Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - She and Her Cat

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She and Her Cat by Makoto Shinkai, Naruki Nagakawa

10 reviews

sam_k_'s review

2.0

(TL:DR misogynistic cats, bad talk of attempted SA, and two short stories that are surprisingly poignant but are ultimately not enough to save this collection.)

This was genuinely the closest I’ve been to DNF’ing a book in a long time, the only reason I finished it was because I had two short stories to go, but I’m actually glad I finished it because this book was somewhat redeemed by those two stories.

The true dichotomy of man feels very represented by this book - two stories that are just objectively puerile followed by two stories that, while not perfect, actually allow their themes to breathe.

Each story is supposed to follow a cat and a woman, and what’s special about this book is that you get to read from both the humans’ and cats’ POVs. I think one of the most challenging things about writing a cat (especially that I know more about animal behavior from my animal cognition class) is that you want to make it have human enough emotions that the cat’s POV feels poignant, but not so human that it feels like a human.

The first story feels definitely the most like a train wreck at least in terms of plot. The cat seemed way too human - like yes he had instincts to hunt, marked territory, etc but he was also incredibly misogynistic? With all due respect, gender is a human concept, the only reason there’s some “gender” difference between cats is due to which cats can mate with others. (More on that in spoiler section.) They also went with this really weird storyline about the cat character, Chobi, falling in love with the human girl, Miyu. and it has the same uncomfy vibes as The Bee Movie. And the entire story Miyu is grappling with this situationship that we don’t care about. It really just was a mess from beginning to end, and I didn’t know that it was possible to make 30 pages this catastrophic.

The second story didn’t have as bad of a plot but I think the themes sent a way worse message to the reader. The whole time the second protagonist, Reina, complains because she didn’t pass an art entrance exam to get into university and she’s like “they don’t recognize REAL talent 😌” and she goes on like this for a while, but then it gets… really bad. (More in spoiler section, trigger warning for attempted SA.) We also follow Chobi’s friend Mimi, who’s a kitten, and her story is equally bad. (More in spoiler section.)

The last two stories were actually pretty okay for the most part. The third story focuses on a third protagonist, Aoi, and her grief, and I actually think that it’s a pretty good representation of what agoraphobia can look like, and how Cookie the cat helps her. The fourth story focuses on an older dog named Jon (whose role in the other stories is sporadic) and if you ignore all of his discussions of what he thinks creation looks like (which has varying degrees of accuracy), I think this story did a good job building the characters of Shino (the woman) and Kuro (the cat). Unfortunately I do not think these stories are quite good enough to fully redeem the previous two stories’ train wrecks.

I will also say that this is a translated work from Japanese. The writing was not the best, but I’m not sure if it’s because Shinkai’s writing is naturally choppy or if it’s because of how it got translated. Either way, it was readable so that’s all I can ask for. It was also originally a manga but this is not the manga version, so I also have no knowledge of how the illustrations could’ve helped or hindered the story.

***spoiler section***

In the first story Miyu has a friendship breakup because her friend, Tamaki, got mad that Miyu got with Nobu, the situationship guy, when Tamaki liked him? But she didn’t even TELL Miyu she liked him so like why is that Miyu’s fault?? But it happens in literally like one paragraph and a few stray sentences so it just feels really jarring and didn’t really help this already derailed story.

Here is a bonus round of all of the cat misogyny:

Beautiful? This dog [Jon] obviously couldn’t tell the difference between male and female cats. “Er, but I’m male,” [Chobi] said, a little irritated. (15)
“All beautiful women are my sweethearts, you know!” (16) (Jon, an older dog, via female cats)
[The young woman] had short hair and wasn’t wearing any makeup. Not my type at all. (24) (Chobi, via Reina)
Anyway, I prefer mature women. (25)(Chobi, in reference to him finding Mimi, a female kitten, annoying)
“Look, Mimi, I’ve told you time and time again. I have a grown up girlfriend,” I said, picturing her in my mind. (25) (Chobi, in reference to his female owner.)

Thought it couldn’t get worse? Well it does!

In the second short story, and I’m not sure if this is what Shinkai intended, but it’s essentially implied that Reina’s “karma” for being overconfident in her art is having her older man boss attempt to assault her after helping her at her internship. I just don’t think that the very real problem of workplace harassment was given the sensitivity a situation like it requires. And the cat, Mimi, likes Chobi (the cat from the first story), but he claims he has a “girlfriend” (who is his owner so yikes to that one), and Mimi is a KITTEN, so Chobi also doesn’t want her for that reason. In an attempt to get over Chobi, Mimi then has sex with a feral cat (who is, “quite a bit older than [her], [she] realized” (57)), and Mimi then gets pregnant.

