Breakaway Books

Authored by Alex Howard; Published August 2024; Fantasy, Historical Fiction

⭐️⭐️⭐️ / 🏖️🏖️

I would not say that cat lovers are necessarily known for being sentimental, but The Ghost Cat definitely made me want to hug my cat and cherish the time I have with him.

The Ghost Cat follows Grimalkin, a cat who dies at the end of the nineteenth century in Scotland but is granted his additional eight lives as a phantasm to stay, stray, and play. As an observant ghost, Grimalkin watches Scotland go through myriad technological changes and witnesses luminaries in literature, medicine and philanthropy as they make decisions that change the world. But Grimalkin’s heart is with Eilidh, the human who saved his life as a kitten and who took care of him his whole life through. 

This novel isn’t terribly typical of the historical fiction genre, especially considering the supernaturally wide swath of history that it covers. To see the 1800s ease into the 1900s and then the 2000s from a cat’s perspective injects some humor into it, and the focus is distinct from a human’s. I particularly enjoyed Grimalkin’s comments on technology, as an observer who simply cannot see any utility in it (vacuum cleaners appear to be one of his great enemies). Grimalkin’s rooted position in one property in Edinburgh also gives an extremely particular view of history, more focused on individual luminaries than the events (wars) that we see as having a larger shaping effect on the world. Perhaps because of this perspective, the novel felt a little gentler than other historical fiction I’ve read, and I was glad to see history through a lens that wasn’t just about conflict.

It is clear to me that the author is a cat lover. While Grimalkin comes off as stuffy (he is from the Victorian era after all), he also comes off as loving and devoted to justice—not at all the uncaring or vicious image of cats that seems to be shared by the non-cat people among us. In a touching moment, Grimalkin even provides comfort to Eilidh as she has her last few moments on earth. I wish we had gotten to learn a little more about this cat afterlife though: Beyond a scene with some sort of cat god at the beginning of the book, the rules for how cats are to live and die through their nine lives remain tantalizingly vague. Why exactly Grimalkin gets special treatment as a ghost is a mystery, although it was impressed upon me several times that he is quite a unique cat.

The Ghost Cat is nice, quiet historical fiction, without the dramatic swings of a war time epic. If you’re feeling contemplative, try this one out!