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Catfishing on CatNet

(CatNet #1)

Naomi Kritzer

4.08 · Rating details · 1,301 ratings · 415 reviews

How much does the internet know about YOU?

Because her mom is always on the move, Steph hasn’t lived anyplace longer than six months. Her only constant is an online community called CatNet—a social media site where users upload cat pictures—a place she knows she is welcome. What Steph doesn’t know is that the admin of the site, CheshireCat, is a sentient A.I.

When a threat ...more

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Hardcover, 304 pages

Published November 19th 2019 by Tor Teen

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Aug 31, 2020 Nataliya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-reads, lodestar-and-andre-norton-awards

“I do not entirely understand people.
I know quite a lot about people, though.”

What would you do if you were a young, innocent and very much benevolent AI obsessed with cat pictures? One course of action, apparently, is to make a safe well-moderated online forum CatNet where like-minded people hang out in char rooms (known as Clowders) and exchange animal pictures while you pretend to be just another forum user (and all the admins, too). Meet CheshireCat, “the world’s most badass cat picture

“I do not entirely understand people.
I know quite a lot about people, though.”

“My two favorite things to do with my time are helping people and looking at cat pictures.”

In one of those chat rooms/Clowders there’s a 16-year-old Steph Taylor, for whom CatNet and the friends she has made there have been the only constants in her turbulent life. For as long as she remembers, Steph and her mother have been on a run, moving from town to town every few months in an attempt to hide from Steph’s abusive arsonist father. Or so her mother says - but things do not quite add up.

“Afterward, I remember thinking that now, finally, my life would make sense. I thought Mom would answer my questions and I would know what was going on. But Mom still doesn’t answer my questions, and my life still doesn’t make sense, and I still don’t know what’s going on.”

And now Steph moved again, and her new tiny Wisconsin town seems like a dump until Steph finally makes a close friend (and Rachel may be slowly becoming a bit more than that), and a plan is cooked up to hack a Sex-Ed teacher robot (yes, this is set in the very near future with ubiquitous self-driving cars and household robots) that is programmed to do little but suggest students to ask their parents instead any time any question that is not about abstinence comes up (because this near future is not so different from our present, except for the robots). With the help of her chat room friends and our friendly undercover neighborhood AI CheshireCat, Steph and Rachel hack the robot to actually provide honest, accurate and sex-positive information, almost giving the principal and a high-strung student (who reasearches “saddlebacking” in her spare time) a coronary. And then the news channels pick up a “hacked sexbot” story, and suddenly it appears that not only does Steph crack CheshireCat’s AI identity, but her long-lost and possibly very dangerous father is suddenly on her trail, and things are becoming genuinely scary.

“When I evaluated the potential ramifications of hacking the Robono Adept 6500 instructional robot at New Coburg High School, I felt that I was on very solid ethical ground. There are numerous studies showing the harm of giving teenagers inadequate health and sexuality education. I knew I could provide them with comprehensive, medically accurate, sex-positive, consent-based information that would be far better than what their school wanted them to have, despite the fact that I have no sexual organs of my own, no sex drive, and no sexuality.”

—————

It’s a fun and lighthearted book (with a few exceptions of creepy moments involving Steph’s father), and I flew through it in a single evening feeling very pleasantly entertained. It has a refreshing and believable teen protagonist, a set of excellent friends both online and in “meatspace” and more than just a suggestion that those distinctions are not always significant, and that real friendship can be happening in many forms and settings. It has teens acting like teens (and a very nice and well-behaved bunch at that), enough tolerance and acceptance to satisfy even the pickiest among us, a hint of love that, unlike in many young adult books, does not go overboard, and a quite subtle yet real touching upon very real-world uglier issues. It is hopeful and light and fun.

“There’s power in disclosure. People feel better when other people know them, the real them. That sort of disclosure is key to real friendships. To real connections.”

