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The Cat Bride
The heatwave of 1995. Sixteen years since an infamous tiger-lynx hybrid escaped a small moorland zoo and ate someone. Sixteen years since the animal was euthanised. Sixteen years for the zoo to fall into disrepair. Then sixteen-year-old convalescent Lowdy, and her Mumma, are forced to move to the remote old zoo to care for her dying grandmother, and rumours surface of the animal stalking the moors again. Vengeful locals blame the three women for an apex predator on the loose. Mumma insists all the cats are dead. Grandma whispers that the ‘tynx’ needs to be fed. Lowdy, still recovering from her own mysterious illness, begins to wonder who she can trust. Can she even trust herself when she wakes up covered in ticks with no recollection of the night before? As Lowdy searches for the truth – the truth of her childhood, what it means to be a woman, and the truth about the cats – she realizes that something catlike that runs in the blood, something she cannot ignore. Much more than simply the wry horror of a young woman’s beastly metamorphosis, The Cat Bride views the eerie liminality of teenaged girls through a pastoral gothic fug of lairy nineties lads, booze and fags.
- GenresHorror
336 pages, Paperback
First published April 7, 2025
3 people are currently reading
222 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
August 11, 2025
1995. It’s been sixteen years since the infamous tiger-lynx hybrid escaped from a zoo and killed a man. But now Loveday (Lowdy) and her mother Aster, return to the crumbling zoo to care for her frail and dying grandmother. As they both attempt to settle into their new life here, there are whispers and rumours that the ‘tynx’ is still alive and at loose on the moors. The locals are angry and suspicious, Aster appears to be in denial and disregards their concerns - but still locks Lowdy in her room at night for her own safety.
This was a very interesting one! The Cat Bride is a slow burn of a story where the menace, paranoia and confusion builds steadily and invokes an increasing sense of unease. It’s an atmospheric read; the crumbling zoo grounds and the wreck of a house convey a sense of disintegration of which the characters also enhance this. Their behaviours are mostly strange but add to the uncertainty of the story. I wasn’t sure what was real and what was imagined.
I think I’m best off describing this book as a full on fever dream of a novel. It feels creepily claustrophobic and as the story builds to its vivid and chaotic climax it’s hard to know what to believe. I’m still not sure I do!
August 24, 2025
One of the adjectives on the front of this book is ‘hallucinatory’ - and they weren’t kidding! This story is a bit ‘Mommie Dearest’ meets Jayne Eyre, Frankenstein, and Starve Acre. It has lots of themes that I love - coming-of-age, unstable female energy, outsiders being ostracised, crumbling house metaphor for deteriorating sanity. I won’t say ‘unreliable narrator’ because the mc fully admits that she doesn’t know what’s going on, but I’m fine with that when it’s such a wild ride. If you like Gothic, folk horror, the above stories I mentioned, Bunny, Our Wives Under the Sea, then this book is for you. Suffice to say, I loved it!
April 4, 2025
Definitely an interesting one. Another new-to-me author. Tierney has crafted a story that will constantly have you constantly wondering if it’s supernatural or simply madness. It’s a slower paced book and probably could lose a bit in the middle as it came to feel a bit redundant.
The Cat Bride follows 16yo Loveday and her mother, Aster. After an incident at their last place of residence the pair is forced to return to Aster’s childhood home where her grandmother still resides. At one point her grandmother kept a zoo full of lynx and a strange creature called a tynx which seemed to be a blend of a lynx and a tiger. The zoo was closed when the tynx managed to escape and kill a man. Loveday is kept on a short leash by her mother, but soon finds ways to explore the area and chaos ensues.
To put it simply, the book is pretty wild. It’s difficult to keep track of the character’s true motivations mostly because each time you turn a page they’re doing something strange. I have a bunch of unanswered questions about this one, and if you like your books wrapped up neatly this probably wouldn’t vibe for you. It’s well written and the characters are incredibly complex/bat shit insane. I enjoyed it and would love to read more work by Tierney. I do wish maybe an epilogue had been written to clear some things up, but I also appreciate a subjective ending. If you like books where you can’t quite figure out if it’s psychosis or something deeper, I’d give this one a go.
