A review by ravensandlace
A Cat's Cradle by Carly Rheilan

4.0

Title: A Cat’s Cradle 

Author: Carly Rheilan

Genre: Psychological Fiction

Format: own book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 4 stars

tw: child death, animal abuse, blood, parental abandonment, sexism, racism, bullying, fatphobic comments, pedophilia, infidelity, sexual assault on a minor

A special thank you goes to Carly Rheilan for providing me with a copy of this book. Please know that this does not influence my rating or thoughts on the book itself.

Oh boy! This book made me so wildly uncomfortable but I couldn’t get enough of it. I was like a glutton for punishment. I was filled with so much dread but I couldn’t stop reading. I just had to know what was going to happen, no matter how much dread I felt. I haven’t felt this much dread in a long time but I honestly was living for it. I don’t know what that says about me as a person but it’s the truth.

One of the reasons I enjoyed this book so much, despite the subject matter, is it reminded me a lot of the backstory of Freddy Krueger. There's even an aspect of fire. I’m not sure if that was intentional or not but as a horror girl, I found the similarities pretty neat. I also got major Ed Kemper vibes from the book as well. 

Speaking of Ed Kemper, let me talk about the main characters. The two main characters are Ralph, an adult, and Mary, a child. Ralph was the worst person. He was just disgusting and he gave me the heebie jeebies. But he was written so well. Carly got you into the mind of this gross man. Everything about him was just horrible. 

I also enjoyed the other main character, Mary. Writing a point of view as a seven year old child has to be pretty tricky but Mary was written so well. Her thought process was pretty accurate for a small child. And my heart broke for her, especially after what happened to her. It was just so awful. Carly has a gift for writing extremely complex characters well. She takes you deep into their mind and by the time the book is finished, you are a different person. 

Overall, this was a good book but man, it made me feel so uncomfortable. But I think books should do that. It should get you thinking and it should invocate feelings. The vibes were wrong as I like to say. But I still really enjoyed this book a lot, even though it made me so wildly uncomfortable. As for recommendations, I don’t recommend this book lightly. It has some pretty difficult topics but it’s worth it. Just take heed of the trigger warnings I have provided.