damn. i really really REALLY REALLY liked the kaiju preservation society. but starter villain is just reheating that book’s nachos except….. not as good. (this review is gonna be fun to read in like 3 years when everyone is over the phrase “reheating nachos” but seriously i can’t think of a better way to word it because. that’s what happened).

so so so so much is similar between the two books fundamentally. and i mean it wouldn’t be that much of an issue i think if there was a bigger gap between me reading the two books but honestly i still think it would be an issue. maybe i just wouldn’t be so annoyed by it.

there’s so many similarities it’s exhausting. mc starts off destitute and in rock bottom, is then saved by acquaintance; mc is the funny guy whilst everyone else is the straight man; mc is audience surrogate because he is unaware of how this new world works whilst everyone around him clowns on him for being dumb. like i could go on. it really felt like deja vu reading this and made it so i only liked this book, not loved it.

my one other gripe is at times there’s just random info dumps that are almost entirely unnecessary. sorry the 4 pages about how the island came to be and the fucking boen war…. what are we doing here. it felt like i’d accidentally picked the wrong book because it went from funny haha book to a textbook for like 4 pages. very jarring. 

other than that i had fun! i mean i didn’t love this and i wouldn’t reread it but it’s defo a nice lighthearted read. how could i not love a book where there are talking cats. holy shit imagine if my cats could type. holly would be cursing daisy tf out for even breathing in the same room as holly. plus i love the dolphins as well, and i really enjoyed the mc’s conversations with them. sounds random but idk i liked how they were humanised. the plot was…. meh. it wasn’t really interesting or complex, and felt predictable at times. the ending felt like a deflated whoopee cushion, and tonally did not make sense with the themes presented in the rest of the story. but i mean it doesnt feel right to overly critique this book. it’s a silly little story about talking cats and bombs and money and dolphins and whales and convoluted triple quadruple spies. sometimes i like my books to have no deeper meaning other than “have fun”.