The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett

I debated reviewing The Unadulterated Cat by Terry Pratchett and with illustrations/cartoons by Gray Jolliffe. It’s neither fiction nor narrative. It is hilarious however (as though we would expect less from early Pratchett).

The book reads as an information guide about Real Cats as opposed to, well, unreal cats. From the flap-jacket:

Real cats never wear flea collars… or appear on Christmas cards… or chase anything with a bell on it.

Cats with ears that look like they have been trimmed with pinking shears are Real cats.

Real cats do eat quiche. And giblets. And butter. And anything else left on the side if they think they can get away with it. They can hear a fridge door opening two rooms away.

Real cats don’t need names. But they often get called them. ‘Yaargeroffoutofityarbastard’ does nicely.

It’s divided into section such as “How to get a cat”, “Feeding cats” and “Schrodinger cats”. Each presents an entertaining and non-typical view of the subject. Interspersed anecdotes are what really make it.

It’s a very quick read and had me laughing out loud on more than one occasion.

Cat Girl's Day Off by Kimberly Pauley

Cat Girl’s Day Off by Kimberly Pauley is set in a world where people have non-secret superpowers. Chicago schoolgirl, Nat, has a very talented family. Her parents and siblings all have multiple and powerful superpowers. It runs in the family. Except Nat only has one superpower: she can talk to cats. Whoopdidoo.

The excitement starts when her best friends force her to watch a YouTube video of a celebrity blogger who’s come to town to cover the filming of a teen movie. Nat notices the blogger’s pink cat is calling out for help in the clip. Somehow, the blogger’s been replaced by a double and only her pets and Nat no about it. It’s up to Nat and her friends to work out what’s going on.

Cat Girl’s Day Off was an amusing and quirky (in a good way) book. A quick light read that made me laugh out loud a few times (mostly at the snarky cats). The celebrity angle had be a bit doubtful at first since I’m really not the kind of person who gives a crap about celebrities, but then neither does Nat, so that was OK. Her friends were a bit over the top at first, but by the end they had developed into non-clichéd characters. A couple of times Nat’s inner monologue got a bit repetitive, but mostly it was entertaining. And her strictly PG swearing made me smile. (Oh, poodle farts!)

Ultimately, this was partly a coming-of-age story. In the end (not a spoiler) Nat comes to accept her powers as not completely useless and grows up a bit. The other part, the mystery and celebrity impersonation part, was taken a little bit lightly at times. Yes, it was inescapably amusing when the cats helped the humans catch the bad guy, but not quite enough weight was given to all the bad things that were going on.

Cat Girl’s Day Off was a light, fun read. Don’t read it if you’re in the mood for something serious and, as should be obvious by now, don’t read it if you hate cats. I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, but I believe it is generally available from today.

4 / 5 stars