Having read The Handmaid's Tale, and loving it, and reading The Robber Bride, and not loving it (at all), I was unsure how I would feel about my third Margaret Atwood tale.

While not being able to immerse myself into the story as quickly or as deeply as The Handmaid's Tale, I found the book to instead be a slow burn, gradually drawing me in and not letting go until the end.

In Cat's Eye, Atwood's protagonist reflects on the development of relationships between women (girls) in all their complexity - the cruelties, the pettiness - through her memories, and the lasting effect it has on the development of her own character; all of this with the impartial observation of a entomologist looking at a bug under a microscope (a fitting description of a character raised by scientist parents).

Elaine personally takes us on that path from innocent "wild child" (literally) through her introduction to the civilized world and initiation into the sometimes hellish world of girlhood and her gradual rise to personal and artistic success; even as the friends/tormentors of her youth spiral downward into mediocrity and oblivion. We observe as she learns to come to a tentative peace with the past, and gains a bit of understanding into the psychology of those girlhood friends (and enemies) who mean so much to us all in the process of growing up.