The Meowmorphosis

Jan 20, 2012 Ceridwen marked it as probably-not Recommends it for: Punching Tour

Fuck you, Quirk Books.

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Jun 05, 2011 Owen Adams rated it 1 of 5 stars

In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose thatI received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

I have never thrown a book away after reading it before in my life until I read The Meowmorphosis. I will admit that I am not particularly good at reading works of literature and divining the meanings, allusions, and symbolism, but this book has no value at all.

In order to get a good basis off which to judge this book, I read Kafka's The Metamorphosis. It was a very strange tale; weird,...more In compliance with FTC guidelines, I disclose thatI received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

I have never thrown a book away after reading it before in my life until I read The Meowmorphosis. I will admit that I am not particularly good at reading works of literature and divining the meanings, allusions, and symbolism, but this book has no value at all.

In order to get a good basis off which to judge this book, I read Kafka's The Metamorphosis. It was a very strange tale; weird, bleak, and depressing until the very end. It is spoken of as an extensively taught short story and a cornerstone of the academic literary world. It is because I read Kafka the same day that when reading The Meowmorphosis I realized it was almost a word for word copy with "cat" in the place of "bug", even when the change made little sense. The quality of the writing plummets in the middle, the section of 'original' writing, and reads like a high school student trying to mimic Kafka. Then Gregor the Cat returns and the book ends with Kafka's lines with the respective changes made to denote the cat transformation; again, even when it makes little sense in relation to the other lines.

Kafka's The Metamorphosis is in the public domain and easily available for free online from a number of sources, or as part of a print collection. What the people/business geniuses/plagiarizers at Quirk Classics are doing is taking a free book, making a few cosmetic changes, adding a rather poorly written middle, and charging $10-15 for it. Its a great strategy, but in terms of quality it is reprehensible. This book is the equivalent of staging a serious play, say 'Hamlet', and having the actors randomly throw pies and run around like loons while the audience stuffs their face with fast food and guffaws and the silly people on stage.

I will freely admit that there is a perfectly valid use of mocking serious works, but this book takes the tone of "Oh, funny 'literature', lets be goofy, mock it for being serious, and reduce it to a simpleton level" without the skill it requires to be genuinely entertaining.

I had always thought these books started off the same as the classic they mimicked, then went off the rails with crazy ideas and plots. This was a huge disappointment. Advertising this book as an original work is borderline criminal.(less)

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Apr 17, 2011 Lolly's rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: amazon-vine, literary-mash-up

Sorry Quirk Books, but you really quirked up this time.

Kafka is not an author I'd immediately associate with literary mash-ups, seeing as he's neither a fun nor, quite honestly, entertaining read. In fact, he's quite depressing and it's hard to imagine how his works could be spiced up enough to be made palatable to a more general audience. Enter Quirk Books with The Meowmorphosis. Okay, I thought, if anyone could make Kafka likeable, it's Quirk; add a cute, fluffy kitty into the mix and you've p...more Sorry Quirk Books, but you really quirked up this time.

Kafka is not an author I'd immediately associate with literary mash-ups, seeing as he's neither a fun nor, quite honestly, entertaining read. In fact, he's quite depressing and it's hard to imagine how his works could be spiced up enough to be made palatable to a more general audience. Enter Quirk Books with The Meowmorphosis. Okay, I thought, if anyone could make Kafka likeable, it's Quirk; add a cute, fluffy kitty into the mix and you've probably got a hit on your hands. Um, no.

Basically substituting the word "kitten" for "cockroach", Coleridge's writing still leaves us with the body of Kafka's story, which, despite the kitten influence, remains depressing and obfuscating. I'll be quite honest: I haven't the foggiest idea what the moral behind the tale (tail? Ha ha) is. Something to do with Socialism vs. Capitalism I'm guessing? Plus, by using the kitten/cockroach substitution, it actually made the story even more bewildering. We're talking about a cute, fuzzy kitty, right? So why are people running away in disgust? Why are they trying to step on it and kill it just like a cockroach? Then again, it's supposedly a man-sized kitty, but, if it is, when he wanders the streets, why does no one respond to his size? If there's a tiger-sized tabby cat wandering around my neighborhood, I'm certainly going to sit up and take notice. Yet no one does. And while I agree a tight collar on a cat is devastating, an affliction borne by Gregor thanks to his schizophrenic sister (read the book, if you dare, you'll see what I mean), why does it weaken his back legs? Did the collar cause a stroke? And why is Gregor occasionally weak, so weak he has to drag himself around, and then healthy enough to spring up onto the furniture? Quite frankly, by the time I finished this book, I was shaking my head in despair and mind-numbing confusion.

