Cats! Purrfect Strangers

Chats! #1-3

by Frédéric Brrémaud, Paola Antista (Illustrator), Cecilia Giumento (Illustrator)

A collection of light-hearted short stories following the lives of three young women and their cats.

Best friends Manon, Erika, and Camille see adventure every day, but when all three become cat owners, everything changes--for better or for worse! One cat's mischief gets him into trouble when he decides to play chase with the wrong prey. Another surprises the girls with his new skill--mimicking scary movies! And just when the girls decide to wind down for a calm and relaxing night, the cats declare play time! Grow up with these quirky cats and share in all the excitement and fun that comes with raising a cat.

From author Frédéric Brrémaud (Love, Little Tails) and artist Paola Antista (Disney Frozen, Sorceline) comes an all-ages humorous collection of all the joys of being a cat owner. Published for the first time in English, this volume collects three of the original six French albums.

Collects volumes 1-3 of the original French albums.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Comics, Cats, Animals, Fiction, Young Adult, Middle Grade

152 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 23, 2021

About the author

Brrémaud, de son vrai nom Frédéric Brémaud, né le 11 mars 1973 à Séoul, est un scénariste de bande dessinée français. Il signe également sous les noms de Brr ou Frédéric Alléluïa Brémaud

Reviews

[Alexander Peterhans]

One of my recurring nightmares is that I'm in the middle of the city and I see my cat walking there, so I pick it up and I have to keep a hold of him and try to take him home (I blame watching Inside Llewyn Davis).



The three 17-year-old girls in this book, carry their respective cats in their arms everywhere, and it took me a little while to overcome my anxiety.



This a collection of mostly one-page comic strips, featuring said girls and their cats. There are a couple of longer strips - I'd hesitate to call them stories.



It's all very light, brightly coloured and drawn in a European clear line. I can't say I laughed much, but it's at least entertaining.

(Thanks to Dark Horse Books for providing me with an ARC through Edelweiss)

[Reading_ Tamishly]

The best parts?

This comic reads like an animation.
Second, cats as main characters. I mean it's awesome.

However, there's not much to the plot. It's really chaotic and not the best kind.

[Sarah]

I really like the art, and the stories are cute. However, each story is so disconnected from the others that it can be hard to understand at times (i.e. I had to keep going back and forth between the first few stories to figure out why the dog-loving girl who was allergic to cats suddenly had a cat, and then I realized that you were supposed to just infer that her friends convinced her that cats were fun to have... Made no sense, especially since her aunt had puppies she was trying to rehome...). I get the comic format they were going for, but I think that if you're launching a new series of comics, there needs to be more plot and character development than what we got here. I also couldn't get a grasp on exactly who the target audience is. I think that elementary-aged or middle school students would enjoy this more than older audiences, but there are a few details here and there that would be more appreciated by older teens.

[Robyn]

CATS! PURRFECT STRANGERS
Frederic Brremaud

This was a bit confusing to me, the "stories are only a page long" and it took me a couple of pages to understand this. What was great? I loved the color and motion of the graphics and that the star of the whole thing was CATS. But I didn't really understand why a girl who wanted a dog would get a cat instead of the whole while sneezing.

I ended up mostly looking at the last few pages and glancing at the text...

3 stars

Happy Reading!

[aforestofbooks]

Okay this was adorable and perfect for all the cat lovers out there

[Emma]

⌜Art⌟

This book has really beautiful art, it's very colorful and polished. This graphic novel is also very dynamic, the artist knew really well how to give the impression of action, and knew how to adapt the art for every story.





——————
⌜Plot⌟

This comic isn't a continuous story it's a compilation of short stories that aren't necessarily random they sometimes connect like when one of the main characters went on a vacation and all the short stories were about her and her cat on vacation. But there's not a sense of continuity, the stories could be read on their own.

The only thing I would say is that because it's not a single story it's a piece of small little stories it's not that engaging you take a while to go through it because there's not a hook something that makes you want to read everything to find out what's going to happen.

——————

⌜Recommend⌟

I would recommend this one for people who like cats and that want to read a very easy, fun comic with a very beautiful and colorful art style. That being said I would definitely continue with the series, this is a good graphic novel to read when u just want something light.

⌜Thank you Dark Horse books for the opportunity to read this book.⌟

[Dita]

This one has beautiful art, and those cats are super cute and funny.
This book is a collection of short stories, each story has 1 to 3 pages, some is cute, some is okay, some is confusing. Everything is so frenzied. I wish I could enjoy it more, but unfortunately I'm not.
But you should try it, especially if you love cats, maybe it's just me who didn't enjoy it.

[Elizabeth]

The art is absolutely adorable. The storyline is nonexistent.

[Katie (Kitkatscanread)]

This was a very fun read.
I was laughing out loud loads at this.
I love the colour animation.
I've added the next one to my wish list!

