Alec, a retired librarian and recent widower, is taking a break in a coastal village to get over his recent bereavement and decides to look into a laptop filled with information given to him by a fellow librarian. Inside the laptop are files that tell the story of an actor called Wiggy and his acquaintance with Roger - a talking cat. Roger’s story spans decades, years in which his supernatural longevity, intelligence and speech were down to a mysterious cat called the Captain and a Satanic cat cult. And Alec is soon to realise his wife’s death wasn’t an accident - the hellcats are coming for him next!

Cat Out Of Hell is one of the laziest novels I’ve read in a while. I’ve never read a Lynne Truss book before so I can’t say if this is her usual style but it reads it was a frenzied NaNoWriMo effort (National Novel Writing Month where people try to write a 50k word novel during the month of November) thrown together in bursts of typing over actual creativity. Characters splutter exposition through one badly constructed scene after another without a hint of a plot with key details left out with no attempt at making it seem a cohesive whole.

This is what it feels was racing through the author’s mind as she hacked this one out: there’s this evil cat cult - people dying! - Roger’s evil - no, wait the Captain’s evil - no wait, the cat cult is evil - no wait the evil librarian is evil - no, the evil librarian’s the head honcho - why did that character die, never mind, they’re dead, they were never “characters” anyway! - why did that character do that action even though it went against their flimsily created character, never mind, moving on - why did we suddenly jump ahead 70 years, NEVER MIND!!! - wait, why did Roger and the Captain fall out despite being besties for years? - NEVER MIND, KEEP GOING!!!! Done? Thank god! Well, no need to go back and make sure it reads well, I’ll just send this off and get on with my life. Cheque please!

It’s madness! You can follow what’s happening but the narrative skips and jumps for no reason. When Truss builds up to an interesting scene a heist or a murder mystery reveal, she skips it and jumps ahead to the aftermath - probably because that’s easier to write - before going back to the safety of Alec or Wiggy’s overly chatty, rather scatterbrained narration.

The ending is also a massive let down. Events stumble clumsily to the final act and then, just when I thought it couldn’t possibly be this predictable, Truss MUST do something a little different to make things at least a bit interesting, she opts instead for exactly the least original choice. Other bizarre creative decisions in the narrative involve switching from first person narration to email exchanges, screenplay scenes, and something downright sickening called an “e-miaow” (definitely the only horror element in the novel), for no reason!

Truss’ ideas about the long living, talking cats could barely be called ideas. If you’re a cat owner you’ll know they have a habit of kneading their paws on you - Truss spins it so that cats used to have powers to kill humans and the non-powered cats do this expecting you to die and are disappointed when you don’t. Hmm, heard that before. Or how about their superior attitude that seems completely undeserved? Well, they used to have powers and… zzz… Ho hum.

Truss even seems aware of her languorous efforts and addresses them in the text itself: “I no longer care much about the gaps in this story, so I hope you don’t either.” So there you go - any gaps in the story won’t be addressed and neither will the stuff that didn’t make sense. But she “thoroughly enjoyed writing it, so there you are.” Alright guys? Up yours! I put more effort and thought into writing this review than Truss did in the entire novel.

Cat Out Of Hell isn’t horror, it’s dreary nothing. It’s not comedy either, I didn’t see any jokes in the text. It completely fails at the two genres it attempts. It’s grammatically sound, as you’d expect from the author of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, but what a pitiful positive that is to say about a novel! Cat Out Of Hell is a rushed, poorly conceived and even more poorly executed hack job that I wouldn’t even line my cat’s litter tray with. If you want to read an interesting talking cat story, check out Saki’s short story, Tobermory instead. 45 s Ian817 63

The second book in this series is available as an audio download from my library. I was thinking of borrowing it but decided it would be sensible to read the first book beforehand. As you may have seen from the blurb, the storyline is based around a university librarian, Alec Charlesworth, who stumbles across the secret existence of demonic talking cats with magical powers. In the novel all cats had these powers once, but over time they have decayed, and now only one cat in a million still possesses them.