And the acceptance and tolerance includes the AI as well, because not even for a moment do these internet-savvy teens ever doubt CheshireCat’s personhood. And, unlike the common idea in books and media where AI is an evil creation destined to become hell-bent on somehow eventually destroying or subjugating humanity, these kids are perfectly fine giving this AI, like you would to a human, the benefit of a doubt and all the kindness and empathy, and it’s sweet and hopeful and uplifting even to my crusty cynical heart.

“Humans have written thousands of stories about artificial intelligences—AIs, robots, and other sentient beings created or constructed by humans, such as Frankenstein’s monster—and in a decisive majority of those stories, the AI is evil. I don’t want to be evil.”

“What humans want from computers is all the functionality of a person—the ability to answer questions without getting confused by human tendencies to stammer and talk around their problems, the ability to spot patterns in data, and what humans generally call “basic common sense”—but none of the complications of an actual person lurking inside the electronics.”

Adorable and fun, and although far from perfect, a good book to hand to a preteen or a young teen, and obviously even a cold-hearted cynical adult.

“Are you comparing me to Victor Frankenstein?” Annette asks, clearly amused.
“Yeah! You made a person and now you want to kill them because you feel responsible for anything they do wrong,” Hermione says. “I think it’s an extremely fair comparison!”

Happily rounding up to 4 stars.

———————

My Hugo and Nebula Awards Reading Project 2020: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ...more

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Nov 11, 2020 Tadiana ✩Night Owl☽ rated it really liked it

Shelves: ya-science-fiction, science-fiction

A Clowder of Catastrophes, Catalysts and Catharsis

3.75 stars. Review first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:

Using her 2015 Hugo award-winning short story “Cat Pictures Please” as a jumping-off point, Naomi Kritzer wrote Catfishing on CatNet, an engaging near-future YA science fiction novel about a benevolent, sentient AI and teens and young adults who are having life troubles and have found their primary emotional support in an online chat group — which happens to be moderated by the AI.

Steph is A Clowder of Catastrophes, Catalysts and Catharsis

3.75 stars. Review first posted on FantasyLiterature.com:

Using her 2015 Hugo award-winning short story “Cat Pictures Please” as a jumping-off point, Naomi Kritzer wrote Catfishing on CatNet, an engaging near-future YA science fiction novel about a benevolent, sentient AI and teens and young adults who are having life troubles and have found their primary emotional support in an online chat group — which happens to be moderated by the AI.

Steph is a sixteen-year-old girl who’s had an almost nomadic lifestyle for years: her mother moves them from town to town at the drop of a hat, rarely spending more than a few months in one place, and she doesn’t allow Steph to stay in contact with any friends once they’ve moved on. The reason, per her mom, is that they’re on the run from Steph’s father, who she says is violent and dangerous to them. Besides her mother, the only consistent relationships in Steph’s life are her group of online friends on “CatNet,” who are by and large all queer, nerdy and quirky. Steph’s mother, it need hardly be said, is unaware of Steph’s secret group of online friends, but they’re the one constant in her life that Steph refuses to give up.

Upon moving to their latest town in Wisconsin, though, Steph finds a new meatspace friend, Rachel, the first serious real-life friend she’s had in some time. With a great deal of help from a skilled hacker in the CatNet “clowder,” Steph and Rachel manage to reprogram a classroom sex ed robot to give “real answers” rather than the cautious “discuss that with your parents” messages that it has been giving to any touchy questions, like those about homosexuality or birth control. The results are both frank and hilarious, at least to most of the class and readers, but it sets off a domino effect, drawing attention from the media and potentially giving Steph’s location away to her long-absent father. Is he truly evil or has he been maligned? And what’s the deal with that one person who always seems to be awake and posting on CatNet, and knows more about Steph than she thinks they should?

The AI and Steph alternate in narrating the chapters of Catfishing on CatNet, with occasional chapters consisting of transcripts of online discussions of the CatNet clowder. Those interludes with the clowder were some of my favorite chapters. Their chats are realistic and frequently very funny, and you begin to recognize and become familiar with most of the key players in the clowder through their online voices.

