Full disclosure. I don't consider myself a cat person.
So when my husband decided we needed to adopt a cat, I was tepid, at best. Then George came along.
At first, I didn't quite know what to make of him. I'd spent my entire life with dogs. You call them, they come. You want their attention, and they're usually more than happy to give it. I understood dogs.
George operated a little differently. I'd call his name. Nothing. I'd try to pet him, and for a while, he'd seem perfectly happy. Then, without warning, he'd decide he'd had enough and bite me. There was no announcement that petting time had ended. I was just expected to know.
This was definitely not a dog.
Of course, now George is a member of the family. I've come to appreciate his... catisms? The random bursts of energy, the strange places he decides to sleep, the complete confidence that everything in the house belongs to him and we're all merely allowed to use it. I still don't always understand him, but I've learned not to ask too many questions.
Naturally, Jason Rekulak's newest horror thriller, Look What the Cat Dragged In, caught my attention. It features a family cat, some increasingly strange catisms, and some very dark turns.
Let's just say I kept a slightly closer eye on George while I was reading.
Penny is definitely a cat person. Her relationship with her cat, Popcorn, even inspired a popular series of comic books about their life together.
Then a window is left open during a blizzard—though Penny swears she didn't leave it that way—and Popcorn disappears. She's devastated, and without her cat around to inspire her work, she's desperately behind on the fourth book in her series.
That's when Godfrey enters her life. He belongs to one of her boyfriend Dean's clients, who needs someone to cat-sit while she's overseas for a few months. Penny is hesitant, but eventually agrees.
At first, Godfrey seems like a godsend, even if he is a bit... peculiar. But as strange things begin happening around the house, Penny starts to fear that Godfrey may not be an ordinary cat.
With Look What the Cat Dragged In, Jason Rekulak writes a novel that gets pretty darn close to being a dark comedy. It's weird, a bit over the top, and occasionally absurd. I had an absolute blast with it.
The publisher generously provided me with a copy of the novel to listen to, and Stephanie Németh-Parker's narration gave the story an energy and urgency that had me completely enthralled. She fully commits to the craziness of it all, which only made the experience more fun.
My only real complaint came after I finished, when I learned that the actual book is filled with illustrations. Knowing how integral the illustrations were to Rekulak's Hidden Pictures, I couldn't help but feel like I'd missed out on part of the experience. If you have the option to read a physical copy, that may be the way to go with this one.
That said, the audiobook more than suffices. Look What the Cat Dragged In is a spooky, ridiculously fun story that may have you questioning the motives of your own four-legged friends.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2026, 82)
That does sound like a fun story.
ReplyDeleteI've never had a cat. I have a dog now but I've had mice, hamsters, rats, frogs, fish, gerbils and snails. lol