Now in literature, I’m not fundamentally opposed to the idea of a demonic talking cat or two. “The Master and Margarita” is one of my all-time favourite novels, but it takes a degree of panache to carry off the whole talking cat thing, and I’m not sure this novel delivers it. It seems to be classed as horror, but I think the author wrote it tongue-in-cheek. If you’re a horror fan looking for a spine-tingler you won’t find it here. Then again, I never felt the humorous aspect really got beyond the level of general silliness. About the only amusing element was around Alec’s dog being named Watson, which allowed the author to introduce a few Sherlock Holmes references.

Not really for me. I don’t think I’ll follow up my interest in the second book.


fiction horror humour30 s Ivonne Rovira2,046 212

Lynne Truss — best known for the clever punctuation guide Eats, Shoots & Leaves — branches out into fiction with Cat Out of Hell.

In Cat Out of Hell, a perspicacious talking cat named Roger meets a singularly dim-witted human, Will Caton-Pines, nicknamed Wiggy. Wiggy’s sister Jo, who had recently acquired Roger, has vanished. To say any more would be to spoil the fun; this slender book is best approached with very little prior information. However, let me say that Cat Out of Hell isn’t the light-hearted philosophical discussion that I thought it was going to be, but a pretty dark, if hilarious, mystery with many, many surprising twists. Truss suffuses this mystery novel with the same lovely dry British humor that made Eats, Shoots & Leaves a best-seller plus dark elements worthy of H.P. Lovecraft or M.R. James.

For those interested in the Audible audio version, narrator Mike Grady does yeoman’s work with the voices, particularly the cat’s self-confident American drawl and Wiggy’s rapid, nebbishy twitterings.28 s Ron Charles1,070 49.2k

Lynne Truss doesn’t hate cats. She just thinks they’re minions of Satan.

If you’ve ever used the Internet, you know this is not a popular opinion. In fact, the Internet was invented back in the 1980s by Al Gore (or possibly by his cat) expressly to share pictures of adorable kittens hanging from branches: “Hang in there, baby!”

But Truss is used to speaking her mind, even if it means getting clawed to death. In 2003, this British writer turned a hectoring punctuation guide into a hilarious bestseller called “Eats, Shoots & Leaves.” Her book’s wild success inspired the New Yorker to run its own catty rebuttal.

Now, Truss is back with a gothic comedy heavily flavored by Alfred Hitchcock and LOLCats. There’s no punctuation advice in “Cat Out of Hell,” but you might think of it as “Eats, Shoots & Pees.”

The plot, spiked with gruesome deaths and macabre mysteries, is not a model of clarity. I was feeling a little more inadequate than usual until I noticed that even the publisher’s jacket copy accidentally mixed up characters and conflated two of them into one person. (As in life, the cats are easier to keep straight.) Near the very end, the surviving narrator concedes that he has “told the story with what appears to be a lamentable lack of narrative organisation.” But that’s okay. We’re not here for a rigorous explanation of The Way We Live Now. We just want Truss’s casually tossed off kibbles of wit.

The fur begins to fly when a retired librarian, grieving the loss of his wife, receives an electronic folder via e-mail. Holed up in a lonely cottage by the sea, he begins to read the documents, examine the jpegs and listen to the audio files. From these disparate records, we gradually learn that a young actor named Wiggy went looking for his missing sister and found her house abandoned. Her car was in the yard; her handbag was on the table. “What it feels ,” Wiggy writes, “is that she’s been taken by aliens.” But of course, that’s crazy. So he starts talking with his sister’s cat. And the cat talks back.

“This is Interview with the Vampire,” the cat says. Obviously, he’s no ordinary cat. An ordinary cat would read more Rita Mae Brown than Anne Rice. But this cat — named Roger — is well read and well traveled. “He’s the feline equivalent of Stephen Fry,” Wiggy says. He loves to do the crossword puzzle in the newspaper. (Attention, Circulation Dept.: Feline readers could be our last hope.)

As Wiggy forgets about his missing sister, Roger regales him with his life story under the maniacal influence of an even older, more clever cat named the Captain, who’s “a classic Nietzschean.” In the early part of the 20th century, Roger and the Captain toured Southern Europe with Lawrence and Gerald Durrell. They took comfort in fine art and great literature (except for Robert Browning, who can be so tedious). Now, though, Roger and the Captain have had a falling out, and humans who get in the way are showing up dead. (In the afterword, Truss says she drew inspiration from “those inseparable James brothers, M.R. and Henry.”) The creepy scenes are all sandpaper-tongue-in-cheek, but there’s something genuinely spooky about realizing that the purring is coming from inside the house!