Maybe I'm just not smart enough to appreciate this story. If that's the case, fine. I'll stick with my Terry Pratchett and Ann Aguirre, and leave this to the intelligentsia. So why two stars and not one? Because at the end of the book, Coleridge has provided us with a short, humorous "biography" of Kafka. Let's just say it features more kitties. It's not laugh-out-loud funny, but it's enough to provide a chuckle or two, which I felt deserved a star.(less)

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Apr 06, 2011 Mark Flowers rated it 2 of 5 stars

I can't figure out what the purpose of this book is. Well over half of it is simply the text of Kafka's story with the word "bug" replaced by the word "kitten." Not sure if Coleridge thinks this is supposed to be funny (Kafka's story is already pretty funny) or insightful, or what (after all, there's a pretty huge difference between being a bug and a kitten, we would expect the responses of others and the consequences for Gregor to be quite different - not exactly the same). The middle section i...more

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Sep 13, 2012 Asma rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Asma by: Sue

Shelves: czecloslovakia, 52-2012

According to the imaginative biography of Kafka at the very end of the novel, the main character Gregor Samsa is a traveling salesman like Kafka's real-life father with whom it's said that he had a troubled relationship. In Meowmorphosis, Gregor's job initially supports the three members of his unemployed family in a high lifestyle with a big apartment in Prague when one night he is transformed after a dream into a kitten. His father, mother, and sister know that the kitten is actually the trans...more

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Oct 05, 2011 Rachel rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

I received this book through first-reads. I had tried to read the original a while ago but couldn't quite make it through. When I saw the idea behind this spoof I had thought "kittens! That'll be hilarious". When I read it, I found it wasn't quite what I thought it would be.

As a few others have already pointed out, it doesn't seem like much spoof was added to this aside from the main character, Gregor, turning into a kitten instead of a cockroach. I was also baffled by the issue of size. In the...more

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Mar 27, 2011 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

When Quirk Classics revealed that their latest mash-up was going to be based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, I wasn't really sure what to think. After tackling Jane Austen's popular classics and the fairly well-known Anna Karenina, I thought this was a very strange choice for a mash-up. Kafka and The Metamorphosis don't seem to be as well known, so it makes me wonder why Quirk chose this novel as the next in their classics series -not only that, but cats? Either it was a gutsy decision or a...more

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Mar 23, 2011 Andrew Shaffer rated it 5 of 5 stars

"One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten."

In less capable hands, such a prompt would have resulted in a book that simply replaced the word "insect" with "kitten." But Quirk Books wisely commissioned an extremely capable fantasy writer to re-imagine Franz Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" as a work of gonzo literature. I'm happy to report that "The Meowmorphosis" (out this May from "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" p...more

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Apr 07, 2011 Rich Stoehr rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: amazon-vine

The Meowmorphosis is certainly an oddity. And in the mashup genre - home to books like Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Android Karenina - that's saying something.

I have to admit that I've never read Kafka's original Metamorphosis, so I can't compare the merits of the Quirk Classics version against the original. What I can say is that if The Meowmorphosis is any indication of the tenor of the original work, reading it gave me no desire to read the source material.

It took some effort to make i...more

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May 08, 2011 Kelly rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

3.5.

Love how it followed the Metamorphosis to a point, but then it also deviated and dove into Kafka's life and OTHER words, especially the Josef K thread. I'm not a mash up fan, and this isn't really a mash up. It's actually a revisioning of the original story, and those who are familiar with Kafka's work to a sickening point (like me) will appreciate this one.

