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The Blood Jaguar
The return of the Blood Jaguar and the devastating plague it brings threatens a civilization of animals, and only Bobcat can stop it, in a quest that seems destined to fail. Reprint.
256 pages, Paperback
First published October 15, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 25, 2018
Setting:
In this world, humans don’t seem to exist. In place of humans, we have animals with human-level intelligence and dexterity. Aside from this, the world isn’t overly developed. There are some gods who perhaps meddle a little in the lives of the people and they have a few things which they do apparently on some sort cycle. There is a little bit of magic in the world. It’s not really clear what the limits are or what can and can’t be done.
I was a little disappointed with the world-building because the decision to make this talking animals instead of people seems entirely pointless. They build houses and roads and caravans and can all communicate with other species just fine. I am left a little curious as to Payne would go out of his was to write the characters as animals when it didn’t affect anything. Ultimately, it feels more like a gimmick than anything of actual substance.
Characters:
Bobcat: Bobcat is basically just a piece of garbage that only does anything because he’s forced into it. We begin the novel with him waking up and thinking about how he’s gonna just go be a total jerk to someone else for no reason whatsoever other than wouldn’t that be funny? If you didn’t hate him based on the previous sentence he’s also a drug addict. He has some previous trauma that I guess is supposed to justify this behavior and make him more relatable but he spends the majority of the novel just being a whiny jerk.
Skink: Skink is a largely cowardly little lizard but no so cowardly that he would turn away from the important quest he finds before him even knowing it is dangerous. Skink is, in that way, kind of like Neville Longbottom.
Fisher: Fisher plays the guiding role for the intrepid party. She seems to have the closest thing to an idea as to what’s going on and, with some help from Skink, is willing to drag Bobcat along to his destiny as needed.
Plot:
Bobcat sets out one day to be a scumbag and is stopped when the literal god of death shows up and attacks him. I’m not joking, that’s chapter one. Shortly after this, we find out that said god of death does in fact have bigger plans than slapping around jerks. The titular blood jaguar, goddess of death, is apparently planning to unleash some plague which would kill off about half the world. Due to some prophecy, it’s up to Bobcat, Skink, and Fisher to stop this from happening. If only one of these prophecies ever went into detail about how to stop the ancient evil. Dang inconsiderate prophecy writers. It’s like you didn’t even want people to follow your prophecy.
My Thoughts:
More than anything else, I feel like this novel comes off feeling a little rushed. The plot is almost aggressively fast, world-building is almost entirely overlooked, and Bobcat is the only character that gets anything which can even be argued as development. The strangest thing about all this is that it’s not like there wasn’t room for these things. This is one of the smallest books I’ve read in the last year and fantasy readers are generally not shy about picking up fairly thick books so I really think that a little extra content could have helped out here.
Much smaller point here but, why do none of the main characters get names? There are other animals who actually have names, but all of the main characters are just named for the animal that they are. This seems like a strange choice to me.
In this world, humans don’t seem to exist. In place of humans, we have animals with human-level intelligence and dexterity. Aside from this, the world isn’t overly developed. There are some gods who perhaps meddle a little in the lives of the people and they have a few things which they do apparently on some sort cycle. There is a little bit of magic in the world. It’s not really clear what the limits are or what can and can’t be done.
I was a little disappointed with the world-building because the decision to make this talking animals instead of people seems entirely pointless. They build houses and roads and caravans and can all communicate with other species just fine. I am left a little curious as to Payne would go out of his was to write the characters as animals when it didn’t affect anything. Ultimately, it feels more like a gimmick than anything of actual substance.
Characters:
Bobcat: Bobcat is basically just a piece of garbage that only does anything because he’s forced into it. We begin the novel with him waking up and thinking about how he’s gonna just go be a total jerk to someone else for no reason whatsoever other than wouldn’t that be funny? If you didn’t hate him based on the previous sentence he’s also a drug addict. He has some previous trauma that I guess is supposed to justify this behavior and make him more relatable but he spends the majority of the novel just being a whiny jerk.
