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

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This was the first book I took up based on StoryGraph recommendation, and it was a charming read. Unexpectedly christmassy, so it was a good one to finish reading on December 25th. It is a poignant but adventurous read, with each chapter a "labyrinth" approaching some issue facing the world of books and reading. As we progress, we start to see how these issues have more in common than it seems.

As to "diversity", all characters in the book (except maybe the cat and the

personified book

at the end) are Japanese, so it is a homogeneous group, but from the perspective of the Anglosphere reader wanting to diversify their reading overall, I guess it counts?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death, and Death of parent

The book begins with the death of the main character's grandparent/de facto parent, and the grief and change which comes from that is a theme throughout the book.