A review by aardwyrm
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sōsuke Natsukawa

lighthearted 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? Yes

3.0

In keeping with the tone of the book, it's rather like Mary Bennett decided to attempt whimsy. There are some reasonable and even clever ideas in there, but the whole thing is wound through with an overgrowth of "kids these days don't read" and "the world today is vaguely terrible, compared to some sort of past probably" and so very hung up on staid, famous classics that it starts to feel like a joke. For a book about the right way to care about books, it sure seems to like the idea of books more than the actuality.

But the surreal landscapes and talking cat are rather good, and

I kinda like that the Bible manifests as a mean old lady who is actually a cosmic horror at one point

.  The dull main character and his dull girlfriend wandering around changing hearts and minds with platitudes don't matter nearly so much as the charming weirdness. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, and Death of parent