Skink: Skink is a largely cowardly little lizard but no so cowardly that he would turn away from the important quest he finds before him even knowing it is dangerous. Skink is, in that way, kind of like Neville Longbottom.
Fisher: Fisher plays the guiding role for the intrepid party. She seems to have the closest thing to an idea as to what’s going on and, with some help from Skink, is willing to drag Bobcat along to his destiny as needed.
Plot:
Bobcat sets out one day to be a scumbag and is stopped when the literal god of death shows up and attacks him. I’m not joking, that’s chapter one. Shortly after this, we find out that said god of death does in fact have bigger plans than slapping around jerks. The titular blood jaguar, goddess of death, is apparently planning to unleash some plague which would kill off about half the world. Due to some prophecy, it’s up to Bobcat, Skink, and Fisher to stop this from happening. If only one of these prophecies ever went into detail about how to stop the ancient evil. Dang inconsiderate prophecy writers. It’s like you didn’t even want people to follow your prophecy.
My Thoughts:
More than anything else, I feel like this novel comes off feeling a little rushed. The plot is almost aggressively fast, world-building is almost entirely overlooked, and Bobcat is the only character that gets anything which can even be argued as development. The strangest thing about all this is that it’s not like there wasn’t room for these things. This is one of the smallest books I’ve read in the last year and fantasy readers are generally not shy about picking up fairly thick books so I really think that a little extra content could have helped out here.
Much smaller point here but, why do none of the main characters get names? There are other animals who actually have names, but all of the main characters are just named for the animal that they are. This seems like a strange choice to me.
August 11, 2016
A fun, nontraditional take on the talking animal mythical quest story. Instead of a strapping hero out to save the world from a terrible catastrophe, we have a loser bobcat catnip addict who's completely confused and frustrated by the epic turn his life has taken. He finds himself the key player in a cyclic narrative, caught up in the plans of demigods he hadn't even believed existed, and spends most of his time just trying to wrap his head around matters. Then, when they get to the final goal of the journey and he goes forth alone to face certain doom at the hands of the prime antagonist, even that turns out completely differently than he had come to expect.
I had initially thought the book would be a quick, mediocre but fun read. I ended up enjoying it much more than I had expected to. The quest format was given an entertainingly irreverent twist, and in some ways the resolution was more believable and satisfying than it is when the quest format is played straight.
I had initially thought the book would be a quick, mediocre but fun read. I ended up enjoying it much more than I had expected to. The quest format was given an entertainingly irreverent twist, and in some ways the resolution was more believable and satisfying than it is when the quest format is played straight.
April 10, 2021
There are definitely some things in this book that I wish were done different, Bobcat's absolute cluelessness, a decent amount of grammatical errors, and the fact that it's just too dang short, but this book is something special. It's charming, funny, and the world-building, though a bit stunted, is definitely top-notch interesting. I wish there was more. I want to read more. (If there ever is more I hope the editor actually does their job somewhat...) And before you say there are plenty of short stories in this universe, i know about them. Im gonna read them. But dangit, Bobcat (though useless) would be an interesting character to continue. Hopefully he gets some useful friends to travel with á la Fisher and Skink.
Welp... There you have it. I'm giving it five stars and you can't stop me.
Welp... There you have it. I'm giving it five stars and you can't stop me.
March 4, 2025
This one surprised me. I saw it in the dollar store once, and my experience with dollar store books has not fared well.
This is a story that can’t be summed up easily. It’s a quest to save the world, but with some interesting twists. Though you can tell it’s a first effort by a new author, it’s a good one. I loved the snake dialogue when they were in the desert. It feels like it should rhyme and it’s actually a joy to read. The Bison scene is clever, too.
I have only two complaints. One is that I’m not sure what animal the Fisher is, and it was weird not knowing how to picture one of the main characters. Did I miss the description or am I just dense? And our trio of heroes spends way too much time traveling, eating, sleeping, walking and not enough time *doing something*.