See more weird and bad quotes:

Mimi: “I was desperate to have Chobi’s children, so I decided to try asking him outright.” (55)
Reina, via a classmate: He always spoke so hesitantly, mumbling his words. He was so gutless. (42) […] Maybe the wimp hadn’t thought of submitting anything [for the art competition] himself. (44)
I gently licked away the teardrops running down her cheeks. They were warm and tasted of her life. (66) (Mimi, as Reina cries)

This review is way too long but when I acquire cursed knowledge, it must be shared.

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lexcellent's review against another edition

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reflective relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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robinks's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I love a fantastical, intersecting collection of vignettes. My main issue is that all these stories with female human protagonists is written by a man.

Though I suppose the primary perspectives are all cats.

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lasunflower's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Cute collection of interwoven stories about women and their cats. Themes of found family, mental illness and grief, but for how emotional it is, it was also lighthearted.

I did not like the first story as much. Chobi is my least favourite character and that story did not feel as developed as the others.

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genstrong's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

A very easy and fast read. I enjoyed most of the book but felt that the ending was contrived. I had been expecting something deeper and more philosophical given that the character of Jon (the all-knowing philosopher) was meant to grant wishing but it ended up being rushed, simplistic and not that moving. I also felt there was something strange about how the cats in particular talked about gender, and I then I realised the writers are both male and it made complete sense. I hadn’t looked up the writers before starting the book but saw their bios at the end. Gender is treated as a “binary is natural” concept and even the scene with sexual assault seemed unrealistic, like how a man would imagine the scene to go rather than giving visceral “lived experience” vibes. Overall, it was ok but not recommendation-worthy.

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sunny_pipes's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This one is hard for me to rate, based on a few passages that gave me the ick. I still love the stories, but they're not flawless.

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sea_sea's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book is a really cute multiple pov story. It deals with mental illness topics and cats! Overall it was a really nice and quick read. It was also really fun while reading to see how all the people and cats were linked in the book.

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tashtasher's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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starrysteph's review

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funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

3.75

She and Her Cat: Stories shares 4 interwoven slices of life featuring struggling women and the cats that help them find their way. It’s about loneliness and companionship, the struggle to escape from modern isolation, and healing through the care of a pet. It’s about the magic of the mundane.

We follow a young woman with social anxiety struggling to end a failing relationship, a naive artist hoping her dream is worth it, a grieving friend who is afraid to break her isolation, and an older woman who has forgotten to care for herself.

It’s heartwarming and tear jerking, but most importantly, half of the book is told from cat POVs! They’re cheeky and whimsical and have a fully developed society of their own in the neighborhood. They help their people search for connection, grieve, create, strengthen, and find renewed energy.

All four of these women and their feline companions live entangled lives; they appear in each other’s stories and connect in big and small ways. Each POV has a very distinctive narrative voice.

It’s an incredibly sweet and cozy read; it’s touching without being too emotionally draining or profound.

My only gripe - that sometimes pulled me out of the story - was some of the cheesy wisdom dispensed from elderly dog Jon. It was heightened philosophical silliness that didn’t match the earnest, down-to-earth vibes from the rest of the novel. Most of the book was simplistic and charming, dispensing wisdom without trying too hard, and these segments felt detached from that tone.

CW: death of loved one, death of animal, mental illness, sexual assault, pregnancy, grief

(I received an advance reader copy of this book; this is my honest review.)

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ezwolf's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

4.0

As someone who is nearly first and foremost a cat person and look at my cat and I as our own little family of two, I was very excited to read this book.

She and Her Cat is divided up into four short stories that all intertwine, told from the perspectives of the cats and the women and that come to be their owners. It does a great job showcasing the relationship that people have with their cats and the way that even though we don't /really/ know what our cats are saying to us, we know that they're talking to us in their own way. The way that they greet you at your front door and know just when you need their love and attention.

Chobi, Mimi, Cooki, and Kuro all bring a unique look at being a cat and how their lives and our own change when we take on caring for a cat and I will admit to tearing up a few times. The parts that really got me were right off with Chobi's introduction and then, of course, the end with Jon.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

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