This once I've heard a lot about. Let's check it out. Spoilers ahead.
Varjak Paw is a pedigree cat who doesn't feel like he lives up to the legacy of his breed, being widely disregarded by his family. When a mysterious Gentleman arrives at his home, Varjak escapes and is now thrust into the real world of street life and cat gangs. He befriends two street cats, Tam and Holly, and in his dreams starts to learn the special skills of his ancestor Jalal. Varjak is determined to find a way to save his family from the Gentleman and his plans.
This is one of these books where I think I can see why people like it so much, but it didn't do much for me personally. This is a pretty neat book with a dark atmosphere to it (especially with those eerie yet beautiful illustrations) and some likable characters, but also I'd be lying if I said I really connected with it.
It was a pretty simple story (Varjak has to save his family from the Gentleman who turns cats into toys) but there just didn't feel like there was a lot of depth to the Gentleman and his plan. It's not even really revealed how he turns dead cats into toys and what is ultimate goal is with all these toy cats (presumably to sell them but still. Why would people en masse buy dead toys instead of real cats? Doesn't make much sense). It just didn't feel that well developed.
The conflict with Sally Bones also isn't all it's cracked up to be. Throughout early parts of the story there's all this buildup for Sally and her gang as antagonists, but then they don't end up doing much in the story. They don't even have that much of a presence. I guess she might have more to so in the sequel but still it feels like a bit of a letdown to have all this buildup with very little payoff. I think the time we spent with Sally Bones could've been dedicated to fleshing out the Gentleman and his evil plans more, or the focus should've been more on Sally and her gang. Because this kind of half-and-half thing doesn't really work much and feels a bit uneven.
The characters, while likable, I also found to be a bit simple. Varjak goes through the exact kind of arc you'd expect him to once you start reading the story and nothing all that unique is done with it. I did really like Holly and Tam, but again they're not super fleshed out or deep characters. I feel that more work could've been put into the character department. Cludge was also fine but, again, not a very deep character. These characters all have the foundations of being well-written, but not enough is done with them to really make them stand out.
I also just had some trouble with taking the concept of a cat doing kung fu seriously. It works a bit more for fully anthropomorphic animals such as in the movie Kung Fu Panda, but these are feral cats (on four legs) who live in a world parallel to our own and are supposed to act mostly cat-like. The idea of them doing kung fu just feels inherently kind of silly and didn't work for me personally. I think that if Said wanted to make this work he either should've made the cat more anthro and the world more fantastical, or just dropped the kung fu aspect and kept things realistic. Because again it's a bit of a half-and-half situation where it doesn't really work, at least not for me personally.
Overall this was a fine book and I'm sure many people enjoy it based on what I've heard of it. It does have some good qualities such as nice characters and a very evil villain with a dark plan, but at the same time it doesn't feel fully fleshed out, the cat martial arts was a bit difficult to take seriously and the conflicts between that of the Gentleman and Sally Bones don't feel fully balanced, especially not with all the buildup the latter gets. I personally didn't vibe too much with this book, but I wouldn't not recommend it if you like cat xenofiction.
Rating: 3/5
I remember I adored this book and it's sequel as a kid so much, I remember the last page of the book really sticking with me where it described the sun.
ReplyDeleteBare with me if I misremember things but I completely get your issues with the Gentleman as when I read the book I felt really confused when we first got an inkling of what he was doing when we the cats in the shop window. It just didn't make sense to me and I was hoping that it'd be explained but I just decided to just accept what was happening and it definitely helped me enjoy the book when i realised no proper explanation was coming. But I find it really disappointing that we just need to accept such an absurd concept, I also remember he had like two cats, but I think they were toys i do not remember unfortunately but I also remember being super confused about how they worked.
The Kung Fu Aspect somehow didn't bother me but I suppose compared to the other things I had to believe it wasn't too bad and I mostly imagined it as basic magic abilities. All in all I did love this book as a kid but it does feel a little strange the world these characters live in due to lack of explanation. I will say I enjoyed the sequel a lot more as Sally Bones was interesting to me in the first book and I was disappointed how little she appeared and as much as I like her it feels like she was included to have a familiar face as the sequels antagonist, I will say she is much more relevant in the sequel but honestly it feels kinda jarring compared to the first book. It feels like the only thing the first book does to serve the sequel is Varjak lives in the alley ways now and he knows how to use his abilities, there is no real connection other then characters. The sequel as I said was more enjoyable to me as it feels more grounded and a villain that is much easier to suspend my belief over and it seems to focus more on the fact they are cats living in the streets and those struggles, there is one thing I remember really disliking but I'll expand upon that if you review the sequel, I still want to be vague enough about the sequel that I don't spoil things.
Even after all my thoughts these books were still enjoyable to me as a child and I love seeing people discuss them again, your reviews are always very entertaining!