Review of High Clowder Cats
Posted: 18 Apr 2023, 13:51
[Following is a volunteer review of "High Clowder Cats" by Ruby Knight.]
Told from the perspective of anthropomorphized feral cats, HIGH CLOWDER CATS focuses on a power struggle in a feral cat colony in Australia. The story focuses on Bushytail, an abandoned kit—though you wouldn’t know that from the prologue which focuses primarily on a cat who is never seen again and did virtually nothing to influence the story. I would rate this book two out of five on a five star scale.
Ruby Knight, the author, makes no attempts at building a world or society that is unique. The cats in this book are highly anthropomorphic, including having “medicine cats,” meditation sessions, prisoners, wars, murder and combat training. The story has quite a bit of violence. If you aren’t comfortable with cats or other animals being killed on page, this book isn’t for you.
HIGH CLOWDER CATS is essentially your stereotypical fantasy except it involves cats rather than people, elves or other races of humanoid. Readers can expect to see typical fantasy tropes such as the chosen one.
Bushytail (an orphan, of course) is a cat who isn’t going to just accept the status quo. He wants to change things. But he has to face the villainous, but cowardly, Brokenear (yes, many of the cats names start with the same letter. The author must really like the letter B. That include Bushytail’s friend, Bristle, and the former leader, Barrel. Because of this, you may have to frequently go back and check the character guide, especially since none of the cats have a particularly unique voice. If the character is an important character, his name starts with a “B”).
For his part, Brokenear serves as a weak villain who feels a bit cartoony and, like most of the characters, vastly underdeveloped. This is a shame because he has one of the best backstories in the book.
While it is never clear why, Bushytail is the only cat who can defeat Brokenear and bring sanity back to the clowder. This is despite the fact that the author makes it clear that Brokenear cannot fight and is largely despised by the clowder cats.
Meanwhile, even though there are female cats who fight, the female cats in the book are largely presented as helpless and viewed primarily as mates who need Bushytail to save them. One easy way to tell female characters from male characters in the book is that the female names are likely to start with an “S” rather than a “B.” The love interest’s greatest strengths seem to be in her ability to tend to kits, which is a message I do not like sending girls or women of any age. There is limited sexual content. On a scale of 0-5, with 0 being no sexual content and 5 being erotica, I would rate it as a 1. All sexual acts occur off page, though they are implied.
For the first bit of the book, there is little conflict to drive the plot forward and Bushytail’s goals/motivations are a bit unclear or unimportant. Even when the villain is introduced, it is in passing in such a way that he initially feels like a minor character. The author’s propensity for passive language and too much “telling” rather than showing can make it hard to get into the story and to really engage with the characters. The dialogue feels rough and forced and the fight scenes are dull.
The author does use the wrong words in some places. This can result in a completely different meaning than they intended. For example, at one point they uses the phrase “inbred instincts” when the word instincts would have been sufficient and the word inbred infers that the main character may have poor genetics due to mating of closely related individuals.
If you can forgive the lengthy infodumps that feel a bit like essays, poor writing, lack of character development and passive voice, you may be able to enjoy HIGH CLOWDER CATS.
******
High Clowder Cats
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords
Told from the perspective of anthropomorphized feral cats, HIGH CLOWDER CATS focuses on a power struggle in a feral cat colony in Australia. The story focuses on Bushytail, an abandoned kit—though you wouldn’t know that from the prologue which focuses primarily on a cat who is never seen again and did virtually nothing to influence the story. I would rate this book two out of five on a five star scale.
Ruby Knight, the author, makes no attempts at building a world or society that is unique. The cats in this book are highly anthropomorphic, including having “medicine cats,” meditation sessions, prisoners, wars, murder and combat training. The story has quite a bit of violence. If you aren’t comfortable with cats or other animals being killed on page, this book isn’t for you.
HIGH CLOWDER CATS is essentially your stereotypical fantasy except it involves cats rather than people, elves or other races of humanoid. Readers can expect to see typical fantasy tropes such as the chosen one.
Bushytail (an orphan, of course) is a cat who isn’t going to just accept the status quo. He wants to change things. But he has to face the villainous, but cowardly, Brokenear (yes, many of the cats names start with the same letter. The author must really like the letter B. That include Bushytail’s friend, Bristle, and the former leader, Barrel. Because of this, you may have to frequently go back and check the character guide, especially since none of the cats have a particularly unique voice. If the character is an important character, his name starts with a “B”).
For his part, Brokenear serves as a weak villain who feels a bit cartoony and, like most of the characters, vastly underdeveloped. This is a shame because he has one of the best backstories in the book.
While it is never clear why, Bushytail is the only cat who can defeat Brokenear and bring sanity back to the clowder. This is despite the fact that the author makes it clear that Brokenear cannot fight and is largely despised by the clowder cats.
Meanwhile, even though there are female cats who fight, the female cats in the book are largely presented as helpless and viewed primarily as mates who need Bushytail to save them. One easy way to tell female characters from male characters in the book is that the female names are likely to start with an “S” rather than a “B.” The love interest’s greatest strengths seem to be in her ability to tend to kits, which is a message I do not like sending girls or women of any age. There is limited sexual content. On a scale of 0-5, with 0 being no sexual content and 5 being erotica, I would rate it as a 1. All sexual acts occur off page, though they are implied.
For the first bit of the book, there is little conflict to drive the plot forward and Bushytail’s goals/motivations are a bit unclear or unimportant. Even when the villain is introduced, it is in passing in such a way that he initially feels like a minor character. The author’s propensity for passive language and too much “telling” rather than showing can make it hard to get into the story and to really engage with the characters. The dialogue feels rough and forced and the fight scenes are dull.
The author does use the wrong words in some places. This can result in a completely different meaning than they intended. For example, at one point they uses the phrase “inbred instincts” when the word instincts would have been sufficient and the word inbred infers that the main character may have poor genetics due to mating of closely related individuals.
If you can forgive the lengthy infodumps that feel a bit like essays, poor writing, lack of character development and passive voice, you may be able to enjoy HIGH CLOWDER CATS.
******
High Clowder Cats
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon | on Smashwords