I don’t want to say anything more about what happens — mostly because I’m not sure — but it all has something to do with immortal felines who can “cause instant death with a single application of overpowering malevolence.” (If you have a cat, you know that look.) Soon, Roger is kneading a plan that just might save humanity — or get them all killed: “Pack enough chicken treats for a fortnight,” he meows in his Vincent Price voice.

“I did find myself quite captivated by Roger,” the narrator admits. “I think it was something to do with his educated love of Tennyson’s earlier poetry and his profound aesthetic response to ancient cultural sites. Such intellectual elegance doesn’t come along very often.” Especially in a cat.

If none of this absurdity strikes you as funny, I’ve just saved you $24.95. But if jokes about acerbic pets, library carrels and funerary archaeology are catnip to you, then by all means curl up next to the fire with this diverting comedy.

Clearly, Truss has brushed a lot of hair from her sofa and drapes over the years. In 1995, she published a collection of her witty columns called “Making the Cat Laugh.” She knows their superior ways. She’s wise to their tricks. But if someday soon the police find her choked to death on a hairball, they should question a large black cat.

This review first appeared in The Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/enterta...academic-comedies24 s Carolyn2,356 661


Lynne Truss is a best selling author (Eats, Shoots and Leaves) so I expected to really enjoy this book described as a "suspenseful and often hysterically funny adventure" about a demonic cat but unfortunately I didn't find it either suspenseful or at all funny. I just found it silly and really struggled to finish it in the hope it would get better. It didn't.

Perhaps I just wasn't in the right mood for reading this. The whole book is written in a flippant almost smug tone in by the central character, Alec, a librarian who has just lost his job and his adored wife, so this seemed at odds with what he was feeling. He is sent some files and photos by a man called "Wiggy" interviewing a talking cat called Roger who claims to be immortal. He has been made this way by an evil cat called The Captain who is responsible for several murders. Even the climax of the book where Alec must confront The Captain was somewhat predictable and not all that suspenseful. (Stephen King would have done it so much better. Sigh!)
animal-stories humour thriller23 s Blair1,841 5,221

(First read in 2013; reread December 2023.) Just as fun and funny as I remembered it being :)

Original review (December 2013): In Cat Out of Hell, Lynne Truss has fashioned a surprisingly brilliant and original tale involving cats with supernatural powers and some seriously hapless humans. Alec, an academic who is recovering from the death of his wife, is staying in a quiet cottage by the sea when he starts to make his way through a package of papers and recordings given to him by a colleague. These concern the experiences of an individual known as Wiggy, who claims to have encountered not only a talking cat, but an evil, murderous, devil-worshipping talking cat who is part of a feline conspiracy spanning centuries. The story that then unfolds, told from a number of viewpoints and through various channels (including a hilariously terrible screenplay and imagined email exchanges), is exciting and compelling, but what surprised me the most was how hysterically funny the whole book is. This being part of the Hammer horror series of novellas, I was expecting something entertaining with a ghostly/magical bent, but I didn't expect it to make me laugh out loud so much I had to put it away for fear of appearing slightly insane in public. If you cats, horror-lite and laughing, you will absolutely love this.2014-release contemporary favourites ...more17 s Fiona MacDonald747 176

I really can't explain how I feel about this book. It's too peculiar to be scary and too poignant to be funny. Lynne Truss is well known for her humour, so it was probably quite overwhelming to attempt a Hammer horror novel. Although initially finding the whole thing very silly and a bit pathetic, now thinking back over it I realise I enjoyed it immensely. Added to which it has one of the best back cover blurbs I have ever read. I love the idea of a talking cat, and although you might think it can't work in a novel, it really can. I found myself feeling rather emotional towards the end. It is clear the author adores cats and has a certain empathy for them (although she has apparently recently changed over to dogs!). If anything, this story has made me love felines even more that I ever did, because of all that they are, their relentless survival, and the great stories of their nine lives that they could tell....library-books15 s Kaethe6,475 497

I expect my immediate relations will read this with the same glee I did. Others who might also enjoy it very much: fans of cats, mysteries, horror, Sherlock Holmes stories, libraries, classic works of horror, dogs.