The AI character (who I’ll refrain from naming since it isn’t disclosed for several chapters which clowder member they are) never quite felt like a true artificial intelligence to me; it’s just so very informally chatty, personable and human-sounding in its thought processes. It combines sophisticated cyber-surveillance, skilled hacking and using smart devices to intervene in others’ lives with a desire for true friendship and a naïve eagerness to help … along with an abiding fondness for cat pictures and videos. However, that’s clearly part of Kritzer’s point here: a self-aware artificial intelligence is as much a person as any human, and people of all types and genders are equally worthy of acceptance and respect.

Catfishing on CatNet is filled with charm and humor, which help to lighten the heaviness of the serious social issues and life problems that it addresses. Those problems include the difficulties of a transient life, troubles fitting in with society, abuse, and cyberstalking. There’s also a lot of fairly heavy messaging about candid sex education, queerness and sexual and gender identities, which may be either a bug or a feature depending on the reader’s own personal views.

Catfishing on CatNet won the 2020 Lodestar and Edgar Awards for Best Young Adult Book, and was nominated for other awards. It ends on an open note, setting up the sequel, Chaos on CatNet, which is due to be published in April 2021. I’m planning on reading it. ...more

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Nov 17, 2019 Toni rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, ya

As promised by the blurb, the story does go to some extent into thought-provoking questions on how much information about us is available to any serious hacker or an AI and how trusting we are of the good intentions of those who have become a member of our social network closer circle. But it isn't all dark and gloomy, quite the opposite. It is more about our fundamental desire to make friendships and find people we belong with.

Steph Taylor has changed six high schools. Her slightly paranoid mot As promised by the blurb, the story does go to some extent into thought-provoking questions on how much information about us is available to any serious hacker or an AI and how trusting we are of the good intentions of those who have become a member of our social network closer circle. But it isn't all dark and gloomy, quite the opposite. It is more about our fundamental desire to make friendships and find people we belong with.

Steph Taylor has changed six high schools. Her slightly paranoid mother keeps moving every couple months and Steph hasn't even worked out what triggers these frequent moves. Mom says Steph's father is a psychopath and convicted arsonist and the only way to keep safe is to keep a low profile and run at the first sign of danger. Steph would do anything to keep her mom happy, but their lifestyle choice also means she has never had time to make any real friends or develop a crush. The only permanent feature in Steph's life is CatNet a social network site where cat (or any other animal picture at a pinch) pictures serve as a currency and where everybody is put in big chat groups called Clowders. Steph (or Little Brown Bat /LBB) feels her Clowder are the only people who can understand and relate to her. To be fair, they are supportive and respectful of each other. Then, she notices that one of the permanent members of the group is always online (that is whenever she logs on) and a strange event involving a hacked package delivery drone makes her think that somebody in her Clowder may be not telling the whole truth.

The story is told from three points of view: Steph, her Clowder chat, and an AI being ( if you've read the blurb you already know that they are the admin of the site). The events move forward quickly and there is never a dull moment as Steph makes new real-life friends in her new town, re-programs a sex ed robot with the help of her online friends, and escapes her father- the homicidal maniac/ wannabe world dictator.

The characters are very sweet, especially the AI/Cheshire Cat who does grapple with serious ethical questions in a very human way. There isn't really anything dark or scary about this book, apart from Stephanie and her mom's life of perpetual nomads. On the other hand, Steph seemed to act quite selfishly, so it is up to the reader to decide whether they like her character, are annoyed by her, or simply accept her as a typical teenager with her own set of flaws. There is diversity in characters and LGBTQIA representation, which makes the story stand out more out of the usual coming of age YA novels. I also liked the way it is stressed that nobody should be rushed into a romantic relationship, especially if they need time to work out their feelings.

