Review: CAT GIRLS’ DAY OFF by Kimberly Pauley

Q: How much fun was Kimberly Pauley‘s latest novel?
A: A heck of a lot!  CAT GIRL’S DAY OFF is one hundred percent ridiculous, in the best way possible!

Tu Books, April 2012.

I loved reading this book.  Based on the premise that, in our modern world, many people are born with talents.  Natalie Ng, for example, has several talented people in her family.  One of her sisters can tell if someone is lying, another can blend in with her surroundings like a chameleon.  Natalie, however, has the supposedly low-grade talent of being able to talk to cats.

So when her bff, Oscar, shares a video of celebrity blogger Easton West nd her fabulously pink pets with Natalie, the last thing Natalie expects is to be launched into a rescue mission.  See, when most people see this video, they just see a perturbed cat.  Natalie hears the cat screaming for help.  And it turns out the plot is even thicker than it appears.  Easton West is in town to check out the filming of a movie loosely based on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off — and the movie is being filmed at Natalie and her friend’s high school and the surrounding Chicago area.  When Natalie, through a bit of hijinks, finally gets to talk to Easton’s cat, it appears that Easton isn’t Easton at all.  The real Easton may have been kidnapped, and the only evidence they have is, well, the word of the blogger’s pets.

This fun, exciting romp of a book is in part love letter to Chicago, and very much in the spirit of John Hughes.  With all its goofiness, the characters are real and compelling, and totally loveable.  Even better? The villains are just as fun to read.  I’m looking forward to future novels for Kimberly Pauley — I’m sure they’ll be just as refreshing as CAT GIRL.