Much of the book comes across as mere filler, and it could’ve done better with less traveling and more scenes that strengthened the underlying theme. Another draft might’ve helped fill the hollow spaces, but even in its current state the last few chapters make the whole thing worth it. Where our bobcat ends up saves the whole book! Even if you don’t fully understand what all the other stuff means, seeing how Bobcat saves the world is enormously satisfying. He's a useless character right up until the end, and it's so wonderful to see him change from a useless drug addict to unlikely hero.
I have a feeling it’s more meaningful than meets the eye. It wanted to be more meaningful--you can tell there's an insightful revelation hidden in here somewhere and, again, I wish Payne had run it through another draft to bring this forward. It's just begging to come forward! Unfortunately, it's been left in an unfinished state, and as a result it's unclear what it's supposed to show.
But underdone as it is, there's enough there to grasp this deeper meaning, even if only on the edge of comprehension. It's a satisfying read in the end, but I still wonder what it would be like if it were developed all the way. I mean that in the nicest, most fulfilling way possible.
This is a story that can’t be summed up easily. It’s a quest to save the world, but with some interesting twists. Though you can tell it’s a first effort by a new author, it’s a good one. I loved the snake dialogue when they were in the desert. It feels like it should rhyme and it’s actually a joy to read. The Bison scene is clever, too.
I have only two complaints. One is that I’m not sure what animal the Fisher is, and it was weird not knowing how to picture one of the main characters. Did I miss the description or am I just dense? And our trio of heroes spends way too much time traveling, eating, sleeping, walking and not enough time *doing something*.
Much of the book comes across as mere filler, and it could’ve done better with less traveling and more scenes that strengthened the underlying theme. Another draft might’ve helped fill the hollow spaces, but even in its current state the last few chapters make the whole thing worth it. Where our bobcat ends up saves the whole book! Even if you don’t fully understand what all the other stuff means, seeing how Bobcat saves the world is enormously satisfying. He's a useless character right up until the end, and it's so wonderful to see him change from a useless drug addict to unlikely hero.
I have a feeling it’s more meaningful than meets the eye. It wanted to be more meaningful--you can tell there's an insightful revelation hidden in here somewhere and, again, I wish Payne had run it through another draft to bring this forward. It's just begging to come forward! Unfortunately, it's been left in an unfinished state, and as a result it's unclear what it's supposed to show.
But underdone as it is, there's enough there to grasp this deeper meaning, even if only on the edge of comprehension. It's a satisfying read in the end, but I still wonder what it would be like if it were developed all the way. I mean that in the nicest, most fulfilling way possible.
May 26, 2016
It was truly a great book. It's nice to have a protagonist who's not some kind of amazing hero or anything like that at all. It was just a nice change of pace with an interesting world and a colorful bunch of characters. The Blood Jaguar was well worth the read.
August 15, 2020
Great storytelling. A complete world full of myths and cultures. Don't let the "talking animals" fool you, this is a great tale. Wish it was 400 pages!
February 20, 2026
Admittedly a rich and engaging world to explore and well presented narrative, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me, mainly due to the characters and how they present themselves.
I’m not a fan of how mean spirited Fisher comes off as. I get Bobcat being a reluctant hero and scared at something he can’t control, but Fisher being a stand-offish, incessant, snarky ass to him every now and then was grinding my gears with how much verbal abuse she spits out at the poor guy who’s just trying to make sense of things. It especially doesn’t help when she is arguably the biggest knowledge keeper of the trio since I would have liked her to know more things about the world that could have been useful. For example, Why wasn’t the origin of The 12 Curials given to Fisher long ago? Why did Fisher not know that as a shaman before? Did Ramon keep that to himself? Are the meerkats that selfish with what they share with their visitors?