Some of the things in the plot are far-fetched, and I still think everything works out a bit too neatly in the end. The events may appear just one big adventure, but I hope the serious issues of new technology redefining privacy or how the differences between virtual and real-life friendships are getting blurred are also going to be noticed by the readers of this entertaining novel.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Tor for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
...more

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Nov 09, 2019 Helen Power rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: author-publisher-giveaway, published-2019, netgalley, science-fiction, young-adult, arc

Synopsis
This book is marketed as a dark thriller. I mean, look at that cover (Which, by the way, is not the cover it had when I requested it through NetGalley. That cover had cute cyber-kitties on it). Doesn't this cover make the book look dark and spooky? Even the description and the initial reviews made it sound like a dark thriller about an AI that goes off its rocker.

On the contrary, this is a light book about a girl who's always been on the run with her mother. They always have to move to d ...more

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May 08, 2020 Allison Hurd rated it really liked it

Shelves: sff-bookshelf, sff-2020-challenge, fem-author, scifi

Don't read this if you don't want any impressions of the SFFBC BOTM!

I haven't yet read the short story that inspired this, but I'm quite impressed with the heart infused throughout this story.

CONTENT WARNINGS: (a list of topics) (view spoiler)

Things to love:

-The Clowder. Yay internet friends! This felt very authentic, a hug for all the people who get us through tough times even if they're just there virtually...at lea ...more

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Nov 19, 2019 Sherwood Smith added it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

Steph Taylor has never really learned to make friends after she was yanked from her first at age seven. Even before then she has always been on the move, and always in the middle of the night. Never with a destination named. Her mother says it’s for their own safety, as Steph's father is a psychopath and convicted arsonist, and if they show up on the grid in any way, he will find them.

Steph has always accepted this, but of late she’s begun to question details that don’t add up. Especially as her Steph Taylor has never really learned to make friends after she was yanked from her first at age seven. Even before then she has always been on the move, and always in the middle of the night. Never with a destination named. Her mother says it’s for their own safety, as Steph's father is a psychopath and convicted arsonist, and if they show up on the grid in any way, he will find them.

Steph has always accepted this, but of late she’s begun to question details that don’t add up. Especially as her mother shuts her down whenever she asks questions, and barricades herself in her room. Quite literally.

The only social outlet in Steph's life is CatNet, a social network site where cat (or any other animal picture at a pinch) pictures serve as a currency and where everybody is put in big chat groups called Clowders. Steph (or Little Brown Bat /LBB) feels her Clowder are the only people who can understand and relate to her. To be fair, they are supportive and respectful of each other, despite a wide variety of interests and pronoun choices, as they all experiment with identity. Then, she notices that one of the permanent members of the group is always online, around the time a really weird thing happens: a package arrives in the neck of time, sent anonymously.

The story alternates between Steph’s POV, that of her Clowder chat, and an AI. Meanwhile Steph begins to make friends at her new high school over reprogramming a sex ed robot with hilarious results . . . until the news sources pick up on the story.

Kritzer deftly sets up the characters and situations, and gives us one hilarious scene before the second half of the story, which ramps up the tension. At the same time, Steph is learning about AIs and the weird world of cyber geniuses.

I really enjoyed this novel—I know it would have grabbed my teenage self from the outset, becoming one of those books I checked out again and again.

As it is, old me is hoping there will be another, as some tantalizing threads were left dangling . . .

Copy provided by NetGalley
...more

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May 05, 2020 Anthony rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-group-2018, hugo-nominees, sf, edgar-award-winners

This is a light, diverting YA novel I read as this month’s SF pick of the SFFBC book club. As it unfolds, it touches on some more serious themes of domestic violence and stalking, but it succeeds best when it bubbles along as a sweet tale of friendship between some appealingly drawn internet teenaged geeks and the AI who helps them. The teens are sharply drawn and authentic, and there’s a welcome presence on non-binary and queer characters. I think it’s difficult to craft a tale that can honor t ...more

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Dec 14, 2019 Peter Tillman rated it really liked it

Shelves: new-tbp, on-reserve, at-bg-pa, science-fiction, thriller

A first-rate YA action-adventure, based on Kritzer's award winning short “Cat Pictures Please,” still available online at http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz.... If you missed it, a good introduction to the ideas she extended into her first novel. Which is not a subtle book, but well-written, and I liked the teens and their coming-of-age stories. Steph's Bad Dad is a bit much, and the confrontation at the end is, well, melodramatic. But still fun. I'll probably read the sequel. Recommended, ev ...more

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Dec 31, 2019 Lindsay rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, science-fiction, lgbt

YA SF that ties into the Hugo-award winning short story Cat Pictures Please.