It's a bit of every pre-war litterary genre thrown into the blender and served frothy, with a little bit of gore on top, to savor.

Anf for those who also enjoy this ilk, there's a 5 page Note From the Author at the end, there's a literary mood board showing Truss' inspirations, all friends of old.

Library copy but I am going to need my own copy. This is going to be a perennial Halloween Bingo read.adventure ancient-civilizations books-about-books ...more14 s Wanda Pedersen2,001 410

I read this book to fill the Thirteen (13) square of my 2018 Halloween Bingo card.

I am always a fan of books that involve libraries and librarians, so this book has been on my radar for a while now. So it was very handy when the black cat on the cover qualified it for the ‘unlucky 13’ choice for bingo!

If you’re a cat lover, I think this book will also make you snicker, as you discover who cats *really* report to and how much their traditional powers have lapsed! Roger and the Captain will have you giving your moggy the side-eye and listening a little more carefully to what they have to say.

But I hate to report, it’s a dog that really stole the show. Watson is Alec Charlesworth’s dog, named by his deceased wife. The quotes from Sherlock Holmes that the two of them used with regard to Watson are outstanding. For example, when Watson comes in dirty from digging in the yard, their line is, “You have been in Afghanistan I perceive.” When calling Watson at the dog park, “Watson, come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.”

A very short, amusing horror-lite tale. Perfect for a quiet afternoon before Halloween, though you may want to put the cat out first.
brit-lit female-authors good-dog ...more12 s Bonnie1,384 1,093

My rating: 1.5 of 5 stars

‘All of this story, remember, is based on the completely unacceptable and ludicrous premise of an evil talking cat called Roger that traveled romantically in the footsteps of Lord Byron in the 1930s and now solves cryptic crosswords torn out daily from the Telegraph.’

I’m all about dark humor (and if we’re being completely honest, anything involving cats) so when I read numerous describing this novel as such, I jumped at the chance to read it. Sad to say, the ‘humor’ of this completely escaped me. Remember that horrible cheese-fest of a movie Cats & Dogs about a top secret war going on between, well, Cats & Dogs? The cats were all evil bastards trying to take over the world and man’s best friend was trying to foil their plans. So basically, just replace dogs with humans and you’ve got the plot of this story.



Our narrator, Alec, is a librarian who is mourning the sudden loss of his wife, Mary. Alec immerses himself in a collection of documents consisting of audio transcripts, e-mails, and photographs describing the story of a man called “Wiggy” who has just lost his sister. His story also includes the tale of a talking cat named Roger, a member of a satanic cult of immortal cats with a blood feud against humans. Roger begins to tell his life story to Wiggy, à la Interview with the Vampire.

‘”Why are cats so pissed off all the time? They get all the best seats in the house, they have food and warmth and affection. Everything is on their terms, not ours. They come and go as they please. Why aren’t they permanently ecstatic?” Well, now it’s explained. It’s because they’re conscious of having lost their ability to do serious evil, and they feel bloody humiliated.’



The included pop culture references with Roger having a voice Vincent Price and is described as the feline equivalent of Stephen Fry (whatever that’s supposed to mean) and Alec’s dog Watson having a voice exactly Daniel Craig, took this story even further into ridiculous territory. The fast-paced narrative, I had assumed was done in an attempt to recreate the sense of panic the characters were dealing with, came off as lazy and sloppy rather than thrilling and frenetic. But then we get to the end and we’re even told:

‘So that’s nearly the end, and I’d to finish my account with an apology. Reading it all back, I realise that at times I have been a tad flippant in the way I have written this, and I have also told the story with what appears to be a lamentable lack of narrative organisation.’

So basically the author realized what a hot mess she just wrote and instead of going back and fixing it had her character apologize it’s his fault. Well, whoever you want to blame, I still can’t accept it.