Regarding Bobcat himself, It's cool that he isn't hooked on catnip anymore, but he is soon to be enslaved in The Blood Jaguar’s presence when he dies, just for The Plague Year to be delayed instead of gone for good? Not that much of a solid deal. I get they both didn’t have much going on in their lives, but however Jaguar treats Bobcat while he’s under her mark, gods forbid it’s an abusive relationship given how violent she can get. I shudder at the thought of Bobcat living in dread that he'll be trapped in purgatory from now on after he dies, and Jaguar snatching his soul to keep, especially when he has society shattering knowledge of the gods not being as potent as they think they are in the world order.
Oh right. Bobcat stopped a plague from affecting his friends in his current lifetime, so it was only a partial sacrifice he made. Will there be another bobcat to offer themselves when the next plague arrives? Will our Bobcat convince them to make the same choice as him instead of getting ripped to shreds? If all bobcats go extinct somehow, will a plague year be inevitable, or will The Curials choose another animal to take on The Blood Jaguar? It really makes me wonder why they didn't choose another animal equally as strong, if not stronger than a jaguar to take on, well, Jaguar in a fight.
I’d like to think if Shemka Harr wasn’t so bitter to where she encouraged Bobcat to believe The Twelve Curials were more than just stories, she would have saved him plenty of mental anguish for the journey he went on. Plus, Harr just leaving Bobcat doesn’t sit right with me. I get she has Curial duties to maintain, but would it have been that much of a hassle to hire another Curial to take her place?
At the end of it all, it sums itself up as finding meaning in things as we go along, and in Bobcat's case, who is quite a reluctant hero, its meaning in companionship, even if half the time, or most of the time, his companions weren't being assholes to him. Bobcat just wants out of a situation he was chucked in, which he never asked to be a part of nonetheless, and he still gets screwed throughout the adventure.
I know I said this narrative was well presented, but there is some repetitiveness of how each chapter starts: see new scenery, Bobcat has nervous thoughts, see new animal/curial for more info, repeat. This occurs for roughly 70% of the book, and it would have benefited from so slight variety in. Also, "Stopped in his/her tracks" was used thrice by my count.
I didn’t come away from this book hating it; it certainly had its moments, but how some of the characters act and pieces of the worldbuilding held it back from a higher rating.
I’m not a fan of how mean spirited Fisher comes off as. I get Bobcat being a reluctant hero and scared at something he can’t control, but Fisher being a stand-offish, incessant, snarky ass to him every now and then was grinding my gears with how much verbal abuse she spits out at the poor guy who’s just trying to make sense of things. It especially doesn’t help when she is arguably the biggest knowledge keeper of the trio since I would have liked her to know more things about the world that could have been useful. For example, Why wasn’t the origin of The 12 Curials given to Fisher long ago? Why did Fisher not know that as a shaman before? Did Ramon keep that to himself? Are the meerkats that selfish with what they share with their visitors?
Regarding Bobcat himself, It's cool that he isn't hooked on catnip anymore, but he is soon to be enslaved in The Blood Jaguar’s presence when he dies, just for The Plague Year to be delayed instead of gone for good? Not that much of a solid deal. I get they both didn’t have much going on in their lives, but however Jaguar treats Bobcat while he’s under her mark, gods forbid it’s an abusive relationship given how violent she can get. I shudder at the thought of Bobcat living in dread that he'll be trapped in purgatory from now on after he dies, and Jaguar snatching his soul to keep, especially when he has society shattering knowledge of the gods not being as potent as they think they are in the world order.
Oh right. Bobcat stopped a plague from affecting his friends in his current lifetime, so it was only a partial sacrifice he made. Will there be another bobcat to offer themselves when the next plague arrives? Will our Bobcat convince them to make the same choice as him instead of getting ripped to shreds? If all bobcats go extinct somehow, will a plague year be inevitable, or will The Curials choose another animal to take on The Blood Jaguar? It really makes me wonder why they didn't choose another animal equally as strong, if not stronger than a jaguar to take on, well, Jaguar in a fight.