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Dec 10, 2012 Caroline Alicia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindle, dec2012, animal-pet, abuse, existential, horror-gruesome, human-rights

this was not a bad book.
I gave it three stars because I cried when kitten Gregor died....
I mean of course I knew that was going to happen (I've read the Metamorphosis how many times)
but the thing is, I'm not partial to bugs at all.
But in this instance, I am labeled a cat lady (with and without the adjective of crazy tacked on to the front). I really wanted kitten Gregor to stay with the rest of the people-kitties.

"the, without willing it, his head sank all the way down, and from his moist pi...more

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Dec 11, 2011 Ruby Tombstone marked it as unread-but-acquired

Shelves: unread-on-my-shelf

They say to never judge a book by its cover.... Fuck it. Have you SEEN the cover? Freakin' adorable.

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Jan 26, 2013 Erika rated it 1 of 5 stars Recommends it for: really bored literary students

Shelves: 1st-read-jan-2013, computer-ebook, horror, library, wtf-did-i-just-read

The Metamorphosis was weird enough. Quirk books shouldn't have tried to change it. It failed make the kitten angle work, since it stayed really strictly to the original. At least Pride and Prejudice and Zombies had some wiggle room for the zombies.

I also found it weird that parts of The Trial and comments on Kafka himself from cat Franz's dream sequence were included. They didn't add to the story, or make the kitten aspect more palatable, just way more sadly depressing and awkward.

Just a total W...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Jessica rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: fans of satire and parody, kafka freaks,

Shelves: fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Other reviewers are correct that the beginning of the book is a near verbatim re-write of Kafka's Metamorphosis with a cat instead of a cockroach, but the whole center section many claim is "useless" or doesn't make sense is actually a parody of Kafka's The Trial.

I have read Kafka but wouldn't say I'm that knowledgeable however I enjoyed the combining of these two stories very much and think it is quite well done. Little inserts like p. 121: "Symbolism is depressing; its meaning is always defer...more Other reviewers are correct that the beginning of the book is a near verbatim re-write of Kafka's Metamorphosis with a cat instead of a cockroach, but the whole center section many claim is "useless" or doesn't make sense is actually a parody of Kafka's The Trial.

I have read Kafka but wouldn't say I'm that knowledgeable however I enjoyed the combining of these two stories very much and think it is quite well done. Little inserts like p. 121: "Symbolism is depressing; its meaning is always deferred. Nothing is what it is, only what it means, and I mean nothing but that the world is ugly and men are uglier still." and p. 126: "This is the essence of a cat's psychology: we can only endure humans for so long before, well, there is a sunbeam or a bit of fish in the larder and who can really be asked to listen to modernist symbolism when such things are at hand?" Indeed.

It's fascinating to see how different the story can be read when there is an acceptable, furry, adorable animal involved instead of a commonly disliked insect. Even more so considering the last paragraph of the book: p. 200 "Once such instance [of ambiguous terms in translation] is found in the first sentence of this very work, The Meowmorphosis. English translators have often rendered the word Ungeziefer as "insect" or "cockroach"; in Middle German, however, Ungeziefer literally means "unclean animal not suitable for sacrifice" or, as the clever and true thinker will recognize: cat."

The tongue-in-cheek, semi-accurate Kafka bio at the back of the book should probably be a foreward to set the tone. p. 197: "Kafka's work began to drift more and more toward the dark and paranoid instead of the light comedy sketches that had so delighted his university friends. Perhaps we lost a great comedian in that lost Kafka - a Bohemian Belushi, a Czech Carlin. Alas! but we must press on." p. 199: "Truly, Franz Kafka was a model for the modern office worker: deeply unhappy, but spending his weekends working on his "novel" and messing around with asbestos." (the rest of the paragraph is gold, too - but then I'm just typing the book over...) It's clever and I'm interested to see some purely original work by Cook.

The book is topped off with Discussion Questions - my favorite being: p. 206 "9. Franz Kafka had some issues, didn't he?"

I like this series of books by Quirk, particularly for folks who don't have the patience for the originals. There's just enough silliness to get you through but still learn the important aspects of the literature itself. (less)

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Aug 11, 2012 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

This isn't so much a mash-up in the way the P&P and Zombies is as it is a literary parody, so it's almost certain that fans of Abe Lincoln Vampire Hunter and that ilk will find it disappointing. I enjoyed the German literary geekfest--the author's profile of Kafka at the end is properly irreverent, and if you can appreciate the translation note reminding the reader that, after all, a cat is an Ungeziefer, then you will get most of the humor in the feline Umwandlung. This era of 20th century...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Cassie-la rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-reads

REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2011/05/20/a......