Steph Taylor is at a new high school, an experience she's had far too much of. Her mother moves them every few months in an effort to keep them both away from Steph's supposedly abusive and controlling father. who Steph doesn't actually remember. Constant moves means it's hard to make and keep friends, so Steph's friends are mostly online, on CatNet, a social network where animal pictures are currency. What Steph doesn't ...more

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Jan 21, 2020 Alina rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, animals, female-lead, glbt, sf

It's been a long time since I really enjoyed a YA novel. I'll be back with some comments though..

* Plot: 4★
* World building: 3.5★
* Characters: 4★
* Language/Humour/Witticism: 4.5★
* Enjoyability: 4★
...more

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Apr 26, 2020 Kristin B. Bodreau rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cleanup-challenge, scifi-and-fantasy-book-club

This was a delightful read. Not particularly deep, but thought provoking in it’s own way. It was a somewhat simple story on the surface, definitely good for teen audiences, but with some really important themes. There is food for thought here about PTSD, the importance of support systems, domestic violence, gender identity, sexuality, privacy and internet safety.

I was particularly fond of some of the “throwaway” moments. For instance, at one point the main character wonders about bird genetics b ...more

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Dec 03, 2019 Inge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: pretty-fly-for-a-sci-fi, young-adult, lgbtqiap

3.5 stars

I don't actually remember requesting this book.

Blurb: "... a social media site where users upload cat pictures ..."

... But I can certainly guess why I did.

So this was quite fun! Don't get me wrong, most of the time it was pretty intense - there's a homicidal father on the loose, trying to find the MC and her mother, and the stakes are very high. There are car chase scenes and everything. I finished the book in two days.

But there's also the part with the human-like AI, which asks for som ...more

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May 11, 2020 Dawn C marked it as dnf · review of another edition

Sadly none of this months’ SFFBC group reads did anything for me, though for different reasons. I’m just not the target for this young adult novel. While there are some I have enjoyed, this was much too teenage cutesy wutesy for me (that’s probably not a word) and nothing resonated with me, from characters to writing style. I’m leaving off a rating as this is definitely a case of it’s not you, it’s me.

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Jul 10, 2020 Silvana rated it really liked it

Shelves: growing-up, female-nonbinary-authors, sci-fi, sff-2020-reading-challenge, mine-mine-mine, z-2020-sf-novel-novella, hugo-nominees-2020, stand-alones, z-2020-wotf-challenge, lgbtqia

I had so much fun with this. A very relatable MC. A fantastic group of online friends (yay). An AI who likes cat pictures.

Yet no matter how fun the book is, the thought (and fact) that we are so easily tracked via our own devices is super scary. At least use VPNs, people! Careful of app permissions!

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Nov 19, 2019 The Captain rated it liked it

Shelves: young-adult

Ahoy there me mateys! I received this young adult sci-fi eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here be me honest musings . . .

I have only read two of Naomi Kritzer's shorter length stories. One was the "The Thing About Ghost Stories” which was nominated for the 2019 Hugo for novelettes. The other was "Cat Pictures Please" which won the 2016 Locus and Hugo awards for best short story. This book ties into the 2016 story.

Steph and her mom have been on the run from her father ...more

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Aug 29, 2020 Gabi rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sff-group-shelf, series_to_abandon, grouplist-2020

This was a nice and easy read, but not the kind of writing I'm enthusiastic about.
It is another case of me not being the intended audience, so I go for the middle rating. ...more

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Jan 04, 2021 Mike rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series-in-progress, read-all-the-books-around-in-eighty, read-sf-award-supplementary, sffbc-tbr-21

Really liked this for a YA story -- it manages some brief deep-dives into various societal, personal and ethical issues without being overly complex, and the the plot move that throws a wide range of diverse teenagers into a 'team' (of sorts) makes the compactness of plot and theme believable.