The Cat Bride follows 16yo Loveday and her mother, Aster. After an incident at their last place of residence the pair is forced to return to Aster’s childhood home where her grandmother still resides. At one point her grandmother kept a zoo full of lynx and a strange creature called a tynx which seemed to be a blend of a lynx and a tiger. The zoo was closed when the tynx managed to escape and kill a man. Loveday is kept on a short leash by her mother, but soon finds ways to explore the area and chaos ensues.
To put it simply, the book is pretty wild. It’s difficult to keep track of the character’s true motivations mostly because each time you turn a page they’re doing something strange. I have a bunch of unanswered questions about this one, and if you like your books wrapped up neatly this probably wouldn’t vibe for you. It’s well written and the characters are incredibly complex/bat shit insane. I enjoyed it and would love to read more work by Tierney. I do wish maybe an epilogue had been written to clear some things up, but I also appreciate a subjective ending. If you like books where you can’t quite figure out if it’s psychosis or something deeper, I’d give this one a go.
April 28, 2025
Thank you Netgalley and Salt Publishing for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Charlotte Tierney’s “The Cat Bride” is a strange, atmospheric plunge into gothic horror, where family trauma, madness, and supernatural uncertainty intertwine—and where reality itself seems to blur at the edges. This book may not be for every reader, but those who enjoy unsettling, slow-burning tales where truth is slippery and tension never fully resolves will find much to appreciate.
The story follows 16-year-old Loveday (often called Lowdy) and her mother, Aster, who are forced to return to Aster’s crumbling childhood home after fleeing an unnamed scandal. At the center of their troubled family history is the local legend of the “tynx,” a genetically engineered tiger-lynx hybrid that once escaped from their family’s now-defunct zoo, killing a man before it was supposedly put down. Yet, with Lowdy’s return, sightings of the creature begin again, and the boundaries between myth, memory, and madness quickly erode.
Tierney excels at creating an eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere where every character seems a little off-kilter and nothing can be fully trusted—not memory, not family, and certainly not reality. The book constantly leaves you guessing: is there truly something supernatural at play, or is this the unraveling mind of a traumatized teenager? That ambiguity is both its greatest strength and its potential weakness. If you’re looking for clear answers or neatly tied-up resolutions, you may find yourself frustrated by the book’s open-ended, cyclical storytelling and elusive conclusion.
The pacing is slow, sometimes frustratingly so, especially in the middle where scenes of gaslighting, memory distortion, and paranoia spin out without necessarily building tension. This brooding, meandering quality did help add to the book’s dreamlike, feverish tone even though I personally didn’t particularly enjoy the pacing; I found it difficult to get into this book.
Lowdy herself is a complex, haunting character: fragile yet determined, caught between her mother’s protective lies and her grandmother’s cryptic half-truths. The novel deals with heavy themes—family secrets, the grotesque realities of growing up, child abuse, and the unreliability of memory—while maintaining a weird sense of dark humor and trivia-laden dialogue that occasionally lightens the mood.
Overall, “The Cat Bride” is not a straightforward horror story—it’s a fever-dream meditation on trauma, family curses, and the monstrousness that can live within us as much as outside of us. If you prefer your gothic novels clear-cut and tightly plotted, this may not be the right fit. But if you appreciate a slow, brooding descent into madness and myth, Charlotte Tierney’s novel will leave you haunted and guessing long after you’ve closed the book. Perfect for anyone intrigued by the eerie idea of a cursed zoo—and the monsters we carry with us.
Charlotte Tierney’s “The Cat Bride” is a strange, atmospheric plunge into gothic horror, where family trauma, madness, and supernatural uncertainty intertwine—and where reality itself seems to blur at the edges. This book may not be for every reader, but those who enjoy unsettling, slow-burning tales where truth is slippery and tension never fully resolves will find much to appreciate.
The story follows 16-year-old Loveday (often called Lowdy) and her mother, Aster, who are forced to return to Aster’s crumbling childhood home after fleeing an unnamed scandal. At the center of their troubled family history is the local legend of the “tynx,” a genetically engineered tiger-lynx hybrid that once escaped from their family’s now-defunct zoo, killing a man before it was supposedly put down. Yet, with Lowdy’s return, sightings of the creature begin again, and the boundaries between myth, memory, and madness quickly erode.
