Review of Cat Boss

[the_ashfeathers]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Cat Boss" by Tayma Tameem.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Cat Boss: Paws for Action is a light-hearted yet adventurous, cat-brimming novel by Tayma Tameem following the story of Detective Devon Bates and the Crazy Cat Lady of the locality, Elaine Moore, as they solve criminal cases together. The plot explores a unique and amusing idea of a woman who has attained the ability to interpret the cute meows of cats. At first, Detective Bates has a hard time wrapping his head around this peculiar claim of Elaine Moore that she can converse with cats. However, as he slowly starts accepting that there is, in fact, some truth in her claim, they embark on a journey full of mystery and adventure. He even himself takes one of the cats in!

The author’s rather funny description of Elaine being the “sister of the detective’s brother’s wife’s mother” in the book summary initially caught my eye. The book created a feel-good, playful aura and certain phrases, such as “He had managed to sleep well, despite being surrounded by cats in every crease of his body” seemed really cute, and consistently gave off an adorable feel at likewise kind of phrases. The cats would surely tug at your heartstrings. Beware though, cakes and tea are mentioned one too many times so keep food beside.

The prologue starts with an in-depth description of Detective Devon Bates’ personality and lifestyle and portraying him as a family devoted, down-to-earth, athletic, realistic, and dedicated police officer. However, his perfect profile seems to have moulded him into a rather unrealistic and uninteresting character as the book progresses. This came forward as a monotonous read and set the expectation bar too low for me. The criminals of the book all walk the clichéd path of felons—messy and dumb. The crimes were too superficial and elementary. Throughout, the book felt too ‘nice’ for my taste and often explained too much against making a reader heartily invested. It lacked the desperate need to know what happened next.

The women of the novel all appear to be conformists, bending too much towards society's orthodox ideas of how a woman is. Elaine loves to cook, has motherly instincts, always feels the need to ‘fatten’ Devon up, and doesn’t enjoy driving much. Conversely, all the ‘manly’ parts are left to Devon. On Thanksgiving, it was the responsibility of the women of the event to organize the dinner. Like typical bien-pensants, they are nagging him throughout the book. Also, the characters are not true to the spirit the author creates for them. For instance, Elaine’s sketch doesn’t seem as opposed to the number of times Devon says she is. Often there’s a lack of sense of realism in conversations as can be seen in one section, where some characters discuss the death of another character a little too casually.

The idea, despite having playful potential, was poorly executed and circuitous. Nevertheless, it did not fail to make me feel cozy and light. Therefore, I rate the book 2 out of 4 stars as in addition to the aforementioned issues there were also several errors.

Cat Boss: Paws for Action will be well suited for you if you need a break from heavy plots and enjoy some light-hearted, clichéd mysteries. There are no profanities used and thus it is suited for all age groups.

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Cat Boss
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[Mercy Osmond]

Elaine interacting with a cat, that's funny. The book seems like a fun read. Thanks for the beautiful review.

[the_ashfeathers]

Elaine interacting with a cat, that's funny. The book seems like a fun read. Thanks for the beautiful review.

It sure is one interesting journey. Thank you for replying!