Happy Friday and welcome to my stop on the CATFISHING ON CATNET blog tour! You guys, I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH!!! I’m so excited today to share my review and an excerpt, so you can start reading and see how good this book is! This book is truly amazing and I’m so so excited to for you to find out more about it, PLUS enter for a chance to win a print copy!
I received this book for free from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer Series: CatNet #1
Also in this series: Chaos on CatNet
Published on November 19, 2019 by Tor Teen
Genres: Futuristic, Science Fiction, Thriller, YA, Queer
Pages: 304
Format: eARC
Source: Edelweiss
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Author Links: Website, Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, Instagram
How much does the internet know about YOU?
Because her mom is always on the move, Steph hasn’t lived anyplace longer than six months. Her only constant is an online community called CatNet—a social media site where users upload cat pictures—a place she knows she is welcome. What Steph doesn’t know is that the admin of the site, CheshireCat, is a sentient A.I.
When a threat from Steph’s past catches up to her and ChesireCat’s existence is discovered by outsiders, it’s up to Steph and her friends, both online and IRL, to save her.
Chapter Two
Firestar, my best friend from CatNet: Firestar would definitely understand this. Even if they would totally wear whatever the exact opposite of plaid leggings are, just to show how much they did not care at all that Plaid Leggings Are the Thing You Wear at school. Maybe back in seventh grade, they’d have wanted plaid leggings. To fit in and be like everyone else.
Today, Mom is nervous enough she doesn’t even want to stop for lunch, though she agrees to let me pee and grab some snacks at a gas station. Sometimes gas stations have actual real food or they adjoin a little fast-food place, but this one basically sells fishing bait and candy bars. The closest thing they have to real food is two slightly dried-out oranges in a basket near the register, and some sort of locally packaged granola with a picture of a chalk- board with guaranteed to make you poop! in cursive writing across it.
I buy the granola and the oranges. I notice the gas station cashier looking at my mother’s hand—she doesn’t have a left pinkie due to an accident years ago—and I shoot him a glare.
Once we’re past the Twin Cities, where Mom doesn’t stop ever, I ask her where we’re going.
“I’m thinking Wisconsin,” she says. “I think that’s far enough.”
“Okay,” I say.
“Not Riley, though. Was the town called Riley?”
“Rewey.”
“That’s right. The place with the mean girls who wore plaid.”
“You remember that?”
“Yeah. Because I remember thinking, what the hell kind of teenagers think the coolest possible outfit is plaid? What a weird fad.”
“It had to be the correct plaid,” I say
“Right. Royal Stewart, which is like the plaidest plaid in the universe of plaids, that one was nerdy. I’m so glad we didn’t stay.”
“Maybe everyone outgrew the plaid thing,” I say. “It was seventh grade.”
“What was the deal at your next school?”
The town after Rewey was in Nebraska. “We didn’t stay long enough that I even figured it out,” I say.
She’s silent for a little while.
“Can we stay in Wisconsin long enough that I can finish my semester?” I ask. “It’s going to be really hard to graduate from high school if we keep leaving.”
She sighs heavily. “We’ll see,” she says, which is basically no for cowards.
“Do you have a work project coming or anything?” Sometimes a big project will hit and she’ll get a lot more reluctant to go anywhere until she’s done. Mom does freelance computer programming involving computer security.
“Yeah. Your aunt Sochie called last week with some work. She’ll have details soon.”
Aunt Sochie isn’t really my aunt, and I’ve never actually met her. If I have any real extended family, Mom keeps them stored down the memory hole along with 99 percent of our lives before we started running from my father. Aunt Sochie is a computer programmer and a friend of my mother who periodically hires her.
Once we’re over the state line and into Wisconsin, Mom relaxes a bit. We get of the highway in a town called Osseo, and Mom unfolds an actual paper road map she picked up at a gas station and runs her finger along the two-lane highway we’re going to be following from here.
“Can we get something to eat?” I ask.
“Next town,” she promises.
Sometimes I don’t have a whole lot to say about books, so I’ve created Rapid Fire Reviews as a quick and fun way to get my opinion out without repeating myself and boring you! Here we go!
DID I LIKE IT?
did you see my intro? I LOVE THIS BOOK SO MUCH oh my stars you guys it’s SO GOOD!!!
FAVORITE CHARACTER?
uh… okay listen, I like Steph, but Cat is just… wow. Fave character, hands down.
WILL I RE-READ IT?
YES ABSOLUTELY POSITUTELY! I actually immediately read the sequel after reading this and I’ve got my fingers crossed that there will be more CatNet books in the future because WOW do I need more of this!!!
THREE WORDS TO DESCRIBE THE BOOK
thrilling, QUEER, connections
QUICK THOUGHTS
here’s what I wrote on goodreads immediately after I finished:
| OH. MY. GOD.
This book is SO FUCKING AMAZING I LOVED IT!!!! Every time I thought I’d figured something out, I was wrong and that’s what I love when I’m reading a book! I’m trying to get all my thoughts out now so I can review this in a couple of weeks because as soon as I close Goodreads I’m opening Chaos on CatNet and finding out what happens next! You know when a book is just so good that as soon as you start reading it you can’t put it down? That’s what this book is. It is a fast paced, beautifully written thriller of a book with some FANTASTIC queer representation. There’s an ace character, a bi character, a pan character, a lesbian character, 2 non-binary characters, and an agender AI. Basically, everything was PERFECT and I’m too excited to wait to read the sequel! See you once I finish! |
I understand why this cover is the way it is, but I still don’t like it. 7/10 stars!
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NAOMI KRITZER has been making friends online since her teens, when she had to use a modem to dial up at 2400 baud. She is a writer and blogger who has published a number of short stories and novels for adults, including the Eliana’s Song duology and the Dead Rivers Trilogy. Her 2015 short story “Cat Pictures Please” won the Hugo Award and Locus Award and was a finalist for the Nebula. Naomi lives in St. Paul, Minnesota, with her family and four cats. The number of cats is subject to change without notice.
Edgar Allan Poe Award Winner
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What books have you read that lived up to their hype? Let me know in the comments and have a splendiferous day!
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