Thirty Cats

by Dina Roberts

Gabrielle Williams, a mildly disfigured eighteen-year-old, has never had sex, has never even been kissed, and okay, let's be honest here...She's never even been noticed by the opposite sex. All that changes towards the end of her senior year. Gabrielle goes on her first date. Everything is fine until she blurts out that she suffers from a disease called Neurofibromatosis. The guy never calls again and Gabrielle assumes that a girl like her will never succeed in the game of love. To avoid all future pain, Gabrielle vows to never fall in love. She begins college knowing that the only way to prevent love from entering her life is to avoid all forms of romance and socialization. For Gabrielle, even reading a book with a romantic subplot can be dangerous. Who knows what kind of notions could creep into her head? Despite her best efforts, Gabrielle's plan fails. She finds herself madly in love and facing some very difficult decisions about honesty and acceptance.

162 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Hello there!!!


I've been writing novels since I was in high school. Unfortunately only a few are available outside plastic bins in a cluttered room in our house. Or worse, on an old disk somewhere...out there.

My novel The Dead are Online can read for free online.

https://deadareonline.blogspot.com/20...

My novel about a young woman with Neurofibromatosis, Thirty Cats is available on Kindle.

P.S-I did not write the French book about addiction. I bet it's cool and helpful, though.

Though I'm autistic and don't love group gatherings, I would kind of like to have a conference with all the other Dina Roberts out there.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

The protagonist, Gabrielle, is an intelligent young woman with Neurofibromatosis (not a trivial disease) who is just starting college. She moves into a dorm and the book basically covers her first year away from home. It's not clear in the beginning whether her condition is really noticeable to others. People who interact with her early in the book don't seem to be as hung-up about her appearance as she is; so there's a mild feeling of unreliability and imabalance about the narrator. She does have a lot of anxiety and negativity about the future. The narrative style also feels "authentically naïve" (to me), and I think is a job well done on the author's part.

The character of Gabrielle is interesting, complicated, and compelling — fairly likeable, despite her negative outlook. And because of the particular disease challenge she faces, she's definitely not your run-of-the-mill late-teenager given to over-dramatizing trivia but without any real problems in life. She enters a new relationship, despite misgivings, with pretty low expectations, which lead to some ups and downs, of course. The development toward the end of the book was something I didn't see coming, and it had a solid emotional impact for me. (Yup, I got teary eyed on at least two occasions.) In all, this is a good, thought provoking story.

The Kindle edition has a lot of typographical problems, most of which seem to be a result of an awful e-book conversion on the part of the "publisher" (iUniverse), but despite those issues is well worth reading. I'm hoping the author eventually produces a revised edition.

In the interest of full disclosure: I paid full retail price for the book. I don't know the author personally, but at this point we have corresponded briefly about editorial issues.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thirty Cats is about a girl called Gabrielle who tries to keep her hereditary disease a secret and what happens when she falls in love and has to confess her secret. Only it turns out that the boy she falls in love with has an even bigger secret. A great read - esp for self-concious young adults! The honesty of this book made me feel at times like I was reading someone's diary, but had been given permission to do so.

[Dina Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fantastic book, but it has some major formatting problems, along with some other technical issues.

I know, because I wrote it.

I hate to talk bad about my own work, but I wouldn't want you to spend your money on something that's of inferior quality.

I hope to do better with the next book, and if by chance I don't...well, I'm pricing it at 99 cents. So if you spend the money, and you think the book is crap, at least you won't be wasting a lot of money.

[Dina Roberts]

This is a revised version of a novel I wrote over ten years ago.

The story and the characters are the same.

I fixed some formatting errors (not my fault) and also fixed some other type of errors (my fault).

I like it. I think it's a pretty decent book.

Though it feels strange reading a book I've written so long ago. It's almost like traveling back in time and meeting someone who's a stranger...but also kind of familiar.

[Jamie Harman · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable read with interesting characters. And as a bonus I learned about a disease with which I was unfamiliar.

[Linda Schodowsky · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read those years ago. Probably over 20 years ago when the author contacted me and emailed me all the pages. This is before the book was published. I think I met her through LiveJournal, I don't quite remember. I happen to have this disorder that the character in the story has. It's not really about Neurofibromatosis more than it is about the person in the book. I might have to go back and read the book again to refresh my memory now.