Bullet review:

+ An interesting xenofiction with some light fantastical elements (cat kung fu) and a somewhat predictable but engaging story.
+ Our characters are neat and likable overall.
+ Beautiful yet also pretty haunting illustrations.
+ The main villain's plan is dark to say the least.
- Characters were likable, but not very interesting to me, at least not super rounded and developed. Most of them can be boiled down to a few traits only and I thought Varjak's arc was pretty predictable.
-The main villain and his plan were pretty underdeveloped. It's never even fully revealed just how he does what he does to those cats. He just kinda does it and we're supposed to buy it. And we're also supposed to buy his plan would actually work.

Seriously, why would people want a bunch of lifelike cat corpse toys en masse? Literally just get taxidermy at that point instead of whatever the fuck the Gentleman is doing to them

-The conflict with Sally Bones doesn't feel like it had a lot of payoff for all she's cracked up to be. Throughout most of the book cats keep going "beware of Sally Bones" but then she's not in the book for that much and doesn't end up contributing to the story all that much all things considered.

Full review at: https://skybookcorner.blogspot.com/2024/10/book-review-varjak-paw-by-sf-said.html