Maybe I took it all too seriously. Maybe I wouldn’t have if I would have known it was LOLCats in novel form. And maybe there’s some hidden allegory I was supposed to uncover that would have allowed me the ‘a-ha!’ moment where it all makes sense. Unfortunately, that moment never came.eek-the-creepies magical-realism12 s Phrynne3,474 2,355

A fun book - very well written as you would expect from Lynne Truss, and quite surprising in its content! Apparently she was requested to write a horror story and although a bit tongue in cheek it is a mystery with a touch of horror and a a little weirdness on the side! A very quick and entertaining read - I enjoyed it very much.12 s Marianne3,659 256

Cat Out Of Hell is a novel by British writer and journalist, Lynne Truss. When Alec Charlesworth’s beloved wife, Mary dies, he heads to a cottage on the coast of North Norfolk with their dog, Watson, to grieve privately. Isolation is what he craves, but, finding he needs some mental stimulation, turns on his laptop to read an email from a library colleague of Mary’s. It contains several files concerning a cat called Roger, and by the end of his perusal, Alec is confused, sceptical and rather irritated.

Back home, a visit to Mary’s library has Alec wondering if there might be some truth to the files; when the sender of said files pays him a visit, he begins to doubt that the cause of Mary’s death was natural. Soon he is deeply involved in an escapade that features several murders, hidden books, library theft, emergency hospital visits, talking cats (and dogs?), and even Beelzebub himself.

Truss uses a format of straight narrative combined with emails, transcripts of recorded conversations, screenplays, descriptions of photographs, telepathic messages and even questionnaires. It helps to pay attention to the early chapter headings, as these form part of a later chapter. The tone of the whole tale is very much tongue in cheek and the result is quite hilarious in places. Some horror, plenty of humour, highly entertaining. 4.5 ?s
8 s Magdalena aka A Bookaholic Swede1,953 829

Cat out of Hell is so far the most problematic book that I have had to review so far. I thought it would be a sweet story about a talking cat, instead it was a grim story about a talking cat, well it tried to be grim, but it was mostly confusing and silly with a lot of plot holes. The only part of the book that I really d was the scenes with Watson the dog. I wish that I had a dog called Watson then I also could have called out to him: “Come at once if convenient, Watson! If inconvenient, come all the same!" or “Come Watson, come! The game’s afoot!”

The book narration was a bit problematic, it shifted between screenplay style, first person narration, emails, e-miaow (apparently telepathic conversation between a cat and the cat master. Don't ask me) and, of course, all plot holes. It’s even written in the book: “I no longer care much for the gaps in this story, so I hope that you don’t either.” I care, I hate gaps, and I don’t want to be sitting after reading a book wondering about this and that. I mean why bring up stuff in the first place if you’re not going to explain it? Gah!
Now I’m going to get on with my life and leave this book behind me.

1.5 stars

Thank you Netgalley for providing me with a free copy for an honest review!read-20148 s Rebecca3,783 3,123

A mock-horror novella about evil cats: a strange digression for Truss. I enjoyed the use of a Cambridge library setting and the faux-epistolary strategy of compiling disparate documents, but, overall, this is really rather silly. “I had been expecting…the authoritative tones and narrative control of a story by M. R. James,” the main narrator says in disappointment, a sentiment I might echo. For a much better comic romp, try Truss’s Tennyson’s Gift instead.epistolary read-via-netgalley suspense8 s Obsidian2,864 1,036

Woo boy. This was not good. I think at one point I was going to DNF, but decided to just get done with it so I can throw it back from whence it came. An interesting synopsis does not a good book make. I was so happy to finish with this one I leaped into my next book.

"Cat Out of Hell" follows a man who just lost his wife, Alec Charlesworth. Alec is a man after a reader's heart. He's a librarian who just lost his job. Stuck in his lonely home with just his dog, Watson. Alec starts searching for why his wife has disappeared and is sent a file of interviews that is taking place between someone called Wiggy and a cat named Roger. Yeah. So that should have been when I said this book is not for you Blue, but I didn't. We find out that Roger is an old cat, and another cat named The Captain is behind Roger being immortal and is out to get him and anyone that stands in his way. The rest of the book is Alec trying to prove he's not insane while we read excerpts from interviews, emails, a screenplay, via cat telepathy, etc. that have Alec figuring out what is going on. There is also some first person narration that didn't help matters. I spent a lot of time figuring out who was speaking. It drove me up the wall.

So Alec. Eh. I can't say I disd him. I just didn't care. The book got so weird so fast and the writing doesn't draw you in enough. I think the different narrative styles actually pushed me out of the book a great deal. Watson the dog was awesome, that's all I got. Roger was kind of exhausting, a real cat honestly. The fact that the author keeps saying he sounds Vincent Price messed with me. I hate it when authors tell you what a person sounds . I kept replaying Price doing the "Thriller" intro at one point while reading and laughing my butt off. Yes, I make my own entertainment when I am not enjoying a book.