Tierney excels at creating an eerie, claustrophobic atmosphere where every character seems a little off-kilter and nothing can be fully trusted—not memory, not family, and certainly not reality. The book constantly leaves you guessing: is there truly something supernatural at play, or is this the unraveling mind of a traumatized teenager? That ambiguity is both its greatest strength and its potential weakness. If you’re looking for clear answers or neatly tied-up resolutions, you may find yourself frustrated by the book’s open-ended, cyclical storytelling and elusive conclusion.
The pacing is slow, sometimes frustratingly so, especially in the middle where scenes of gaslighting, memory distortion, and paranoia spin out without necessarily building tension. This brooding, meandering quality did help add to the book’s dreamlike, feverish tone even though I personally didn’t particularly enjoy the pacing; I found it difficult to get into this book.
Lowdy herself is a complex, haunting character: fragile yet determined, caught between her mother’s protective lies and her grandmother’s cryptic half-truths. The novel deals with heavy themes—family secrets, the grotesque realities of growing up, child abuse, and the unreliability of memory—while maintaining a weird sense of dark humor and trivia-laden dialogue that occasionally lightens the mood.
Overall, “The Cat Bride” is not a straightforward horror story—it’s a fever-dream meditation on trauma, family curses, and the monstrousness that can live within us as much as outside of us. If you prefer your gothic novels clear-cut and tightly plotted, this may not be the right fit. But if you appreciate a slow, brooding descent into madness and myth, Charlotte Tierney’s novel will leave you haunted and guessing long after you’ve closed the book. Perfect for anyone intrigued by the eerie idea of a cursed zoo—and the monsters we carry with us.
August 8, 2025
In The Cat Bride, by Charlotte Tierney, we follow 16-year-old Loveday (Lowdy) and her mum as, in the wake of an illness on Lowdy’s part, they move into her declining grandma’s large, crumbling house on the Yorkshire moors.
Up until sixteen years ago, the house’s grounds hosted a small-time zoo, which shut down when a big cat – rumoured to be a tiger-lynx hybrid, or a “tynx” – escaped and killed a visitor.
The local villagers, embittered by the decline in passing trade since the zoo closed, have never been quite convinced the tynx was actually put down, and when Lowdy and her mum show up, there’s a revival of whispers that a dangerous animal is prowling the area and terrorising people and wildlife alike, and renewed interest in spotting and destroying it.
I do like a shape-shifting story, so The Cat Bride was right up my street! Even better when the shape-shifting turns out to be real, and not explained away by sickness and/or an overly-active imagination (if I’ve read the author’s intentions correctly, anyway – if not, well, I want to believe!).
At the same time, Lowdy’s nocturnal transformation absolutely works as a metaphor for another of my favourite themes: coming of age.
As a cat, she’s establishing an identity separate from her family and discovering her power. In her human form, meanwhile, she’s feeling stifled and thwarted by her mother’s treatment of her, developing a separate, more companionable relationship with her hitherto unknown grandmother, and getting intense feelings for a boy who turns out to be rather disappointing – all hallmarks of the subgenre.
Lowdy’s mother’s extreme strictness (which she justifies as keeping her daugher safe and healthy) means you can’t help but sympathise with Lowdy, rather than thinking she’s being a brat who will understand when she’s older. Her mum clearly wants to keep her small and contained: talking to and handling her as one would a much younger child; locking her in an attic bedroom at night because she apparently sleepwalks; and seeming a bit keen to keep Lowdy’s hair shaved (apparently necessitated by her mysterious illness) and therefore unattractive to boys. I was absolutely cheering the teenager on in her increasing subversion.
Something else I really appreciated was the author’s frequent references to fairy tales, especially ones where animals turn into humans and vice versa, characters are imprisoned, and hair signifies strength and aids rebellion. Lowdy’s mother herself follows patterns of a fairy tale villain by keeping her daughter under lock and key and denying her agency – while also supressing her own nature, desires, and memories of wanting to be wild and free when she was Lowdy’s age.
I also got strong Shirley Jackson vibes from this novel (another good thing!). While the house is sprawling and its attached land vast and open to the moors (and vividly, eerily described to boot), the intense relationships between the three women who live there and are virtually one another’s whole world give it a claustrophobic feel that put me in mind of We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Bird’s Nest.
