Reviews

The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

literatelxna's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative inspiring lighthearted relaxing fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

zenqatz's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

kerchoo's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

i fell so in love with this book! so much so i kind of wish i had bought it instead of checked it out from my library. genuinely couldn’t put it down, i tore through it. such a good lesson on the power of books, as well as a beautiful statement on the importance empathy, family, the people around us. and within that, a very relatable through-line of holding onto a sense of self after going through loss and grieving. i may just be a sucker for japanese lit, but i found it to be such a lovely read. 

happy_thimble's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

I am usually a fan of Japanese cat based fiction, but this book really wasn’t for me. 

suze_tee's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

manarmaybe_star3's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

5.0

wathykite's review against another edition

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inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

kendallreads's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring lighthearted fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

raggedyprada's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes

4.0

iuliatr's review against another edition

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2.0

...So

I planned to write a full review but somehow I cannot find my words now.
It's been a while since I gave such a low score to a book.

My thoughts on this book?
- The MC was the most boring, boorish character I've ever read about. He didn't have any friends, didn't want any friends, didn't go to school and his only personality trait is that he loves books and only the classic ones, of course. He'd never touch a commercial book, God forbid.
- The chapters were insanely long (~60 pages for one chapter??). The font was big, the writing was easy to understand....Maybe too easy because at some point I could only think "Am I reading a children book? I'm pretty sure it's not advertised as such."
- The plot wasn't ground-breaking by any means, in fact it was very simple: an ordinary high school boy meets a mysterious cat (it's a bit sad if a cat has more personality than you, btw), who gave him the mission of saving books: 4 chapters for 4 missions. To my disappointement, the cat didn't even have a big role and the missions were quite boring. I could quite literally sum every chapter up in one sentence each, while the author felt the need to write it in 60 pages... Talk about bulls*itting your way through something.

I shall say, it's quite impressive how this author managed to talk about a whole lot of nothing in ~250 pages, hence the 2* instead of 1*.

2*/5