This is the third advanced copy of a novel that I have won/been gifted by Quirk Books. They are an amazing publishing company who truly cares about their customers and I love most everything they put out, but it would be wrong of me to say I enjoyed the newest offering from their Quirk Classic series.

The Meowmorphosis follows the same basic format of the other literary mash-ups, classic text plus a fun extra to enhance or alter our perce...more REVIEW ALSO ON: http://bibliomantics.com/2011/05/20/a......

This is the third advanced copy of a novel that I have won/been gifted by Quirk Books. They are an amazing publishing company who truly cares about their customers and I love most everything they put out, but it would be wrong of me to say I enjoyed the newest offering from their Quirk Classic series.

The Meowmorphosis follows the same basic format of the other literary mash-ups, classic text plus a fun extra to enhance or alter our perception of the original. So when I heard about a re-imagining of Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis but with Gregor Samsa being transformed into a kitten, I was intrigued. Sadly, the novel itself does not deliver. Well, it delivers, it just doesn’t deliver anything good. Or anything very kitten-y.

In the original, Gregor awakes as a giant cockroach, paralleling the alienation and isolation from his family brought on by his rigorous work schedule. This same premise does not work when the character is transformed into a kitten. He is not hideous and painful to look at further alienating him, but rather oh so fluffy and adorable that his mother and sister cannot help but cuddle him. I feel sympathetic toward him as a character, but this is due to his overall cuteness and my womanly desire to snorgle all cute and cuddly animals rather than because of Gregor’s inner turmoil or his abandonment issues. And trust me, Freud would have had a field day with all of those.

One thing which this mash-up does differently is the intertwining of two different texts. In order to make the novel longer, or so I read in an interview, Cook added a middle part to the narrative in which Gregor escapes. I had assumed this was original material since the interview also stated that this novel was the first “true mash-up” (a statement which I found to be a little haughty considering how painful the novel was) but it turned out to be bits and pieces from Kafka’s novel The Trial.

This is the only bright spot in the novel, and it isn’t much of a bright spot at that. At this point in the narrative, Gregor escapes the apartment and heads out to explore the world at large. On this adventure he meets the tabby Josef K. who was once a bank clerk but is now a cat. He also meets Franz and Willem, who were once a psychiatrist and an insurance man respectively. All three of these characters and the text that surrounds them are from this other Kafka story, Josef being the main character in the aforementioned novel. As in the source material, the main character (originally Josef but now Gregor) is found guilty of an unknown crime (although not gnostical turpitude) and is put through a nonsensical trial.

It was in this section that I snickered my only snicker (insert vorpal blade reference here). This occurred when it is mentioned to Gregor that he should not be upset that he awoke a giant kitten. “Be grateful, I say” one of his prison guards tells him, “I once knew a man who woke up a cockroach”. Three Stooges style sound effects.

Although saying that I didn’t smile when I read the discussion questions would be a disservice to the author (who is using a pen name, probably out of sheer embarrassment). In the very back of the book, as can be found in a lot of classical novels, are a series of pretend questions meant to be used to get the reader thinking about the text. The funniest question reads, “Dreams play a major role in this story from the very first line. Do you think Kafka intended us to read the entire story as a dream from which Gregor has not woken up? If so, do you think Christopher Nolan might be able to direct the movie?” Yup, the novel was so bad that the only time I laughed out loud was in the discussion section. At an Inception joke.

I found the most disappointing alteration (giant kitten notwithstanding) to be the ending. Rather than dying over an apple stuck in his carapace (which would be impossible because to the best of my knowledge kittens don’t have carapaces- except maybe robotic kittens) Gregor suffocates to death. After his father throws apples at him and misses, he tosses a ball of yarn, which somehow gets entwined in Gregor’s collar. This collar is already tight because for some reason he is enormously fat despite the fact that he is barely fed. This string combined with his tight pink collar emasculates him to the point of death. I’m kidding, that would have been a way better ending.

