Morella White runs the UK’s only cat cemetery. She raises the dead felines she buries as grotesque, oversized zombies. Her plans to resurrect a half-cat, half-man demon take a dark turn when Amber May’s cat, Jasper, transforms into a zombie after a brutal attack, and chaos ensues. As Jasper grapples with his new psychic powers, Amber will do anything to protect her cat from falling into Morella’s clutches. A battle between the living and the undead unfolds, exposing treachery and unexpected alliances. Can Amber save Jasper? Or will they both fall into Morella’s sinister trap? Jasper must choose between loyalty to Amber and servitude to an evil witch. With stakes rising and danger looming, can love save the living from the dark desires of the Undead?
This was a wholly enjoyable and generally fun genre effort. One of the better features here is the wholly involved setup that manages to bring together a series of storyline setups that provide a lot of likable elements. The main series of interactions between the different characters that are all going through their issues with cats, as one has just had to put their beloved senior cat down, one just trying to get through her job with a sleazy boss that requires her cat’s companionship, another has to contend with healing her pet after a vicious animal attack, and another is still trying to work through her strained home-life with a new cat thrown into the mix, creates a strong starting point. Getting these various characters involved in the story rather well, intermingling enough time with each one, through the quick chapters offering rich detail and frantic action beats to enhance the story, brings about a kind of quick-cut connection to each of the characters and their issues.
As well, there’s also a lot to like with the burgeoning idea of witchcraft creating this superficial army of zombie cats under the one figure’s control. As there’s more fun setup with the cemetery host using that as a front for the spells required to raise them later on, when no one is around, this starts to offer up the kind of intrigue over their powers and purpose, the more we hang out at this location. The few hints early on, from the zombified cat attacking the one house to the different encounters with the swarm appearing to roam the nearby forests, offer a fine starting point for the later reveal about witchcraft being the culprit for the zombification. Since we get several inclinations about what the purpose behind the resurrection ceremonies and what she’s trying to accomplish by taking the specific cats for her army, there’s a fantastic fantasy-based explanation for the incidents that follow, based on how it all plays off, which keeps the story immensely engaging.
That serves as the perfect launching pad for the second half, with the turn into the zombie cats going amok in the community under the leader's command, and the battle for supremacy involving those rising against the witch who resurrected everybody. With the idea that one of the resurrected cats is still somewhat loyal to their human owner when they were alive, it helps to provide a nice bit of balance between the action and whimsy provided by the feral zombie cats running around the community and the owner of that cat trying to use him to help stop that rampage. Featuring a few too many intermingling storylines that are in play, featuring many of the residents in the community who are brought into the storyline about the witch resurrecting and setting the zombie cats loose, the book can feel that there’s a few too many characters and storylines before it finally settles on the main plot by jumping around to these situations. However, that shouldn’t be too much of a drawback to this one.
4.5/5
Comments
Post a Comment