dnf at 40%. i just couldn’t get through the slice of life going nowhere exposition, which makes up an alleged 90% of the book. san’s loneliness and isolation are of her own making as she is constantly surrounded by people, but chooses to not connect with them. the LGBTQIA tag really goes nowhere because it’s a fleeting childhood moment of tenderness and is never brought up within a reasonable context again. based on descriptions of how this book ends—including what’s described as poorly handled, left turn, shock value sexual violence—i just don’t see the point in finishing it.

dnf'd at 30%. i just kept trying to push through it, but the reviews for the book and the final book in the trilogy prove that its not worth it. these characters i fell in love with in ACSDAL have died a moral death. rhen is a cruel villain, grey is a broken man with an unexplainable motive, harper has been reduced to fodder to build development for other characters. what happened to disabled strong FMC harper? to loyal to a fault grey? to tormented and full of love rhen? why are noah and jake nothing more than an excuse to tag the book as inclusive/lgbt+? they're not here. harper, jake, and noah are just a noise in the background as rhen becomes his father and grey becomes a warmonger?

dnf at 30%. at around 20% i noticed i was skim reading. the book's premise is supposed to be about some super scifi fungus, but the infected brother takes a backseat to the NSA agent brother. and i mean BACKSEAT; like paul is in the trunk of a pacifica mini-van while neil goes 20mph in a 70. neil is a shallow, self-entitled dumbass who spends all of his time either complimenting his ingenuity, comparing himself to paul who is now smarter than him due to fungus, or doubting the intelligence of female NSA collaborators more than 10 years his senior. i wanted to care, i wanted to hear about the fungus. but this is just about neil getting to play centerfold in everyone else's lives.

dnf at 37% for now. i’m just not feeling this book… at least right now. it’s not at all what i thought it would be. i expected more of a feel good but sad slice of life book with way more focus on the cat that dominates the title and cover. but it’s not that at all. i may come back to this another time when i’m prepared for it. **reread update. dnf at 74% this book fucking sucks. i hate it so bad. its not enjoyable, its not kind, its not sad in a tasteful or meaningful way. its violent for no reason and depressing and NOT ABOUT A CAT.

dnf at 20%. i snagged a copy of this for free last night after the author reached out on booktok to promote their novel in pursuit of reviews and traction. i was super excited for the plot and concept, but was disappointed with the hurdles between me and getting to the plot.

the book is in pretty big need of an editor. there's sections where words are misused; homophones like reeked (stank) and wreaked (wrought). there's also a reoccurring issue where lines are redundant or repetitive—ie: "Fresh air like I had never experienced before flew through the strands of my tangled hair. The hair became knotted and I tied it up into a bun with a piece of rope." with a little fine tuning, much of this could be fixed for a more seamless reading experience.

the first 5 chapters, introduction, and prologue are balanced between a sluggish pace and the quick introduction of a wide cast of characters. while some characters were unique and intriguing, they reasonably lacked depth this early on. but less acceptable was that other main characters fell particularly flat. by chapter 6, we pick up pace with the plot and the story hit some notes that really sold me on what i was reading. but that too was stunted by the recurring editing issues i had with the previous section.

i'd happily give this a 2nd try after some editing or a revised edition comes out.

dnf at 9%. it took me 6 days to read 29 pages. this just wasn't working for me from the first line and nothing following it gave me any hope of me locking in with this book. no rating cause i bailed way too early to judge it.

dnf at 38%. i just don’t wanna read. i haven’t touched this in days and i cannot make myself pick it back up. it’s not what i wanted based off how it was described and it’s not enticing me into finishing it.

dnf at 34%. i just can’t do it. i’m sorry elliot but i can’t fathom how i’m supposed to finish this book. between the drawn out memories of childhood bullying and whiplash, blunt, matter of fact mentions of sexual abuse, it’s hard to really feel what elliot is trying to convey beyond a nonlinear timeline of bullet point events. the vignettes are jumbled in such incomprehensible order that it’s not always clear what age elliot is or where in his coming out story we are. nor do any of these scenes flow together in a stream of consciousness fashion, instead reading like post it notes lacking connective tissue or introspection on how they relate to each other or how they have affected elliot. the book continues to tell me what happened but never how it made him feel, how it has changed him as a person, or what he’s done to move on or recover from any of it. beyond that are randomly dropped in, seemingly pointless chunks of canadian history that do not tie into the memory we are being told about in the first place. the history notes, while interesting, serve no purpose other than to allow elliot to be emotionally detached from the writing process for a few paragraphs and subsequently hinder the reader’s ability to follow elliot’s journey in any purposeful way.

dnf at 14%. this is supposed to be about a deaf dolphin and her journey through the ocean as she comes to terms with family, fitting in, danger, and acceptance. there’s other pov’s that aren’t the dolphin, aren’t remotely nearby the dolphin, and there’s a literal oceanic rape scene. i just don’t think this book is what it claimed it was gonna be bro.

dnf at 25%. it’s a slow burn to the point that there isn’t even an ember in the fire pit. the dark academia vibes are really just an english boarding school. biggest issue i had was the characterization of the teens. i can understand the plot choice of the unholy girls, rich boys, and cops not caring. but for baz to be happy making jokes about being sherlock, asking to get dinner in town when he’s meant to be looking for elizabeth? if elizabeth is really baz’s pseudo-twin, why doesn’t his sickened agony during class hours carry over to the town visit??? just not worth my time going further with it.