As a whole, The Meowmorphosis was a dry version of Kafka’s short story with an okay middle and a very poor beginning and an even poorer end. Whereas most of the other novels rely on humour and parody to drive the text (while still staying true to the original), this book is merely a pastiche of jokes about kittens, none of which involved speaking lolcat. I can haz better metaphors?

If only the novel had been half as amusing or entertaining as the trailer. And if only curiosity had killed the cat quicker.(less)

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May 31, 2012 Jmichaud rated it 3 of 5 stars

Thank you to Quirk Books for providing me with a copy of this book. I was dismayed, at first, to find it such a thin book...and then I started to read. The main character, Gregor Samsa, wakes up to find he's been transformed into a kitten. He's confused and honestly so was I pretty much the entire way through the story. From what I could gather, Gregor finds his life so frustratingly confining he transforms into a cat which to him embodies freedom. I felt conflicted by all the characters. Half t...more

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May 25, 2012 Shauna rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-for-blog-review

First of all, I got this book free from Quirk Classics to review on my blog.

Mr.Coleridge Cook has teamed up with old Franz (and my buddies at Quirk Classics) to bring us a new, fuzzier version of the creepy giant bug man story: The Meowmorphosis. Instead of a giant bug, Gregor Samsa wakes up as a man sized kitten!

"His family freaks out: Yes, their son is OMG so cute, but what good is cute when there are bills piling up?"

In the original, Gregor remains trapped in his family's apartment as their...more

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Feb 29, 2012 Amy rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: arcs-or-review-copy

This is the first literary “mash-up” I’ve ever read…a new format that combines classic texts with a modern twist. Quirk Classics have produced these, and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies and Android Karenina were early successes. I was a little hesitant at first, having found Kafka’s The Metamorphosis so intriguing.

In this mash-up, the anonymous writer “Coleridge Cook” twists Kafka’s tale of a man waking up to find himself as a bug into a tamer form: he wakes as an adorable kitten instead. Grego...more

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Nov 10, 2011 Linda Branham Greenwell rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy

This book is a "take" on Franz Kafka's, The Metamorphosis (where Gregor Samsa wakes up and is a roach )
In this story Gregor Samsa wakes up and is a kitten/cat. His family - seem to dislike him as much as if her WERE Kafka's roach. He is locked in his room - his mother faints when she sees him - his dad ignores him, etc. But his sister does seem to like him as if her were a REAL cat.
Samsa seemingly escapes this living death by entering into the world of cats. But he meets a group of also changed...more

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Oct 17, 2011 Angie Holtz rated it 2 of 5 stars

From Lilac Wolf and Stuff

This review is very hard for me to write. The cover is cute, and this is another of the Quirk Classic mash-up, and Kafka is a big name. Hey, I like cats, I was looking forward to this one. A way to get my classic lit into my reading diet.

I like the cat change...in the original the guy turned into a big cockroach. So what Cook Coleridge did, worked.

However, Kafka...what were you writing? I think he is a writer that intellectuals say they love so they don't look stupid. Th...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: animal-as-mc, european-classics, humorous, standalone, arc

This is a Quirk Classic reworking of "The Metamorphosis" (with "The Trial" added in to, presumably, make it longer) wherein Gregor Samsa wakes up as an adorable kitten instead of an insect.

The concept is a fun one, but difficult to pull off. The essence of Kafka's work is oozing depression and ennui, whereas who the hell can be unhappy around an adorable kitten? It makes for an odd reading experience that is neither "aww kitty" nor "oh how I love to loll around in depressed author land." It's a...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Kitty rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, square-pegs

I was intrigued by the idea of this book because, as a kid in school, I'd been forced to read the original story by Franz Kafka, and (not surprisingly) had found it rather disturbing. I'm a bit on the "bug-phobic" side, which took away any chance of me actually getting anything positive out of the experience. So, as I am very fond of kittens, it seemed like a way to sort of make up for the unpleasantness of the original novel.

