Cat's People - Tanya Guerrero - ★★★★

AUTHOR: Tanya Guerrero

GENRE: Contemporary Fiction.

PUBLICATION DATE: April 1, 2025.

RATING: 4 stars.

In a Nutshell: A heartwarming contemporary uplit novel about a group of strangers united by a black cat. Found-family trope used well. Touching without turning cheesy (for the most part.) Multiple characters with diverse backgrounds and layered arcs. Perfect for the times you want something relaxing. Read this with your heart and not your head to enjoy it better.

Plot Preview:

Cat lives an independent life on the streets of New York. As he strolls the streets, he crosses paths with five strangers: Omar, a happy-go-lucky mailman; Núria, a barista whose two passions are cats and coffee, in that order; Collin, an erstwhile bestselling novelist looking for inspiration for his next writing attempt; Bong, a bodega owner mourning the loss of his beloved wife; and Lily, a young Georgia native who has moved to New York directly after high school on a secret personal mission. As Cat purrs his way in and out of these characters' lives, their paths too intertwine.

The story comes to us in the third-person perspectives of all the above characters, including Cat.

PSA: The blurb contains a major spoiler.

This book entered my life when I wasn't able to concentrate on anything too literary or complicated. As such, it was perfect for my mood and held my attention without my needing to tax my brains too much, even though it had so many characters and character perspectives.

Bookish Yays:

😻 Cat’s perspective. I love black cats, and I love that this book chose to have a black cat as one of the narrators. I found it amusing that some of the human characters had different names for the same cat. (Equally funny that Cat had his own names for the humans.)

😻 The division of the story across the human characters. Núria’s role is slightly more important in the overall proceedings, but all characters get almost an equal share of the narrative. Quite fair!

😻 The character arcs. Every person (and Cat) has a personal struggle, an agenda, some grief or past hurt, and each is still determined to push through life. I liked the distinctness of their individual perspectives as well as their personalities. Cat is the common factor but there are also other connections across the humans.

😻 The diversity of the characters in terms of age, nationality, financial status, as well as sexual preference. The author is Filipino and Spanish by birth, so I appreciate how she created two characters (Bong and Núria respectively) honouring each of these nationalities. The varying ages of the characters creates a nice range of life experience.

😻 OwnVoices not just in terms of the author’s background but also because she's a cat lady in real life as well. No wonder all the cat content felt utterly real!

😻 The found family trope – used excellently without feeling too forced.

😻 The plot – easy on the mind without being too simplistic. It covers a variety of emotions even though the book is primarily uplit.

😻 The romance – present but never at the cost of the main plot. Clean and cute.

😻 The title. “Cat's People”, which I first misread as “Cat People” and thought that this was a book about cat lovers. Well, not everyone is a cat person at the start, but they soon come to their senses. 😉 The perfect title for this book! (Dog lovers: There's also an adorable chihuahua named Sinatra in a minor role.)

😻 The cover. Someone give that cover designer a raise! What a purrfect depiction of the plot, with Cat as well as his five humans (or rather, their hands) sketched so well! (To be honest, I didn’t even read the blurb in detail. The moment I saw the title and cover, I grabbed the book with much eagerness.)

Bookish Mixed Bags:

🐱 Cat's knowledge is a little beyond what we might expect of animals. The concept is imaginative anyway, so don't overthink if you want to enjoy his POV.

🐱 The characters are overly sweet, with not a single negative shade in the main characters. Perfect for the genre, but a bit unrealistic.

🐱 The writing is quite simple. This wasn’t a major problem for me as the characters kept me mostly happy. But I wish there had been some descriptive prose, especially connected to the city setting. Those looking for some lyrical turns of phrase might be disappointed.

🐱 Two of the characters are near forty, but their behaviour reads much younger. They are still likeable; just that they aren’t convincing representatives of their actual age. One guy blushes almost in every scene where human interaction is involved – it gets a bit repetitive after a while.

🐱 Too many coincidental bumps and connections. Okay for a small-town setting but tougher to believe for a story set in New York. Some of these interactions can be attributed to their staying or working near each other, but a few scenes are too serendipitous to be convincing.

Bookish Nays:

😿 The ending dragged a little. It was suitable to the feelgood genre, but felt too stretched. A little trimming would have helped.

Overall, despite some minor issues, I had a good time reading this novel. While I am more of a dog person, cats are a close second favourite, so such a book anyway had a good chance of clicking well with me. But it helped that this book came into my life at the right time. My mind needed a relaxing story with relatable emotions, and this book satisfied that need perfectly.

This is the author’s debut adult fiction work. She has written only middle-grade fiction so far, so perhaps this leap in target age, though commendable, kept the characters from sounding older (except for a couple of cuss words). Regardless, based on this reading experience, I would like to keep an eye on her future offerings, whether adult or MG.

Definitely recommended to those looking for a soul-soothing contemporary work with likeable characters, simple but effective storytelling, and an adorable black cat. This is a heart-read and not a head-read.

My thanks to Random House Publishing Group – Ballantine for providing the DRC of “Cat's People” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.