Tierney does a great job evoking other things as well. The 1995 setting of the book feels authentic with its long evenings, iconic tunes, and damaging attitudes towards women (Lowdy and her mother originally live in a flat above the boarding house of a boys’ school; when the boys start behaving inappropriately towards Lowdy, it is she who must be removed). The author also captures the feeling of being an outsider as an adolescent brilliantly, while the excerpts from the “literature” of the cryptozoologists who lead the hunt for the tynx ring true.
The Cat Bride is a vivid and highly evocative novel that combines a couple of my favourite themes.
Up until sixteen years ago, the house’s grounds hosted a small-time zoo, which shut down when a big cat – rumoured to be a tiger-lynx hybrid, or a “tynx” – escaped and killed a visitor.
The local villagers, embittered by the decline in passing trade since the zoo closed, have never been quite convinced the tynx was actually put down, and when Lowdy and her mum show up, there’s a revival of whispers that a dangerous animal is prowling the area and terrorising people and wildlife alike, and renewed interest in spotting and destroying it.
I do like a shape-shifting story, so The Cat Bride was right up my street! Even better when the shape-shifting turns out to be real, and not explained away by sickness and/or an overly-active imagination (if I’ve read the author’s intentions correctly, anyway – if not, well, I want to believe!).
At the same time, Lowdy’s nocturnal transformation absolutely works as a metaphor for another of my favourite themes: coming of age.
As a cat, she’s establishing an identity separate from her family and discovering her power. In her human form, meanwhile, she’s feeling stifled and thwarted by her mother’s treatment of her, developing a separate, more companionable relationship with her hitherto unknown grandmother, and getting intense feelings for a boy who turns out to be rather disappointing – all hallmarks of the subgenre.
Lowdy’s mother’s extreme strictness (which she justifies as keeping her daugher safe and healthy) means you can’t help but sympathise with Lowdy, rather than thinking she’s being a brat who will understand when she’s older. Her mum clearly wants to keep her small and contained: talking to and handling her as one would a much younger child; locking her in an attic bedroom at night because she apparently sleepwalks; and seeming a bit keen to keep Lowdy’s hair shaved (apparently necessitated by her mysterious illness) and therefore unattractive to boys. I was absolutely cheering the teenager on in her increasing subversion.
Something else I really appreciated was the author’s frequent references to fairy tales, especially ones where animals turn into humans and vice versa, characters are imprisoned, and hair signifies strength and aids rebellion. Lowdy’s mother herself follows patterns of a fairy tale villain by keeping her daughter under lock and key and denying her agency – while also supressing her own nature, desires, and memories of wanting to be wild and free when she was Lowdy’s age.
I also got strong Shirley Jackson vibes from this novel (another good thing!). While the house is sprawling and its attached land vast and open to the moors (and vividly, eerily described to boot), the intense relationships between the three women who live there and are virtually one another’s whole world give it a claustrophobic feel that put me in mind of We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Bird’s Nest.
Tierney does a great job evoking other things as well. The 1995 setting of the book feels authentic with its long evenings, iconic tunes, and damaging attitudes towards women (Lowdy and her mother originally live in a flat above the boarding house of a boys’ school; when the boys start behaving inappropriately towards Lowdy, it is she who must be removed). The author also captures the feeling of being an outsider as an adolescent brilliantly, while the excerpts from the “literature” of the cryptozoologists who lead the hunt for the tynx ring true.
The Cat Bride is a vivid and highly evocative novel that combines a couple of my favourite themes.
May 4, 2025
A lingering tale full of twists and turns
—
In a new and searing voice, Tierney moulds together coming-of-age, fable and family saga into a lingering tale that twists and turns even as you read sentence by sentence, scene by scene, where nothing is ever quite what you think it is. Sixteen year old Lowdy is being taken back by her mother to the place where she was born, a place she has never visited since, her grandmother’s house and ex-zoo, and home of the mythical tynx, a seeming hybrid between lynx and tiger. The locals aren’t happy with the ex-zoo, blaming the rumoured sighting of the tynx on the Cat Lady, Lowdy’s grandmother. Lowdy’s not happy with her mum for locking her in her tower room at night, not knowing that Lowdy can escape from her third storey windows. Lowdy’s mum isn’t happy to have to look after her aging mother and the uncountable domestic cats. And the tynx? It might not even exist but Lowdy’s game to find out the truth.
