Catboy by Benji Nate
Rating:
Nothing is perfect, and as such, the reviews in this blog are chaotic. My main aim is to share my thoughts, joy and opinions on a book, not make a publication perfect review. This blog endorses authenticity, showing up and joy over perfection.
Disclaimer: Receiving a review copy from the publisher does not affect my opinion of the book. If you think I review it highly it is due to me knowing my taste well and therefore not requesting books I won’t enjoy. And I am not obligated to review the book if I do not like it, so you may not see bad reviews due to me preferring not to hype down a particular book. I only do reviews of books I disagreed with if I think it is worth bringing a topic or warning to light.
I bought this as it looked interesting and a catboy sounded like an interesting premise. Basically we follow Olive who is lonely and wishes her cat Henry would become her best friend. This turns Henry into a “human” catboy which is hilarious and oddly weird.
For the most part, Henry is very much a cat and this is hilarious, even if it is weird or frustrating for Olive, like he doesn’t care if he’s wearing girl clothes despite being a boy cat (gender norms? what are those?) but at times the interactions were a tiny bit creepy and I did not enjoy reading the, they felt like they had been written to be funny but read more cringey and a little bit too much, so I am taking some foxes away for that. I think the concept would have bene better without those as the overall story is about being more confident, what friendship and being yourself means and similar things, so slightly creepy things weren’t necessary and did not add to a light humour touch.
The art is ridiculously cute and works well with the story, so on that part it is a big win.
Overall a cute story that lost a little bit due to odd parts of it with very cute and fitting art.