Short synopsis -- two-and-a-half semi-parallel narrations; one by "AI" (for artificial intelligence), a unique self-aware computer program that has created CatNet as a social networking site for cat-picture ...more

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Aug 27, 2019 The Kawaii Slartibartfast rated it it was amazing

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much and I am so glad I got read it.

The story revolves around Steph and the AI she befriends.

Steph's had a lonely life moving from place to place to escape her abusive father. Her only friends are on the social media sites CatNet.

This is a wonderful story about friendship, loyalty and a kind-hearted AI who just wants to look at kitty pics. ...more

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Feb 20, 2020 Denise rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: women-2020, 2020

4.5 stars for lots of good reasons but the extra 1/2 star is definitely for describing driving in Boston and robot restaurants from MIT!

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Sep 23, 2020 Kateblue rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

4 1/2 really.

Part of the reason I loved this book was because of the connected short story Cat Pictures Please, which you can read at http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritz...

There were only 3 things I didn't like about this book:
1) It was YA. I think it could have been better if written with a more adult protagonist, though it might have been harder. I'm getting kinda tired of YA.
2) After the end, basically, the author put a string out there to make me want to read the next book. Unnecessary ...more

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Mar 12, 2020 Beth Cato rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020, science, young-adult, ebook, nebula

I read a gratis copy as part of my Norton Award finalist packet.

I was pretty sure I’d love this book because I adored the short story that inspired it. Sure enough, I was right. Catfishing is a fast-paced YA novel loaded with surprises, wit, and an AI who loves cat pictures.

The books follows two perspectives. Steph is a teenage girl who moves constantly because her paranoid mom is sure her abusive ex will find them. Her one constant is her tight-knit group of friends online at a site called Cat ...more

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May 10, 2020 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was such a wonderful book!

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Nov 21, 2019 Maria Haskins rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I've loved Naomi Kritzer's short fiction for years. She has a remarkable talent for writing sharply observed, subtly funny, and quietly profound stories that show a deep appreciation for the human condition. Her Hugo Award winning story "Cat Pictures, Please", about a kind and considerate AI that wants to do the best it can for people (and also really, really likes cat pictures) is one such story. Out of that piece of short fiction grew this wonderful, near-future science fiction novel about tha ...more

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Nov 05, 2020 Stacy Fetters rated it liked it

"Intelligence is knowing Frankenstein was the creator, not the monster. Wisdom is knowing Frankenstein was actually the monster."

Have you ever talked about or mentioned a movie, a song, or a product and logged into social media and seen an ad for that thing you mentioned? You realize that your phone listens to everything you say and do. This takes that to a larger scale and it is creepy. You better watch what you say next time, you never know who’s listening....

Do you ever really think about all "Intelligence is knowing Frankenstein was the creator, not the monster. Wisdom is knowing Frankenstein was actually the monster."

Have you ever talked about or mentioned a movie, a song, or a product and logged into social media and seen an ad for that thing you mentioned? You realize that your phone listens to everything you say and do. This takes that to a larger scale and it is creepy. You better watch what you say next time, you never know who’s listening....

Do you ever really think about all the information we put out into the world? Be it social media or what we search, or even the forms we fill out. Steph and her Mom use minimal services to stop people from knowing where they are. Which means no social media groups and certainly no smartphones. But Steph uses one anonymous site to help her deal with the constant moving around and not staying in one location long enough to make friends. Catnet is a place where she can be herself and create online friendships.

Her Catnet friends are always there for her when she needs them and the time has come for them to come through. Steph and her online friends come up with a plan to hack into the sex-ed robot. When it actually happens, it becomes worldwide news. And the one person who they didn't want to know their whereabouts, sees this news story.