[Azbaqiyah]

Plot - 3.5 ⭐
Character - 3 ⭐
Writing Style -3 ⭐
World Building - 3 ⭐
Art - 3 ⭐
Cover - 3 ⭐

Overall - 3.08 ⭐ / 5 ⭐

[Kristin Katsuye]

I’m going to have to dnf this. I’d only be reading because it’s something easy, not because it’s entertaining. It seems like something that would be cute.

It starts off by having the main character adopt a cat instead of a dog. But then soon after her friend who loves dogs gets a cat even though she’s allergic to them. That would normally be somewhat fine as a story if it took any time to develop. Everything happen so quickly without any details. The allergic friend also stopped sneezing after a while.

It’s hard to gauge what are range this is for. This feels like something an elementary school to middle school kid would read. I’m still giving it one star because of all the absurdities I came across. I gave it one last chance, & then I read the main character trying to jokingly give her brother cat food for lunch. None of it seemed funny.

I’m also tired of having to force to pick a side between dogs & cats. Why does it have to be so black & white?

[Joana Almeida]

Calling all Cat Lovers, this is the Perfect graphic novel for you!!!!😻
Following the three best friends Manon, Erika and Camille on their journey as new cat moms, we laugh, we cringe, we melt and we TOTALLY relate to their stories!!!!😂
This book is written through short stories, some 1 page only, others a bit longer, like 2/3 pages, and each story is just so accurate and funny to read!!🤭
For those who have or had cats in their lives, you can see how well portrayed our feline friends are in this book!🐱
As I was reading this book and having a blast laughing at it, Lucy was beside me, and I kept looking at her sideways, like "You're definitely like this crazy cat's!!😂"
The illustrations are also so good at keeping up with the stories, so colourful, light and entertaining, that I will definitely be getting the second volume of this series pretty soon!!🥰

[Clare]

Illustrations are cute and colourful. The stories are very loosely connected and are just little glimpses into the character's life with cats and her friends' cats. Reads a bit like Archie comics in terms of pace with some one or half-page comics and then some more connected longer stories at the end. Can get a little ridiculous but pretty sure that's part of the point. I thought it was fine but would have liked better pacing even within the shorter comics and further character development. Definitely would be better for a younger audience.

[Padiecakes]

It was good! Really imaginative. I like how it inserts facts about cats and encourages kid readers to do their research prior to adopting a pet. Some scenes got me saying "huh" in my mind though. But the illustrations were so good and they went perfectly hand in hand with the story. I even caught myself cackling. The art kept me going quick at this one. I also really like how it's about adopting a cat for the first time and slowly learning what that's like and how cats have different personalities.

[Eule Luftschloss]

Short episodes of the life of a cat lover - with multiple cats and shenanigans involved.
The episodes tended to be longer than in the second installment, which I read first.

This one starts with Manon adopting a dog, as she had planned to do for years, but somehow winds up choosing a cat instead which infuriates her best friend. At first. See for yourself.

Short and sweet. I liked it.
The arc was provided by the publisher.

[Amanda Shepard (Between-the-Shelves)]

The format at first was a bit confusing, even though I knew it was a series of short stories, I didn't realize how short the stories were. Most of them are just a page long, which was a bit disorienting to me. But I got the feel for it a little into the book and the stories are such fun! Especially if you own a cat/kitten yourself. The girls get into fun adventures with their friends and I thoroughly enjoyed their adventures.

[Kristin DeGarmo]

I’m disappointed by this. I love cats and I love graphic novels but this one wasn’t as good as I hoped. I was hoping, looking for, a cohesive story but it’s not. It’s more shorter comics in one. Some of the stories were one page and kinda bland. I loved the artwork though.

[Kat]

The book was cute and fun, but it was chaotic at points to the detriment of the book. I wish it had been organized a but better or had better transitions. The artwork was cute, fun for cat lovers, and overall still am happy I read it

[Kat Ryan]

The worst book I’ve read all year. The art style was cute, but the stories were disjointed and I kept feeling like huge gaps happened between stories. Also, there’s what seems to be a transphobic “joke” on page 124. I was literally hate reading it by the time I got to the end.

[Denise]

All around cute story and artwork - is actually a collection of short stories feat a group of friends and their individual & herd of cats' shenanigans. If you love cats and all their overlord glory, then definitely give this a read.

[Andréa]

Note: I accessed a digital review copy of this book through Edelweiss.

[Emma]

1.5 stars. This started off really cute but lost interest a third of the way through.

[D.T. Henderson]

Loved the artwork but couldn’t keep my interest.

[Christina]

So chaotic. I’m still not really sure what I just read.

[Lisa Boyd]

Well, with a name like "cats!" I expected nothing less. It was a fun one.

[Ria]

3.5★

[Kai]

It was a fun book! And the illustrations so pretty. 💖

[Aurora]

Got through 52 pages before calling it quits. The comics ranged from “meh” to “ugh.”

[Saturday's Child]

This would be a great read for any cat loving folk. I enjoyed the artwork but found the plot a bit hectic.

[Kirsty]

I enjoyed it to start with, however it became a bit of a chore to finish it. There wasn't anything that particularly stood out as good or bad. I'd say it's just okay.