The writing was just okay. I already said the narrative styles didn't work for me. It doesn't help that at one point the author kind of throws out shade by saying via a character they don't care about the gaps in the story (there are plot holes galore). The flow was pretty bad too. I wasn't kidding about this book being a struggle to read and finish.

The ending just happens and we end on Alec and a survey and I maybe just went thank you I am done so I could claim this book for Halloween bingo. 2019-library-books halloween-bingo-20197 s Angela OliverAuthor 25 books49

From the woman that brought us "Eats, Shoots and Leaves" comes this perfectly gramatically correct tale of a feline with a dark past, and an even darker present. It is a quick read - I devoured it in less than two hours, and uses a few novelty techniques in the telling: movie script, transcript, descriptions of illustrations, regular narrative and an exchange of emails. It starts innocently enough as a mystery - a mourning widower seeks out a quiet cottage to recover from his wife's death, and delivered unto him is a package containing transcripts of conversations with a feline and assorted other oddments that conceal a dark truth - a truth that comes closer and closer to Alec's reality. It is told in first person narrative, in a light almost flippant manner, and as such is rather appealing. The darker side becomes immediately apparent, the little hints pointing at something sinister afoot, but the ending may still surprise you.

This also further supports my theory that cats are evil, and that anyone who argues otherwise has just been lured, seduced by their eloquent charm and the "pleasing noise" that they make. We do not own cats, cats deign to have us as their master-slaves.

Ebook provided via NetGalley and the publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Thanks! animals mystery6 s Carrie 1,011 568

I thought that this was brilliant. I love how it was written,I love the humor, it went quite well with the sinisterness of the story. I love the references in it. I was so taken by the book that I actually spent a better part of the morning wandering around the living/dining area reading it.

Looking at other ratings and it appears that this is not everyone's cup of tea, and I would more actually.

Most definitely checking out the authors other works.

Over all 4.75 stars4-and-a-half-to-5-stars cats horror ...more7 s Sara139 117

This book was not what I had expected, it’s neither here nor there. If it wanted to be horror is too bland, if it wanted to be noir it’s too gross, and if it wanted to be comedy the hilarity just isn’t there.
The writing style is rambling at best, a deliberate choice from the author, but the why is lost on me as it doesn’t enhance the reading experience, the contrary I would say. (And sometimes to absurd see e-miaow)
Some digressions are useless and boring. Sometimes the author gets lost describing things pointless to the story and for many pages. Alec unpacking…????
The plot has some holes that the author tries to patch with farfetched explanations that don’t work. See Roger that doesn’t try to help Jo, if he didn’t want to talk he could meow and guide Wiggy.
I admit that probably I wasn’t in the right mood to read this book. I had it on hold at the library and it was delivered to my Kindle precisely the moment I had finished book #1 of a series and was eager to start book #2, so I admit that this book felt more of an obstacle between books that something I’d enjoy. But even so it really fell short of the buzzing created around it.
The price is ridiculously high (both eBook and print) for 256 meagre pages. If you’re still curious about it, I suggest you borrow it. But for me it’s not even worth the short two hours it takes to read it.
borrow-it-it-s-too-expensive cat magic5 s Stacia878 116

Creepy horror-fun. (Yes, I realize that sounds oxymoron-ish. Lol.)

Quick, chilling entertainment if you're wanting a horror/mystery mash-up with along with some dark chuckles... and a cat who wants Daniel Craig to voice him if there's a movie version. It reminded me a bit of a slightly creepy version of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore & other books of that ilk with its various literary & cultural references. I found it entertaining & worth my time to read.

Maybe a slight spoiler (?)...
I must admit that it did cross my mind to wonder if the ending might end up being based on some type of grammatical double-cross (since Truss did author Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation), but that was not the case!2015 europe gothic-spooky-or-creepy5 s Bettie9,989 10

Bettie's Books bedside boo-scary fradio ...more5 s Laura6,960 575

From BBC Radio 4: Book at Bedtime:
By Lynne Truss. Comic and chilling gothic tale about a widower and a supernatural catanimals audio-books british-literature ...more5 s Anna K?avi?a803 201

Humorous horror story.