There were two problems with that logic. First, although I certainly...more

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Sep 26, 2011 Ana Mardoll rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The Meowmorphosis / 978-1594745034

I *like* the Quirk classics; I liked "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and I liked "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters". Having a soft spot for The Metamorphosis, I fully expected to like The Meowmorphosis... and I did! Until the halfway point when suddenly everything went horribly wrong.

The Metamorphosis is a classic tale of a young man who wakes one morning to find that he has changed into a gruesome insect creature. His family, who previously depended on...more The Meowmorphosis / 978-1594745034

I *like* the Quirk classics; I liked "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" and I liked "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters". Having a soft spot for The Metamorphosis, I fully expected to like The Meowmorphosis... and I did! Until the halfway point when suddenly everything went horribly wrong.

The Metamorphosis is a classic tale of a young man who wakes one morning to find that he has changed into a gruesome insect creature. His family, who previously depended on him entirely for their livelihood, react with varying degrees of kindness, revulsion, and hostility to Gregor in his new form. As Gregor spirals into madness and depression, and as his family become more cruel to him, he finally dies to serve them. The novel is incredibly depressing, but a powerful look at family dynamics and how they can change depending on who is the provider and who is the dependent.

The Meowmorphosis starts out great by staying true to the Quirk format: the story is the same, but with a few key differences; namely Gregor is now a kitten instead of a disgusting insect. Cute! And this set-up works incredibly well; I was fully prepared to give the book 5 stars while reading this part. The sadness and depression that Gregor suffers through his transformation juxtaposes nicely with the fluffy kitten material and it's all very delightful.

About halfway through the novel, however, the author completely abandons Kafka's premise and sets off on his own. Gregor escapes the house and joins a cadre of cats on the street, and these cats are impossibly long-winded and pompous. There are pages and pages of text that feel more like filler than anything else, and all I can say when the author criticizes German writing for being ponderous, that people who live in glass houses shouldn't write dull, monotonous filler dialogue. I suppose it's meant to be parody, but sacrificing the reader's enjoyment of the text to make a point seems detrimental to me.

When the novel then starts throwing in references to the original source text by claiming -- and I *think* I have this correctly -- that the "anxious dreams" that all the men-cats had prior to their transformation was a dream of a man turned to a cockroach, I gave up. The people in The Meowmorphosis dream about The Metamorphosis. It's layers upon layers, but since it's all conveyed in huge, deliberately wordy blocks of dialogue, it just couldn't hold my interest.

Two stars for the awesome beginning, which I will treasure. No stars for the massive mood shift halfway that caused me to give up in frustration.

NOTE: This review is based on a free Advance Review Copy of this book provided through Amazon Vine.

~ Ana Mardoll(less)

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Aug 09, 2011 Sahina Bibi rated it 2 of 5 stars

This was such an odd book when I read the blurb to it after Quirk books sent it to me for review (thanks guys!) The cover intrigued me though and the idea was one that I had never read before so I was curious when I dived into reading it. It was oddly compelling and rather weird at the same time, no doubt thanks to the curious tale of our main character Gregor who turns into a cat. Yes, a cat. Purrr-fect right?

The book is written by two authors yet their writing fits in well with the other and...more This was such an odd book when I read the blurb to it after Quirk books sent it to me for review (thanks guys!) The cover intrigued me though and the idea was one that I had never read before so I was curious when I dived into reading it. It was oddly compelling and rather weird at the same time, no doubt thanks to the curious tale of our main character Gregor who turns into a cat. Yes, a cat. Purrr-fect right?

The book is written by two authors yet their writing fits in well with the other and there is a generally good flow to the novel that allows you to read in ease. It’s told in the perspective of Gregor (well really from the point of view of a cat) after he finds himself waking up in bed as a cat. While some may wonder why Gregor seemed so calm after he realised he was a cat, I found it to be quite refreshing not to plunge into a panic driven narrative and enjoyed as Gregor explored what being a cat was and even more so as even as an animal he still continued to worry about his work and how he was going to cope. Gregor’s family seem to accept his transformation but their main concern seeming to be the loss of his earning potential because his job as a fabric salesman had enabled him to support his parents and sister.

Despite all the cat-like interjections dispersed in the book (ear scratching, licking themselves, purring away, all that stuff that cats do on their day to day basis) there were run ins with other characters-turned-cats such as Josef and Franz which made me smile, knowing he wasn’t alone.

