The Pear Book

The Cat Who Saved The Library, Sosuke Natsukawa

The Cat Who Saved the Library acts as a brilliant sequel. But before I get into that, as a novel on its own, it’s fantastic.

Nanami is a brilliant protagonist who, one by one, helps everyone in her life find their heart. And she doesn’t hold back from helping anyone and everyone, even the perceived ‘antagonist.’ She instead recognises that those in pain, just need someone to truly see them. The narrative, therefore, circles this message of ‘heart and kindness’ throughout, without ever feeling ‘on-the-nose’ or childish. It’s genuinely inspiring to see the effect she has on the other characters from the stubborn cat, her overworked and increasingly distant father and the mysterious General/Prime Minister/King.

The magical-realism elements of this novel are exactly what I look for in these kinds of books. A real world with real people, intertwined with a fantasy setting and quirky concepts. This setting comes in the form of the castle and grounds of the General (General/Prime Minister/King.) I loved it when books don’t go too deep into describing the logic of a world built purely of the base of imagination. I especially love it when the characters, in this case, Nanami, are so quick to accept all the eccentricities of the world they are thrown into, I feel it represents how we should be more easy-going and accepting of ‘weirdness’ without worrying about the boundaries of our ‘real-world’ society. By being more relaxed by these magical elements, the author creates a tone of cosiness and stress-free reading, whilst still providing a riveting plot to be invested in. The biggest example of this isn’t in Nanami’s attitude towards the magical castle, but rather, her almost immediate calmness when Tiger, that cat, first speaks to her. After a slight moment of surprise, a talking cat suddenly became normal, and I love that.

As a sequel, this novel works incredibly well. I absolutely loved The Cat Who Saved The Books; however, one of my qualms was that I felt Tiger was left relatively ‘untouched’ as a character. This time around, though, Tiger is fleshed out as a character. You feel his emotions, his hope and desire, much more. By also seeing him in moments of weakness, he becomes a lot more relatable, and ironically ‘human’, than he was previously. Seeing the characters from the previous novel was also a lovely addition.

This story is full of so much hope, kindness, and heart that you can’t help but feel a warmness spreading through you as the novel goes on, even reading this in mid-February. I will definitely be recommending this series to everyone I can.