I requested this book because of my love for cats and experience with stray and feral cats.
The author moves in to a house in Poets Square, and the community of cats around her house keep her company; help her through the difficult experiences in her life.
I had no prior knowledge of the author and her experience, except for the information in the blurb.
While the experience was entirely relatable, sympathetic and familiar to me, the characterisation of each cat, and how the little things in life make so much meaning.
Yet, the writing and the storytelling (what made it to the narrative) often fell flat for me.
I might as well not be the right audience for this and cat-loving, experience-appreciating may not be enough to like this book.
I suppose a younger audience can enjoy this more.

I am not entirely sure what I was expecting from this book, but I found myself utterly unable to put it down. It's a story of someone saving their own life by accidentally saving thirty, feral cats that they inherit when they move into a new home. It's so interesting, not just about the cats but about the nature of how we treat animals and by extension, how we treat ourselves.

2.5 I read this with no prior knowledge of the author or the cats. I mention this specifically because I think you almost need to; for me, this had a “reading the second in a series with very little context” feel to it!

Story and Cadence:
🐱I found the storytelling poor and suffering from a short attention span. There’s a lot of jumping around in time and introducing characters only to discard them and pick them back up later on. This made the flow feel disjointed and had a very repetitious effect that felt like an early draft, rather than a published work. There’s a lot of meandering and the book felt directionless (it doesn’t end so much as stop, which didn’t help).
🐱The book features cats but the Gustafson gives herself equal attention. I had no idea who she was and her characterization wasn’t done particularly well so I found those sections tedious. I was there for the cats!
🐱Gustafson admits around 30% of the way through that she mishandled the cat situation but it comes a bit too late and a bit too defensively to land after watching her make mistake after mistake.
🐱While it didn’t bring anything new to the conversation, I appreciated the section about misogyny about cats and cat guardians, particularly how some men perceive both, the toxic masculinity around neutering, and how projection and anthropomorphization that can deeply harm pets.
🐱The story lacked emotional hook. There’s a lot of heartache with injured or dying cats and human poverty but the writing was detached and I didn’t feel anything to compel me forward.

Characters:
🐱Despite being around the same age, I couldn’t connect with Gustafson as a character. She comes across as whiny, obsessed with how she’s perceived (including a harmful obsession with being “good”), with harmful internalized misogyny, and very defensive. I found her actions and inner monologues incredibly frustrating. I genuinely didn’t understand her motivations: she complains a lot about the expense and time of caring for the cats, makes a mess of it, and I found myself increasingly curious why she took this on instead of contacting the City, rescue groups, vet networks, etc. I wasn’t convinced by Gustafson’s claimed (and conflicting) excuses when she spent so much time justifying why she couldn’t afford it and it was too hard. It gave me the impression that she was, once again, too invested in what other people thought of her and, idk, needing to almost atone for something? Throughout the story, I was hoping for some character development from our narrator, but how we start is largely how we finish. I was grateful to get out of her head.
🐱Weirdly, I found Richard’s characterization great. I got a good feel for him as a person, I was emotionally invested in his story, and despite his flaws, it was easy to cheer him on!

Language, Writing, and Vibe:
🐱The writing was all over the place: at times, overwrought and flowery descriptions juxtaposed with skating over details about the cats that this reader would have valued spending more time on.
🐱Gustafson spends an inordinate amount of time, like the first 25% of the book, justifying the rationale for posting these cats on social media and comes across both defensive and way too preoccupied with how the reader is perceiving her and her motivations. As a reader, this made me trust her narration a lot less.
🐱There was a coldness, a hardness, to this writing that kept me at arm’s length. At one point, Gustafson invites us to look at our cat while she tells us she knows every bad thing that can happen to them. It’s like she was trying to be shocking or edgy in a hamfisted way of, idk, stirring emotion? It was bizarre.
🐱Italics, which are commonly used to delineate thoughts, were used as speech in this book. I never got used to that.
🐱The cover is beautiful but the vibe navel-gazey with a hopeless, bleak undercurrent to the story overall.

The most enjoyable section was with Richard and the crumbling apartment building. On reflection, I feel like the navel-gazing bio sections about the author spoiled the effect of the book overall: if the focus had been about the cats, it might’ve been a stronger, more thoughtful, read. Maybe this is a different experience for people who are familiar with this author; but if you’re coming in without context, this is some rocky storytelling. I was so disappointed by this book and I hope, if publishing continues on this trend of just publishing folks because they’re internet famous, they can at least start being upfront about it - this is the second time I’ve picked up a book only to dislike it and then find out the author is some online celebrity. 🤷‍♀️