A little research told me that this was a re-make of an older book and they’ve given it a fresh new lease of life (which Quirk books has been awesome in doing with many other books) yet this version is geared more towards a younger age group, and teens I’d assume thanks to the tongue-in-cheek humour where a man suffers a mid life (well cat-life) crisis and his eventful run in with the Cat Academy (yes, the Academy of Cats).

A pitfall of this refreshing novel however were a few sections in the book where the author spends a while rambling on about cat-related philosophy yet despite this, the rest of the novel will have you smiling. Praise for Cook's ability to get into the minds of an adorable kitty in such an amusing manner and relay to us normal 2 legged people in such a new and revitalising way.

The writing can’t be faulted and it was entertaining to see the city life through the eyes of Gregor’s cat like form, yet despite how good the novel was, I’m giving it 2* rating simply because it’s not something I’d read again. Despite it being different and enjoyable on some level, it’s not the usual book I’d pick up, and therefore not something I’d recommend to others knowing their preferences in YA novels. However, for those who are looking for a twist in a traditional story be sure to give this a lick.
(less)

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Jul 05, 2011 melydia rated it 2 of 5 stars

Continuing the classics-with-extra-bits trend that began with Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, here we have the tale of The Metamorphosis where instead of turning into a giant bug, Gregor Samsa awakens to find himself transformed into an adorable kitten. It’s been a long time since I read the original, but I think there were also portions from The Trial included as well. Either way, it doesn’t work very well. There are a few good lines here and there, but by and large you’d be better off just re...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Liz rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: retellings, humour, fiction

I really wanted to like this book. The premise was so charming; it opened with the line, "One morning, as Gregor Samsa was waking up from anxious dreams, he discovered that he had been changed into an adorable kitten." However, after this point, the book went down hill.

The idea of turning Franz Kafka's postmodern tale of a young man turning into a beetle into something more palatable is certainly a worthwhile aim. Coleridge Cook does manage to make Gregor more likable in that he is now covered i...more

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Jun 07, 2011 Stephanie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Before I picked up The Meowmorphosis (Quirk Books, 2011), the newest mash-up from Quirk Books, I wanted to get to know Kafka a little better. He’d been on my “to-read-someday” list just about forever, so I dove straight into The Metamorphosis. The story—too short to be a novella, too long to be a short story—starts out well enough, with poor Gregor Samsa waking up one rainy day to find he’d turned into a giant beetle during a night of fitful dreams. After that, the story goes downhill. Slowly. W...more

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May 26, 2011 BookMarc rated it 2 of 5 stars

'The Meowmorphosis' was up for grabs over at Librarything.com and I found myself intrigued as to whether it would be the cat's meow or a slimy hairball of a book. My luck was in and I accosted a copy and, ladies and gentleman of the public, the verdict is in.
The story is a mash-up of Kafka's classic novella 'Metamorphosis' where Gregor wakes up to find himself a cockroach. Instead of a cockroach though he wakes up as a kitten in this version of the story. Being more lovable than a cockroach one...more 'The Meowmorphosis' was up for grabs over at Librarything.com and I found myself intrigued as to whether it would be the cat's meow or a slimy hairball of a book. My luck was in and I accosted a copy and, ladies and gentleman of the public, the verdict is in.
The story is a mash-up of Kafka's classic novella 'Metamorphosis' where Gregor wakes up to find himself a cockroach. Instead of a cockroach though he wakes up as a kitten in this version of the story. Being more lovable than a cockroach one might expect the author to deviate slightly from the original story but he sticks to the tried and trusted formula laid out by Kafka with one exception being a brief hiatus from the house, by the kitten, into the outside world. While this makes the story true to the original it really does only replace a cockroach with a kitten and having read the original there wasn't anything in this book, other than the novelty of replacing the cockroach with the kitten, to maintain my interest.
'The Meowmorphosis' is best described as a dark comedy although the humorous elements are far more plentiful in the first couple of chapters than throughout the rest of the book. The middle of this novel, which at around a couple of hundred pages still seemed too long, follows Gregor into the the outside world and his meeting with other cats. Here he is put on trial, although I can't tell you what for as that would spoil the mystery which is a major element of this part of the story, and it's during this trial that the book is at it's most dull. Needless to say Gregor returns home and the original plot, as written by Kafka, is resumed.
I don't think this was a good choice of novella for a mash-up. For one, it is based on a novella and so had to be fleshed out more than necessary to make it a stand alone novel. Also, not much actually happens in the story and the original is more of a literary text one would study as opposed to one that would be read for enjoyment. Throughout the novel are amateurish pictures, akin to the one on the book cover, of various situations that are taking place in the story. These pics are purposely amateurish and actually work quite well as harbingers of smirks.
Even though I wasn't sold on 'The Meowmorphosis' there is a similar book that I would very much recommend called 'Kockroach'. It's written by an author named Tyler Knox and although not an out and out mash-up it plays on the theme of 'The Metamorphosis' by having a cockroach waking up as a human. From there it leaves its Kafka elements behind and becomes a stand alone novel that is quite the read.
Overall, I think Coleridge Cook (which is a pen name for a famous fantasy author apparently...any ideas anyone?) did what he could with the material at hand. However, it's not a great novel and not one I would recommend unless you are big on mash-ups or really have a thing for Kafka.(less)