I enjoyed the narrative and found the story to be amusing mystery. What I didn't , was that cats were demonized, and because of that I was going to give the book 3 stars however I was pleasantly surprised by the twist towards the end of the book. 4 stars.



Mike Nelson’s installation To the Memory of HP Lovecraftbritish-irish horror humour ...more4 s Jennifer (JC-S)3,099 242

‘I was in search of silence and tranquillity.’

Alec, a retired librarian has recently been widowed. He heads off to a coastal village in North Norfolk with his small dog Watson in search of peace. But one night, while searching for mental stimulation, he opens his laptop and starts looking through a folder entitled ‘Roger’ which a former colleague had sent him. Inside that folder are files in which a man called Wiggy tells the story of his acquaintance with Roger – a talking cat, who sounds Vincent Price. In a story that spans decades, Roger tells of how he learned to speak. Alec becomes part of the story, caught up in a world that contains a mysterious cat called Captain, kidnapping, murder and satanic cults. And yes, some cats really do have nine lives.

‘Purring was the way they sent people into a trance, you see – and then, when their prey was sort of paralysed and helpless, the cats would set to work with their claws.’

The story moves at a quick pace, and I found the first half much funnier than the second. In the second half, well, things get frenetic and a little dangerous. It’s a combination of humour and horror that doesn’t always work, although I won’t be adding a cat to my household anytime soon.

I’d recommend reading this in one sitting if possible.

‘As if stories ever did end anyway.’

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
librarybooks3 s Shauna256

I'd recommend this to anyone who suspects that deep down cats really are bastards (even cat lovers), s dry British humor, and can handle extremely unly circumstances. And enjoys elements of horror. Lots of framing devices and cutesy communications, so if that's not your style, stay away. As a light read with expectations of being amused, rather than edified, however, it kept my attention and I d both Alec and Wiggy enough to overlook some gaps in logic.

I will note that the BACK of my copy (an ARC) confused me a great deal, as it combined three characters into one ("Wiggy Winterton whose wife just died" is actually three different people, unless I badly misunderstood the book!) and ascribed emotions and actions to that one (actually three) person that were not portrayed in the book. 3 s Emmanuelle72 4

Eh, it was ok. I'm not a fan of the narration style and it feels something is missing from the story. Plot holes. This was easy to read, but nothing really goes on, and this definately isn't a scary story. The introduction definately is missing something. Well, the whole book's missing something. It's it was many pages longer, but then was forced to cut it to 230 pages, so it got chopped big time.

If it was free, maybe it would be worth your time, but this book definately wasn't worth my 14$. I didn't feel it was a loss of time, per say, but it's not a great read either.3 s Anna Greathead3 2

I would give this book 6 stars if I could! I just loved the concept - the idea that cats were totally fed up at the loss of their powers to instantly kill, maim or hypnotise people rings so true to anyone who has ever spent any time near any cat!

The style of writing was engaging and intriging. I put in on my Kindle at 11pm on Wednesday night and finished it by 5pm on Thursday.... I read it at traffic lights and in the playground waiting for the kids! 3 s Sandra Nedopri?ljivica708 75

Sadržaj i naslovnica su obe?avali... ma?ke koje nisu s ovog svijeta, govore i ubijaju... nisam dobila ni emociju ni horror ma ništa, zapravo uop?e nemam pojma što napisati osim da je beskrajno dosadna i na momente glupa. Ovo sigurno nije još jedna od lijepih knjigica o životinjama. Jadne ma?ke, a i pokoji pas :( Dvojka samo zato jer želim stati u obranu ma?aka!3 s Helen 744 40

As a cat owner and someone who works in a library, I found this story delightfully disturbing.2016-100-book-challenge-k-m-w2 s Kristi Lamont1,711 57

Well, boo. I wanted to this book _so_ much more than I did.

Not least of which is because one of my own familiars is a Panther Of The Parlour of memsmerizing green eyes--and not inconsiderable size. Whose favorite thing to do when lying next to me in bed is to reach out and very gently put one front paw on my lips, with just one claw extended.

To remind me.

I lie very still when this happens, as one might imagine.

Oh, the book? You want to know about the book?

Great concept, messily executed.

2 s Irena156 7

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