Told exclusively from Lowdy’s point of view, she has no handle on the truth of her growing pains, her former illness, her own family. Nothing is revealed explicitly and I thank Tierney for that, creating a space for disbelief and illusion to extend the reach of this cunning novel; cunning in that it creeps up on you, just like the (non-existent?) tynx. The denouement is full of ambiguity and literary magic, and you’ll go back to the beginning, questioning everything all over again.
Four and a half stars.
—
In a new and searing voice, Tierney moulds together coming-of-age, fable and family saga into a lingering tale that twists and turns even as you read sentence by sentence, scene by scene, where nothing is ever quite what you think it is. Sixteen year old Lowdy is being taken back by her mother to the place where she was born, a place she has never visited since, her grandmother’s house and ex-zoo, and home of the mythical tynx, a seeming hybrid between lynx and tiger. The locals aren’t happy with the ex-zoo, blaming the rumoured sighting of the tynx on the Cat Lady, Lowdy’s grandmother. Lowdy’s not happy with her mum for locking her in her tower room at night, not knowing that Lowdy can escape from her third storey windows. Lowdy’s mum isn’t happy to have to look after her aging mother and the uncountable domestic cats. And the tynx? It might not even exist but Lowdy’s game to find out the truth.
Told exclusively from Lowdy’s point of view, she has no handle on the truth of her growing pains, her former illness, her own family. Nothing is revealed explicitly and I thank Tierney for that, creating a space for disbelief and illusion to extend the reach of this cunning novel; cunning in that it creeps up on you, just like the (non-existent?) tynx. The denouement is full of ambiguity and literary magic, and you’ll go back to the beginning, questioning everything all over again.
Four and a half stars.
April 18, 2025
This is such an odd and unique story that I think could easily become as well loved as many other iconic gothic horror novels. It's eerie and dark and deals with shameful and grotesque feelings surrounding growing up and processing family trauma and secrets.
16-year-old Lowdy and her Mumma are forced to move in with her estranged and dying grandmother who is infamous in the town for running a now defunct and at the time very controversial zoo. Mumma left when Lowdy was a baby after Grandma's cross bred Tiger-Lynx ("tynx") creation escaped from its cage and mauled a man. After the incident, the tynx was euthanized but since the return of the two, apparent sightings of the creature have been popping up as it terrorizes the people of the town. Lowdy's mom wants her to have no part in the madness, but Grandma insists that there's more to the story than Mumma is letting on.
This was incredibly well written. I never knew exactly where the story was going in the best way possible. There was so much back and forth of deciding whether this was actual supernatural horror or the psychological distress of a sick and traumatized teen, it felt very open ended. It quickly became one of my favorite modern gothic horrors and I hope to read more from Charlotte Tierney in the future.
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read a copy of this ARC
16-year-old Lowdy and her Mumma are forced to move in with her estranged and dying grandmother who is infamous in the town for running a now defunct and at the time very controversial zoo. Mumma left when Lowdy was a baby after Grandma's cross bred Tiger-Lynx ("tynx") creation escaped from its cage and mauled a man. After the incident, the tynx was euthanized but since the return of the two, apparent sightings of the creature have been popping up as it terrorizes the people of the town. Lowdy's mom wants her to have no part in the madness, but Grandma insists that there's more to the story than Mumma is letting on.
This was incredibly well written. I never knew exactly where the story was going in the best way possible. There was so much back and forth of deciding whether this was actual supernatural horror or the psychological distress of a sick and traumatized teen, it felt very open ended. It quickly became one of my favorite modern gothic horrors and I hope to read more from Charlotte Tierney in the future.
Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for allowing me to read a copy of this ARC
December 31, 2025
3.5 rounded to 3 stars for Goodreads.
This was a complete fever dream, questioning what on earth was the truth and what was imagination.
The book draws you in with it's descriptive language and I felt like I was right there with the characters. I went on an emotional roller-coaster, changing my beliefs constantly.
