I honestly just instantly ordered this book when I first saw it recommended to me online because it looks really good, not just the cover but also the blurb and the genres (fantasy isekai animal xenofiction) really appealed to me. So let's have a look. Spoilers ahead.
Nina is just an ordinary girl growing up in the Netherlands, however one day her life changes as she finds a magical mirror that turns her into a snow leopard and transports her to the Realm of Cats, a world where talking big and wild cats are the dominant life form, a royal family of snow leopards rules supreme and magic is an everyday occurrence. Nina learns that her mother actually hails form this realm and was once the snow leopard princess, before going to the human realm and transforming into a human to be with her lover. Now finding out that she is a princess, Nina must deal with the return of the evil lynx king Lagoon, who is set on taking over all Realms.
Okay, so one thing I did not know going into this book is that the author was only twelve when she published this. It turns out to be an independently published book by her, and since I usually don't read author blurbs I just completely missed this fact until I was already reading the book itself. So, with the author being so young at the time (and even now, a few years later, still being so) I will not be harsh on this book. You can definitely tell by the writing style that it was written by a newer writer, however that didn't hinder me from enjoying the book.
One thing I found interesting is that this book actually isn't really one coherent running plot, but rather three separate stories named Chronicles. The only real recurring plot throughout all of them is having to put an end to Lagoon and his lynxes using magic for evil. The first chronicle delves into the backstory of Andrea, Nina's mother, and shows how she ended up in the human realm. The second chronicle follows Nina, Andrea's daughter, and depicts her discovering the Realm of Cats. Then in the third chronicle all of Nina's classmates also end up in the Realm, and Nina finally finishes elementary school, now having to balance both being queen of the Realm of Cats and having to live a normal human life as a teenager.
I honestly kind of liked this way of formatting the story. It wasn't what I was expecting, but I really should have, I mean, it's literally in the title. The stories are all rather brief and I could've done with a few more pages for each of them to go further in-depth, but overall I did like them. I think my favorite is the second, however, where Nina discovers all the wonders of the Realm of Cats for the first time. But I also liked the first one, with them showing how Andrea chose her lover and being a human over her family and royal title in the Realm of Cats, and how the lynxes were defeated.
The overall story is pretty simple, just stopping the bad guys, and it meanders a lot, but I also kind of liked how this gave us a look into not just the Realm of Cats, but also the other Realms as well as this version of Earth. I also like how it didn't really explain the magic. I know people are all for hard magic systems, but I honestly like soft magic systems a lot as well. It does explain magic to a certain degree, but not overly so, which I can appreciate.
I can also really appreciate the author's imagination, as the Realm of Cats and its magic is rather creative. You might've noticed that the author and protagonist share a name, and I think by the way this was written and ends that this is basically supposed to be a fantastical backstory for the author, with the Nina character being a stand-in for the author. They even attend the same school and I'm pretty sure some of the side characters are based on other people Van Veen knows. Very imaginative. I mean, I imagined myself traveling into tons of other realms with magic and talking animals and creatures at that age, so it's very fun to read someone else's imagination actually put to the page.
Do I have some feedback for the author? Of course, but I'll keep it mild since this is very clearly on the start of her writing journey. I've seen people on Goodreads rip her other book a bit to shreds in reviews, and honestly I feel that's a little unfair. If a professional author with years of experience messes up, that's one thing, but reviewing something by a beginner author who isn't even an adult yet this harshly feels a bit mean to be honest.
So what would my feedback for Van Veen be? Mostly, it would be in how the plot is structured and the characters are written. Even with the story being split into three chronicles, the plot of each chronicle feels a little bit too meander-y at times. Not that we always need to get straight to the point, definitely not, but it could've been structured better. The pacing was also rather fast and abrupt sometimes. As for the characters, I like them, but I feel like at least a few of them need deeper development or at least more of a personality. Some of them kind of start to blend together personality-wise. I do like that there wasn't a very big cast of characters, so it was easy to tell who was who, but making each of them a bit more distinct with their own quirks and flaws would definitely be better.
But that aside, I still really enjoyed reading this book. It's not perfect and does have some mistakes many early writers make, but I still had good time. I wish Van Veen the best in her writing journey! Just this book alone is already impressive and much better than my writing at that age, so I think she definitely has the potential to be a great writer in the future.
Also, just an aside, I'm not sure if this is the first book in a series or just a standalone. The title: The Realm of Cats Chronicles: The Realm of the Snow Leopard does seem to imply this being the first book of a series (The Realm of Cats Chronicles/De Kattenrijk kronieken), however I can't find any information on there being more books in the future or even this being the first in a series. There isn't any "1" on the cover or side and it doesn't say "first book of The Realm of Cats Chronicles" inside. So I'm just going to assume for now that this is a standalone. Should this change in the future, I'll change the title of this review and edit this paragraph.
Rating: 4/5
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