Please help us find a book. Or maybe don't.
August 5, 2011 11:16 PM Subscribe
Please help us find a book my friend saw mention of somewhere. Or recommend other books.
So a friend and I are talking about fantasy books, and discussion turns to the fantasy romance genre. Twilight is mentioned, tongue-in-cheek, but the two of us start trying to think up other books of that ilk (i.e. books featuring a normal person falling in love with some supernatural being). We're both very tired, so neither of us are having very much success, and that's when my friend says this: "You know, there's even a book where some guy falls in love with a cat."
...Of course, that just begs for an explanation.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), my friend never actually read this book; he only saw it mentioned somewhere, and thus he doesn't know the author or the title. All he knows from the description he read is:
-There's a guy (possibly a writer).
-Some woman shows up at his door (possibly with amnesia).
-The woman turns out to be a cat in human form (possibly the guy's cat).
We laughed it off then, but now the two of us are honestly curious. Who wrote this? Is it bad? Was the author a man or a woman? Maybe the book never existed and my friend's mind just grabbed a bunch of odd elements and put them together. We don't know. But we'd like to know.
...If you have no idea what this book was, though, feel free to recommend other books in the "normal Joe ends up romantically involved with a fantastic or magical being" genre. We never did think of any more.
So a friend and I are talking about fantasy books, and discussion turns to the fantasy romance genre. Twilight is mentioned, tongue-in-cheek, but the two of us start trying to think up other books of that ilk (i.e. books featuring a normal person falling in love with some supernatural being). We're both very tired, so neither of us are having very much success, and that's when my friend says this: "You know, there's even a book where some guy falls in love with a cat."
...Of course, that just begs for an explanation.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), my friend never actually read this book; he only saw it mentioned somewhere, and thus he doesn't know the author or the title. All he knows from the description he read is:
-There's a guy (possibly a writer).
-Some woman shows up at his door (possibly with amnesia).
-The woman turns out to be a cat in human form (possibly the guy's cat).
We laughed it off then, but now the two of us are honestly curious. Who wrote this? Is it bad? Was the author a man or a woman? Maybe the book never existed and my friend's mind just grabbed a bunch of odd elements and put them together. We don't know. But we'd like to know.
...If you have no idea what this book was, though, feel free to recommend other books in the "normal Joe ends up romantically involved with a fantastic or magical being" genre. We never did think of any more.
I seriously doubt it's what you're looking for, but a search of Goodreads turned up Cattitude, a Kindle-only novel about a cat swapping bodies with a woman and falling for her owner.
For "normal Joe ends up romantically involved with a fantastic or magical being," I guess most examples of the Magical Girlfriend trope qualify.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 12:12 AM on August 6, 2011
For "normal Joe ends up romantically involved with a fantastic or magical being," I guess most examples of the Magical Girlfriend trope qualify.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 12:12 AM on August 6, 2011
Rejar by Dara Joy is a romance about a woman in Regency England who falls in love with a Familiar -- a man who is able to change between man and cat.
As for the more general "normal Joe ends up romantically involved with a fantastic or magical being", that's what paranormal romance, and its relation, YA paranormal romance, are all about. Vampires are the big sellers, but there's also werewolves (and were-other things), fallen angels, demons, mermaids/mermen, fairies, ghosts, etc.
Most typically, the woman will be human and the man will be Other, but there's also novels with the reverse, or with both parties the same gender, or with both of them different fantastical creatures. It's a huge genre at the moment, especially in YA.
posted by Georgina at 12:18 AM on August 6, 2011
As for the more general "normal Joe ends up romantically involved with a fantastic or magical being", that's what paranormal romance, and its relation, YA paranormal romance, are all about. Vampires are the big sellers, but there's also werewolves (and were-other things), fallen angels, demons, mermaids/mermen, fairies, ghosts, etc.
Most typically, the woman will be human and the man will be Other, but there's also novels with the reverse, or with both parties the same gender, or with both of them different fantastical creatures. It's a huge genre at the moment, especially in YA.
posted by Georgina at 12:18 AM on August 6, 2011
Best answer: Hah-- I bet your friend read about this the same place I did: io9: 10 Fantasy Sagas That Are Wronger Than Twilight.. The Cat's Fancy it's called.. That list has a bunch that fall into your category.
posted by Erasmouse at 2:31 AM on August 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Erasmouse at 2:31 AM on August 6, 2011 [1 favorite]
Ah! The Game of Rat and Dragon! That was my first thought, too. Found it as a child and loved it - reread it recently and it holds up fairly well. Not a human/supernatural being coupling but inter-species - it's science fiction, not fantasy.
I remember that Andre Norton had a few human/supernatural being as well as inter-species love stories as she wrote in both genres... they usually didn't end well. I'll mull it over for titles.
Charles de Lint's urban fantasy works often have human/supernatural being love stories.
posted by likeso at 3:36 AM on August 6, 2011
I remember that Andre Norton had a few human/supernatural being as well as inter-species love stories as she wrote in both genres... they usually didn't end well. I'll mull it over for titles.
Charles de Lint's urban fantasy works often have human/supernatural being love stories.
posted by likeso at 3:36 AM on August 6, 2011
Are you thinking of Fudoki by Kij Johnson? A little cat is so terrified by a terrible fire (hiroshima?) that she turns into a woman, journeys across japan, reveals herself as a warrior and (I think) eventually turns back into a cat.
posted by zia at 3:55 AM on August 6, 2011
posted by zia at 3:55 AM on August 6, 2011
Seems likely that Erasmouse has the correct reference, but here's another, much less trashy version of more or less the same thing.
The Catswold Portal. Not bad as these things go, pretty standard door-into-fantasy-world novel. The cat is actually also a human woman with awesome hair so it's not that kinky.
posted by restless_nomad at 8:12 AM on August 6, 2011
The Catswold Portal. Not bad as these things go, pretty standard door-into-fantasy-world novel. The cat is actually also a human woman with awesome hair so it's not that kinky.
posted by restless_nomad at 8:12 AM on August 6, 2011
One of the Sookie Stackhouse (ie True Blood) novels involves a long sub-plot where a human witch accidentally turns her boyfriend into a cat.
posted by bluedaisy at 9:15 AM on August 6, 2011
posted by bluedaisy at 9:15 AM on August 6, 2011
Jennie, aka The Abandoned is a book by Paul Gallico in which a boy turns into a cat and befriends a girl cat.
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:57 PM on August 6, 2011
posted by LobsterMitten at 12:57 PM on August 6, 2011
Response by poster: Ha ha, Erasmouse, apparently that's it. Thanks.
posted by KChasm at 2:56 AM on August 7, 2011
posted by KChasm at 2:56 AM on August 7, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
'She is a cat," he thought. "That's all she is—a cat!"
But that was not how his mind saw her—quick beyond all dreams of speed, sharp, clever, unbelievably graceful, beautiful, wordless and undemanding.
Where would he ever find a woman who could compare with her?'
posted by Logophiliac at 11:35 PM on August 5, 2011 [2 favorites]