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May 24, 2011 Hannah M. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-read, fiction, mash-up, review-copy

The Meowmorphosis is the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman working his hind-end off to pay off his fathers debt and provide for his parents and sister. One morning, after a fitful night’s sleep, Gregor wakes up to find that not only is he late for work, but he appears to be a kitten! Of course, Gregor’s new status as a kitten means he’s not exactly able to work – what with the lack of opposable thumbs and perhaps the whole communication thing, which leaves his family in an uproar tryin...more The Meowmorphosis is the story of Gregor Samsa, a traveling salesman working his hind-end off to pay off his fathers debt and provide for his parents and sister. One morning, after a fitful night’s sleep, Gregor wakes up to find that not only is he late for work, but he appears to be a kitten! Of course, Gregor’s new status as a kitten means he’s not exactly able to work – what with the lack of opposable thumbs and perhaps the whole communication thing, which leaves his family in an uproar trying to figure out how they will keep the bills paid.

Shortly after turning into a kitten, Gregor finds his chance for escape, and so he bolts for freedom from the family apartment to the streets of Prague. It doesn’t take Gregor long to find out that he isn’t the only man turned cute little kitty-cat. That one crazy night with the men-turned-cat’s of Prague leaves Gregor reeling, and so he returns home.

Of course his father is still miffed, his mother still can’t breathe with him in the room, and his sister no longer wants to cuddle him… so much for the rainbows of love he was hoping to go home to, eh? And so Gregor lives out the rest of his days with a family that is quite content to leave this no longer kitten-sized, but overgrown cat be.

So, was The Meowmorphosis better than the original? Most definitely.

This is a mash-up, so there are many parts of The Meowmorphosis that mirror the original, and for me this ended up giving the story a slow start. Once stuff actually started happening though, namely Gregor’s escape from the apartment, I became far more involved. I loved the addition of meeting the other man-turned-cat’s and all that came along with Gregor’s discovery of this group. Even if he did go back home towards the end, which I had hoped wouldn’t happen, I still really liked the book.

Coleridge Cook’s writing fit in really well with the essence of Kafka and consequently, the story has a good flow to it. There were some pretty humorous moments as well. This is, after all, a story that happens from the perspective of a cat and while a lot of the story was about what was going on around Gregor, there were moment’s of very cat-like interjections (you know, ear scratching, pouncing, kneading, all that stuff that cat’s adore – on their schedule of course). Gregor’s night on the town and seeing the different perspective of Josef K and Franz (other men-turned-cat’s) made for some good moments as well.

The Meowmorphosis is a fresh take on an old story joined by those ridiculously awesome illustrations that Quirk novels always have, an fairly hilarious Appendix titled ‘The Curious Life of Franz Kafka, author of The Meowmorphosis,’ and what I think are some of the best discussion questions I’ve ever seen in a book. Basically, I consider this one definitely worth checking out.

**I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own and have not been influenced in any way.(less)

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