I’d like to think if Shemka Harr wasn’t so bitter to where she encouraged Bobcat to believe The Twelve Curials were more than just stories, she would have saved him plenty of mental anguish for the journey he went on. Plus, Harr just leaving Bobcat doesn’t sit right with me. I get she has Curial duties to maintain, but would it have been that much of a hassle to hire another Curial to take her place?
At the end of it all, it sums itself up as finding meaning in things as we go along, and in Bobcat's case, who is quite a reluctant hero, its meaning in companionship, even if half the time, or most of the time, his companions weren't being assholes to him. Bobcat just wants out of a situation he was chucked in, which he never asked to be a part of nonetheless, and he still gets screwed throughout the adventure.
I know I said this narrative was well presented, but there is some repetitiveness of how each chapter starts: see new scenery, Bobcat has nervous thoughts, see new animal/curial for more info, repeat. This occurs for roughly 70% of the book, and it would have benefited from so slight variety in. Also, "Stopped in his/her tracks" was used thrice by my count.
I didn’t come away from this book hating it; it certainly had its moments, but how some of the characters act and pieces of the worldbuilding held it back from a higher rating.
March 8, 2019
DNF at about halfway through. This was sold to me by someone who said it was a book with a well defined and prevalent magical system. Obviously we understood this to mean totally different things. I try really hard to give small authors and presses a break, but for all that this may have been a good idea, it was weighed down with a myriad of questionable editorial decisions. The language was colloquial at best, and at worst not proper English. It's a shame because it definitely had potential. In the end, however, good ideas need good execution to be realized.
March 20, 2023
An animal fantasy for adults? Children? It doesn't seem to work either way. The writing is poor. The dialog is grating. If I have to read, "blew out a breath," one more time... The story was uninteresting to me. It felt like a travelogue going from point A to B to C to D and so on. The climax was kind of anti-climatic and then the story just continued on after that for a little while instead of just ending. I'll say that it did have a slightly interesting lore with the Curials, but I struggled to make myself finish this book.
January 5, 2019
I wanna support my furry fiction but I just couldn't get through this one. I liked the three main characters and their dialogue amongst themselves. The fantasy/fable setting was cool enough too, but the storytelling of their journey didn't really pull it together for me. Chapter 4: the scene with the bison king was very cool, but by the time I got to page 100 I realized it just wasn't keeping my attention and I kept having to reread passages. Maybe another time
October 31, 2024
Redwall plague theodicy
January 26, 2013
The Blood Jaguar is a classic Hero's Journey story done right.
Yes, it is predictable to some degree, because as much as it tries to break the trope, it IS a Hero's Journey, with all the appropriate steps. However, it is also a sort of "hero's journey gone wrong" in a way, as Bobcat finds himself ignorant of what he's 'supposed' to do in the periodic doomsday cycle.
Typically, there are very specific roles for characters for the Plague Year -- a bobcat, fisher, and skink traveling together, the skink having lost their 'luck', the fisher as a shaman, and the bobcat as a visionary chasing mysterious prophetic dreams sent to him by the 'curials'. However Bobcat is a catnip addict and a school dropout and seems to have missed out on the dreams and any semblance of a basic education. This can be frustrating at times as Bobcat is frequently the only one who has no idea what is going on, and somehow missed out on common lore that everyone knows. I understand this as a storytelling technique but really sometimes you just want Bobcat to get eaten by the Blood Jaguar for being so ignorant, especially in the beginning when he whines for several chapters. However I'm glad I stuck through the rocky beginning because the ending is excellent. Another point in its favor is that it's not a trilogy! Finally, a fantasy story that you can read from beginning to end in a single volume!
Aside from Bobcat, the rest of the characters are really interesting and complex, though it can be annoying to read somewhat inconsistent slang ... "You wanna cup?"
The other issue I had is that clearly the continent they're supposed to be on is North America, but occasionally -- and JUST occasionally -- there are major breaches in ecology. Like meerkats. Why exactly there are meerkats in North America is not explained, and it also seems as though the lion they refer to is an african lion and not a mountain lion by the language but it's ambiguous enough that I can't tell, and I'm pretty sure Lord Lion shook his mane at one point. There is also one leopard (though she's a curial so I guess its acceptable?). Honestly if it was a mixed fantasy world where the species were randomized a bit it wouldn't have bothered me, but bobcats, fishers, jaguars, kit fox, and bison are all indigenous to North America so mixing in other selected species seems arbitrary and out of place.
