📕 Title: Cat Love
✏️ Author: Tomás Q. Morín
📖 Genre: Fiction / Satire
⭐ Rating: ⭐⭐⭐💫
📝 Standalone Novella

“The indelible cat heroine of this unexpected tale recalls her life with “the Mustache,” her beloved owner. Trapped in a one-way mirrored box, displayed in a classroom for people who must contemplate her fate as part of their training to become “Emotional Support Humans,” she weaves a self-soothing paean to the poetry, music, and creature comforts she shared with her Mustache—the best products of a society that has gone off the rails in its violence and intolerance.

The trainees in the room, a motley crew our kitty describes with a novelistic flair of her own, are assigned to consider what they feel about her. They also argue about whether there’s really a cat in there, or are they just being manipulated? Their daily required quizzes are as poignant and witty as our narrator herself. Meanwhile, the mystery of her cat-kidnapping is revealed to us, along with her potential next move on a more spectral plane.”

REVIEW

Thank you Pantheon for the free book! This was a strange and surreal story about a cat’s observations about a rather bizarre society in which being an “Emotional Support Human” is a real job. I didn’t know what to expect going in, and while it started off fairly straightforward it quickly descended into something far much more philosophical.

I did like the cat’s narration and commentary on the weirdness of the humans in this story, and especially how much she loved her human Moustache. The insane practices of the society had me saying “what the fuck” over and over again.

The quizzes, while sometimes funny, mostly left me quite confused. I’m sure there is a deeper meaning that more clever readers can decipher. Some parts felt very abstract like the out of body experiences that move in between the real world. The cat’s transformation felt confusing and hard to imagine, but at some point in the book there was an explanation which cleared up a lot for me. The ending was bittersweet and emotional.

There are many references to real poets, music, books, movies, and visual art, so I did spend some time looking up the works that I wasn’t familiar with.

This was a weird book but it’s a short read and worth picking up.