Cat Lady: The Sunday Times bestseller and the latest funny, brilliant and bold fiction novel for 2023 from the author of So Lucky

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What the hell even was this book? I was expecting a wholesome story about a woman and her cat and I did not get that! I did enjoy some of the themes that the book explored but at times it was just outright disturbing. I tried to persevere with it and see if it could get any better (or worse) but it just started to make me feel so uncomfortable that I just couldn’t carry on. Sometimes she's way too open - the visit to the GP to get support with her crabs is a stand-out moment.

Mia has made all the right choices. She's married, she has the nice house, the good career. But life isn't about fitting into a box. And there's another woman inside her who's just clawing to get out . . . Mia has made all the right choices. She’s married, she has the nice house, the good career. But life isn’t about fitting into a box. And there’s another woman inside her who’s just clawing to get out . . .This is another of those books about quirky oddballs finding their place in the world that have been super popular in womens’ fiction in recent years. Lots of them are very good, unfortunately this was not. Writing in first person present, Mia describes every tiny action of her life in minuscule detail - from what she puts into Oliver’s lunchbox, to having a shower, to her and Tristan’s grotesque middle-age sex. Maybe other readers would find constant references to Belinda’s juices hilarious, I didn’t. Nothing much happens in the first half, there’s a bit of awkward social commentary, and Mia reinforces every stereotype about people who love cats. I am ok with young one’s reading this type of book, as it should get some of their emotions going, and not just the warm fuzzy ones. The first story in this book got me, I was a little stunned, as I was not expecting the ending. Mia, the mother: She dotes on her stepson Oliver. She and her husband Tristan have an unconventional relationship with Oliver's mother, Belinda, but Mia puts up with it for the sake of keeping the family together. Plus, she is utterly devoted to her cat, Pigeon. She is his mother. But life isn't about fitting into a box. And there's another woman inside her who's just clawing to get out . . .PRAISE FOR CAT LADY:'My book of the year' Reader review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐'A reminder to live your life your way. Women who love their cats are said to be projecting on to them an intimacy they are unable to experience elsewhere

The moral of the story is, no one's life is perfect, which is told in both a humourous and poignant way. Do not recommend this book to anyone, as much as I wish I could. I was gifted this by Harper Fiction and Tandem Collective UK, but will not be tagging due to the negative nature of this review. I like to think I’ve got quite a varied sense of humour, and apparently this was “laugh out loud”, and maybe it is to some but hell no, not to me. This is the story of a woman who is unapologetically herself, a cat lady. Over the course of the book her life spirals in all different ways possible, and you do feel sorry for her as a character. But this book is just plain weird, it’s fifty shades of messed up. A lot of the story was predictable. I felt Dawn got a few digs in...a joke about Boris Johnson, a dig at nasty Journalists who write upsetting stories about people. She also covered most current topics like racism (her boss she works for says some racist things), sustainability etc. There's a brief mention of covid but then next minute she's in a hospital environment with filthy hands and no mention of any mask wearing or the fact you still can't really visit people in hospital! Also, I'm surprised that as a mother herself, Dawn writes about Mother's Day being on a weekday as Mia is going to work and the stepson is going to School! It's called Mothering Sunday for a reason Dawn!!I promised my mother in law that she could have this book once I had read it, because she truly is a cat lady - not in a weird way. But, I can’t give her this book. It’s so messed up that I feel like giving her this would be a massive mistake. It’s not funny, it’s just wrong. I have read some things in this book that I really wish I could un-read. I'll finish this with one of the quotes that gave me lots of feelings: "The kindness of strangers can get you to the next place you are supposed to be" The heroine Mia is in her 40's with a successful career. She married her husband in her 30's and he's divorced and has a son who she is Stepmother to. However, her husband's ex still spends a lot of time at their house and Mia doesn't like her. Mia has a cat called Pigeon and neither her husband or his ex particularly like the cat. Her husband doesn't like the cat in their bedroom so they have separate rooms. Mia is quite a cold fish as a wife! There are few remotely likeable characters in the whole thing - her colleague Fliss, her put-upon sister Liz, and the members of her poor maligned support group. I didn’t like Mia at all: an example of how she thinks: “She is reading a copy of Cosmo, which makes me assume she has an STD. Poor her; it must come with terrible shame.” The only part of the book which was not completely predictable is the work subplot, and what happens to poor Pigeon (sorry for the spoiler alert but again - don’t read this if you love cats.) I haven’t read anything by this author previously and won’t be doing so again. It has a strong feminist voice that felt cathartic to read. Sometimes my heart was overflowing with tender feelings and the other times I wanted to punch someone. I love the “very strange group of friends”. Obviously I love Mia’s character. I love how everything turned out, even though I think there’s a lot of little holes where the story skipped from scene to scene. That’s fine, tho. It’s still very much coherent. I just wanted it to be a bit longer.

I’ve had people in life that have said to me ‘it’s just a cat’ .. well no, it isn’t ‘just’ a cat. They are family, companions. Well, mine absolutely are anyway. I think if people have never owned a cat they should never make comments. They truly are wonderful. An ode to finding your people and a celebration of the small things that bring us together' Emma Gannon Dawn O’Porter challenges the stereotypes of the typical ‘cat lady’ with this beautiful and emotional read’ Reader reviewDon’t get me wrong, if you got rid of all the uncomfortable encounters, or at least toned it down a little, it would’ve had the potential to become quite an impactful story about mental health and self discovery, and at times it was. But sweet hell, some of the encounters and thoughts that the main character had were just unnecessary and outright disturbing. I did enjoy the development of some of the characters, especially (colleague designer) and how she fought for what she believed to be right within the company, even if it did feel a little half- hearted at times. In contrast to this though, others just outright disturbed me, the main being (creepy babe guy) who had a questionable understanding of what consent was at the best of times and was just straight weird. Would I recommend it? If you're a cat lover then yes, you'll probably relate to it and like it but I wouldn't call it funny. I found a lot of it quite depressing really. It's not a book I would recommend to friends. I loved laughing with/at some of the characters and I was emotionally destroyed* as I watched some of the characters' lives unravel.