Another consistency issue is really in the society. It's confusing in a number of ways, and it's not clear whether the animals wear clothes or have anthropomorphized hands or the level or lack of technology or how many things WORK. In other 'talking animal' books such as Redwall, it is usually clear, but in The Blood Jaguar, its spotty and inconsistent.
However, whatever its flaws and despite the tropes, the Blood Jaguar is a solid stand-alone fantasy novel.
Yes, it is predictable to some degree, because as much as it tries to break the trope, it IS a Hero's Journey, with all the appropriate steps. However, it is also a sort of "hero's journey gone wrong" in a way, as Bobcat finds himself ignorant of what he's 'supposed' to do in the periodic doomsday cycle.
Typically, there are very specific roles for characters for the Plague Year -- a bobcat, fisher, and skink traveling together, the skink having lost their 'luck', the fisher as a shaman, and the bobcat as a visionary chasing mysterious prophetic dreams sent to him by the 'curials'. However Bobcat is a catnip addict and a school dropout and seems to have missed out on the dreams and any semblance of a basic education. This can be frustrating at times as Bobcat is frequently the only one who has no idea what is going on, and somehow missed out on common lore that everyone knows. I understand this as a storytelling technique but really sometimes you just want Bobcat to get eaten by the Blood Jaguar for being so ignorant, especially in the beginning when he whines for several chapters. However I'm glad I stuck through the rocky beginning because the ending is excellent. Another point in its favor is that it's not a trilogy! Finally, a fantasy story that you can read from beginning to end in a single volume!
Aside from Bobcat, the rest of the characters are really interesting and complex, though it can be annoying to read somewhat inconsistent slang ... "You wanna cup?"
The other issue I had is that clearly the continent they're supposed to be on is North America, but occasionally -- and JUST occasionally -- there are major breaches in ecology. Like meerkats. Why exactly there are meerkats in North America is not explained, and it also seems as though the lion they refer to is an african lion and not a mountain lion by the language but it's ambiguous enough that I can't tell, and I'm pretty sure Lord Lion shook his mane at one point. There is also one leopard (though she's a curial so I guess its acceptable?). Honestly if it was a mixed fantasy world where the species were randomized a bit it wouldn't have bothered me, but bobcats, fishers, jaguars, kit fox, and bison are all indigenous to North America so mixing in other selected species seems arbitrary and out of place.
Another consistency issue is really in the society. It's confusing in a number of ways, and it's not clear whether the animals wear clothes or have anthropomorphized hands or the level or lack of technology or how many things WORK. In other 'talking animal' books such as Redwall, it is usually clear, but in The Blood Jaguar, its spotty and inconsistent.
However, whatever its flaws and despite the tropes, the Blood Jaguar is a solid stand-alone fantasy novel.
February 28, 2017
One of my most favorite books <3
August 6, 2012
A new and gorgeously illustrated edition of The Blood Jaguar is currently available from Sofawolf Press. But I'm cheap, so I bought the Kindle edition for under £2.
I tore through this in a weekend of travelling. It's a jolly fantasy in the classic journey-quest vein, with three bickering travellers heading off to confront the Blood Jaguar and prevent a cyclical plague which kills 50% of the population every hundred years or so.
And what a lovable population. Otter labourers, rabbit farmers, exotic meerkats - you really don't want to think about these creatures dying horribly, so you feel the urgency of the mission Bobcat, Skink and Fisher are on.
The twist is that Bobcat, like The Hobbit's Bilbo, thinks his quest is a load of nonsense. He doesn't believe in the Twelve Curials, the spirit animals who preside over his world, he certainly doesn't think of himself as any kind of hero - oh, and he has a small catnip problem. Can Fisher and Skink straighten him out in time for the showdown?