I hated Lowdy's mother at the start and how she was treating her, but as the story progressed I did begin to wonder, and change my opinion...
I wanted more closure and answers by the end of the book. I have some idea of the truth, but certain things didn't fit with that.
Overall, a mad descent into the tightrope between real and fictional worlds and how views differ between other people.
*I received a complimentary copy of the book from Random Things Tours and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
This was a complete fever dream, questioning what on earth was the truth and what was imagination.
The book draws you in with it's descriptive language and I felt like I was right there with the characters. I went on an emotional roller-coaster, changing my beliefs constantly.
I hated Lowdy's mother at the start and how she was treating her, but as the story progressed I did begin to wonder, and change my opinion...
I wanted more closure and answers by the end of the book. I have some idea of the truth, but certain things didn't fit with that.
Overall, a mad descent into the tightrope between real and fictional worlds and how views differ between other people.
*I received a complimentary copy of the book from Random Things Tours and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
August 22, 2025
The Cat Bride is a unique, weird, gothic coming of age novel, that feels a bit more like a fever dream.
This story is full of paranoia and confusion, that makes you questions what’s real and what isn’t. Even now, I don’t think I could really tell you what happened during this read.
There’s nothing I love more than an unhinged, unreliable narrator, and Lowdy truly lives up to that role. As well as her Mum and her Grandma also being equally as unhinged and unreliable, which just adds to the uneasiness of the tale.
This was a brilliant story of growing up, trauma, family secrets, teenage sexuality, shape-shifting and trying to understand what the hell is going on around you when everyone’s telling you lies.
This story is full of paranoia and confusion, that makes you questions what’s real and what isn’t. Even now, I don’t think I could really tell you what happened during this read.
There’s nothing I love more than an unhinged, unreliable narrator, and Lowdy truly lives up to that role. As well as her Mum and her Grandma also being equally as unhinged and unreliable, which just adds to the uneasiness of the tale.
This was a brilliant story of growing up, trauma, family secrets, teenage sexuality, shape-shifting and trying to understand what the hell is going on around you when everyone’s telling you lies.
July 21, 2025
Moody & provocative coming-of-age tale, pitched somewhere between Peckinpah's Straw Dogs and a very weird Tales Of The Unexpected.
Lowdy the narrator is unreliably brilliant, and the cleverness of the, is she or isn't she?, hereditary changeling storyline pulls the reader into the abusive/co-dependency horror show of the family dynamic.
From the jacket blurb, I was expecting more Trainspotting-like odes to nineties teen culture, but it's solely represented by the Digger character and a trio of lads making TV show references, which is great because Lowdy and her Mumma are fantastic characters, completely unhinged and unmoored from 'normal' village life.
Lowdy the narrator is unreliably brilliant, and the cleverness of the, is she or isn't she?, hereditary changeling storyline pulls the reader into the abusive/co-dependency horror show of the family dynamic.
From the jacket blurb, I was expecting more Trainspotting-like odes to nineties teen culture, but it's solely represented by the Digger character and a trio of lads making TV show references, which is great because Lowdy and her Mumma are fantastic characters, completely unhinged and unmoored from 'normal' village life.
July 6, 2025
Reminded me a little of Sredni Vashtar, except a lot more gothic and gory and hot and hazy and hallucinatory. Lots of beautiful turns of phrase and lots of unbearable tension.
Sidenote: the typeset is gorgeous.
Sidenote: the typeset is gorgeous.
August 11, 2025
Other than needing tightening in the middle (there is a little bit of a repetitive fog), this was a delightfully odd and (positively) ambiguous read.
August 7, 2025
The Cat Bride ' what a wild read! I have never read anything like this before.
It was super weird, but in a good way-almost like fever dream. At the times it was hard to understand what was real and what wasn't.
I loved the writing style ;it was very atmospheric. The story was very engaging with well developed- characters.
So yeah, it is a proper horror fairy tale. And I definitely recommend it if you're looking for something different to read
It was super weird, but in a good way-almost like fever dream. At the times it was hard to understand what was real and what wasn't.
I loved the writing style ;it was very atmospheric. The story was very engaging with well developed- characters.
So yeah, it is a proper horror fairy tale. And I definitely recommend it if you're looking for something different to read
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