickly turned into cautious dread—what other madness could possibly be in store? The author’s imagination truly runs wild here, delivering a fever dream of feline antics that leave you shaking your head in disbelief. In many ways, this feels like the ultimate cat lover’s fantasy, where cats reign supreme and nothing—not logic, not science—can stop them. The story’s narrator and their spouse dive headfirst into this bizarre world, treating their cats like the center of their universe. From a human perspective, it feels unhealthy; from a literary one, you might call it passion. Take your pick.

As for recommendations, I find myself unusually hesitant. On the one hand, I’d suggest it to anyone looking for something absurd, outlandish, and just plain weird. Think of it as a test—see if you can make sense of it. On the other hand, I’m stumped on how to answer the inevitable question: Why should I read this book? It’s surreal, it’s ridiculous, and it will make you chuckle. Maybe it could inspire kids to draw the scenes? It’s worth a try.

In conclusion: proceed with caution! 😊

Thank you so much, NetGalley and 4th Estate and William Collins, for this wonderfully strange and unforgettable reading experience, and for the ARC copy!

Review in Estonian: https://brixieblog.wordpress.com/2024/11/11/invisible-kitties-yu-yoyo/

Invisible Kitties is a warm and bizarre read. The book would be perfect for cat lovers or if you are someone curious about cats, you can read this book. Author has shared their deep observations about cats and kitties. There is so much warmth and wisdom in this book. The illustrations are raw and beautiful. Author has shared about their everyday life, dreams, relationship with husband and changes after having a cat. Author has combined philosophy, imagination and daily life experiences. The ending was heartwarming.

Thanks to the publisher and Author

Whether Cat had come from my mind or elsewhere, the truth was inescapable: I was now a person who had a cat. An actual cat. As for why I hadn't had a cat before this, the question no longer seemed important.'

Reading almost like a series of sketches or moments, this story of our narrator, the husband and a couple of cats that they suddenly come to own will appeal to anyone who loves cats or who has owned a cat. (Can you own a cat? Or do they own you?)

Charming, whimsical and a little bizarre, this is a warm and comforting read about, yes, cats but also about companionship and what makes a home a home. It's slightly surreal outlook makes it different enough from other 'cat genre' books, and that is one of its charms. A definite 4 stars.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

Invisible Kitties is an ode to cats, and their way of life. This collection of small tales about cats from Chinese poet Yu Yoyo and translated Jeremy Tiang is a must for cat lovers.

A couple adopt a kitten, and their lives are turned upside down by the adventures of this kitten. Told in vignettes, with an almost dream like quality, the kitten moves between our reality and magical places, finding friends, being playful and causing chaos. Fantastical and poetic, the strangeness of cats is explored in this short, quirky book.

I hate having to DNF an ARC but sadly I've been trying to read this for a month now and I just don't think this book is for me.

I thought the premise of Invisible Kitties was interesting when I got the email offer of the ARC hence why I have decided to request for it. However, I just found myself not connecting to this book at all. I knew this book was blurbed as whimsical but the mood and the vibe of the story was just not that at all so I'm confused on which part of this book would be categorized as whimsical. Also the lack of narrative structure in this book was also another reason for my disconnect. I'm not a picky reader by any means and I love love love when books have interesting format but the disconnect between the chapters here (I'm calling it chapters because they're numbered) threw me off guard so many times especially with how a chapter could end so abruptly. I think if the book was blurbed as short stories or the chapters are not numbered like it's a continuous story, I would understand this book a little better.

I read a lot of Japanese books especially those about cats in fact if there is a new one out I will probably read it.
I was disappointed in this book as it was very quirky and if I am honest that put me off. Now I like Japanese books that are off the wall but this one was just pushing it a bit much and so lost me totally so much so that I gave up on the book - which for me is unusual
I am sure many will like it but it was not for me.