The action never really rose to a peak for me. There's more about eating and sleeping and travelling than there is of danger and adventure, but it's so charmingly and humorously written, with so many little details of this furry world, that I couldn't really hold a grudge.
I tore through this in a weekend of travelling. It's a jolly fantasy in the classic journey-quest vein, with three bickering travellers heading off to confront the Blood Jaguar and prevent a cyclical plague which kills 50% of the population every hundred years or so.
And what a lovable population. Otter labourers, rabbit farmers, exotic meerkats - you really don't want to think about these creatures dying horribly, so you feel the urgency of the mission Bobcat, Skink and Fisher are on.
The twist is that Bobcat, like The Hobbit's Bilbo, thinks his quest is a load of nonsense. He doesn't believe in the Twelve Curials, the spirit animals who preside over his world, he certainly doesn't think of himself as any kind of hero - oh, and he has a small catnip problem. Can Fisher and Skink straighten him out in time for the showdown?
The action never really rose to a peak for me. There's more about eating and sleeping and travelling than there is of danger and adventure, but it's so charmingly and humorously written, with so many little details of this furry world, that I couldn't really hold a grudge.
January 6, 2016
This was an interesting take on the hero's journey, mystic quest idea. I also didn't realize until after the book was over that Fisher is not a title but the name of an actual species of animal.
The story centers around Bobcat who spend most of his time getting high on catnip and not really doing much else. He doesn't really know a whole lot about the world around him and doesn't particularly care to be educated about it either. He's a nobody and is more or less content staying that way.
But when the Blood Jaguar comes along Bobcat finds that he has no choice but to go along with a plan much bigger then himself.
Bobcat was an interesting choice as the main character. He doesn't really believe in what's going on, doesn't really want to understand it and really just wants to go home. He's not one for heroics.
This book tries hard to break out of some classic ideas and sometimes feels as if it is trying a bit too hard. Still this was an interesting book and an interesting tale to watch unfold.
The story centers around Bobcat who spend most of his time getting high on catnip and not really doing much else. He doesn't really know a whole lot about the world around him and doesn't particularly care to be educated about it either. He's a nobody and is more or less content staying that way.
But when the Blood Jaguar comes along Bobcat finds that he has no choice but to go along with a plan much bigger then himself.
Bobcat was an interesting choice as the main character. He doesn't really believe in what's going on, doesn't really want to understand it and really just wants to go home. He's not one for heroics.
This book tries hard to break out of some classic ideas and sometimes feels as if it is trying a bit too hard. Still this was an interesting book and an interesting tale to watch unfold.
June 10, 2015
I think this is a book that I would love to read and re-read again.
I disliked the Bobcat character at first. He starts out kind of whiny and annoying, but that smooths out as things get underway. I liked the other characters, though, especially Fisher. Fisher is the best <3
The story itself was a lot of fun, but it also turned out more thought-provoking than I expected. It had a lot of pleasant surprises, and it's been a while since I've been able to say that about any book. It was definitely a pleasure.
I disliked the Bobcat character at first. He starts out kind of whiny and annoying, but that smooths out as things get underway. I liked the other characters, though, especially Fisher. Fisher is the best <3
The story itself was a lot of fun, but it also turned out more thought-provoking than I expected. It had a lot of pleasant surprises, and it's been a while since I've been able to say that about any book. It was definitely a pleasure.
November 15, 2013
See what the whole ComicPop Crew thought of this book in Ep. 37: There's Pretty Girls in That One. Go to http://comicpoplibrary.com/news/ep-37... to listen to the full episode.
May 2, 2017
This book confused me (and if I had been able to see the cover, I never would have given it even as much chance as I did). I thought it was about animals, but they weren't acting much like animals, so I wondered if they were furries instead. The characters were cardboard cutouts and the writing wasn't good, so I never found the answer to that question before giving up on it. (Amazon reviews tell me they were indeed furries.)
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