A Conversation with a Cat – Stephen Spotte

Stephen Spotte's imaginative novel recounts the tales of a scroungy former alley cat named Jinx, whose memories aren't just his own but those of other cats who existed before him, one of which was Annipe, Cleopatra's pampered pet. Through Annipe's eyes the ancient Mediterranean world of Cleopatra and her legendary lovers, Caesar and Antony, spread before us in all its glory, pathos, and absurdity. Jinx reveals these stories telepathically one night to his stoned and inebriated owner just home after gall bladder surgery. Annipe's memories are bookended by Jinx's own that detail his early scavenging days in bleak urban alleys.

Welcome back everyone, I hope you’ve been enjoying all the posts that have been coming out recently. Today’s review is another one from BookGlow, and I feel like I started off strong with the Autobiography of Satan and I’ve reached a point where I really struggled.

I went into this book thinking I’d be reading about some fantasy style version of the world where we can talk to cats. So, I was quite disappointed when it turns out that you just have to be high and drunk.

We started off the story hearing about how the main guy went fishing and ended up needing to get his gall bladder removed once he got home. And how from that he was high on pain killers and spent quite a bit of time drinking. Until he was outside one night and his cat suddenly starts talking to him.

Then the next challenge I faced while reading this was that I didn’t find the story engaging. The style of the writing was bad enough for me. But then the fact that there were very few paragraph breaks and there were only 8 chapters meant I didn’t have any natural spots to stop.

And what made it even worse for me was the fact that there were multiple times where one sentence spanned 1-2 pages. How does this even happen?!

I will allow that I had my Kindle zoomed in slightly, so I didn’t have to wear my glasses while I read. But I didn’t have it zoomed in THAT much! I even showed a friend who agreed the sentences were way too long.

And then at the end of the story, after spending pretty much the whole book focussed on Cleopatra, we all of a sudden are finding out about the cat’s life before he was adopted by the guy he’s been talking to.

As much as I wanted to oy this, because the idea sounded really cool, I really felt there is a lot of improvements that need to be made. Firstly, by having an editor go through it thoroughly. Those sentences, paragraphs and chapters need to be shorter. Hopefully that will help create some natural breaks and give it the improvements it deserves.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, on Saturday I will be reviewing The Secret to Falling in Love by Victoria Cooke.

A Conversation with a Cat – Stephen Spotte

Want more like this? Check these out.

The Cake Fairies – Isabella May

You, Me and the Movies – Fiona Collins

In Five Years – Rebecca Serle

A Conversation with a Cat – Stephen Spotte

Want more like this? Check these out.

The Cake Fairies – Isabella May

You, Me and the Movies – Fiona Collins

In Five Years – Rebecca Serle

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