What Steph and her Mom don't know is that someone from their past has found them. He knows what town they are currently living in and what school Steph attends.

Will Steph and her Mom escape? Or will their past eat them alive?

This book is like looking into the future to see what it holds and it is scary. We rely so much on technology that we don't seem to think of the outcome as we demand bigger and better things. We just don't realize how much we rely on technology to live every day but this is a huge eye-opener. This has made me change my daily habits.

The story was interesting. A lot of information was thrown at you and it was fun trying to decipher what was truth and what wasn't. I hate to say that this was a fun read because of all the dark situations that come forth but this was a lot of fun to read. I loved the close friendships between Steph and her friends on Catnet. They were very genuine and I loved their close little bonds.

Catfishing on CatNet was an interesting read. It really opened my eyes up to how much we really rely on technology for even the littlest things. This book sparked a change in my life and I'm grateful for that. You'll love Steph and her love of bats as she tries to live a somewhat normal life as a teenager in the Midwest. Nothing beats having online cat-loving friends and a sassy A.I. who has your best interests at heart! I can't wait to read book two!! ...more

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Nov 07, 2019 ReadBecca rated it it was amazing

Shelves: netgalley, lgbt

I requested and received a copy of this book for honest review, thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author.

Catfishing on CatNet is the full length novel inspired by Kritzer's previous award darling short Cat Pictures Please. For me this reads like a cross between Eliza and Her Monsters (which I really enjoyed) and Murderbot (which I loved). We get three unique perspectives:
Steph - A high schooler who has been unable to put down roots anywhere, being moved to a new rural Midwestern town by her I requested and received a copy of this book for honest review, thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and author.

Catfishing on CatNet is the full length novel inspired by Kritzer's previous award darling short Cat Pictures Please. For me this reads like a cross between Eliza and Her Monsters (which I really enjoyed) and Murderbot (which I loved). We get three unique perspectives:
Steph - A high schooler who has been unable to put down roots anywhere, being moved to a new rural Midwestern town by her always on edge and somewhat paranoid mom who has had them on the run her whole life, from an abusive father Steph doesn't even remember. She takes solace in CatNet, her constant community through it all.
The Clowder - Clowders are the small private group chats on CatNet. Steph's clowder are a quirky, enthusiastic bunch, who are super supportive of one another.
AI - CatNet is secretly run by a sentient AI who just wants cat pics and a true friend, maybe a little too aggressively, they'll not hesitate to intervene to get it. They begin filling in gaps Steph didn't even realize she had in her past, that make her question everything she's known about her life up till now.

The negatives for me as a reader were pretty minor, first not being the target demographic with certain moments clearly being written to younger readership, and second that I just wanted MORE AI.

I found the slightly near future setting compelling, just enough off current to really be inventive and useful to the plot, with robots, drones and self-driving cars being commonplace. Another highlight for me is that we get a great sense of online community, it brought me back to teen years in different fandoms online, the way those are real friendships, but the oddities that presents as well. Within the cast there is also great diversity from different ethnic backgrounds to coming out stories, two non-binary characters (one who has had primarily an experience of acceptance and one who has not), and a budding F/F first relationship. The comedy was on point, the characters felt like they had depth to them, and for me this was just the exact right story that hit what I was wanting to read (YA SF thriller) at the moment. ...more

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Jul 15, 2020 Kara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, young-adult, thriller

I know nothing about this book, but after reading this delightful story on tor.com titled "Little Free Library", I immediately bought this book, wanting to read more from this author.

—-

So, because I started this without knowing anything about it, I thought it’d be a cute YA SF book about an AI and a group of internet friends. This is actually a THRILLER. And it gets kind of intense.

I enjoyed it, loved the diverse characters, and thought the writing was solid. ...more

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Jul 29, 2019 Eeva rated it liked it · review of another edition

I have some major mixed feelings about this book.
On one hand it's not badly written and has a decent plot, but on the other it's weirdly written and the plot sometimes is just over the top. ...more

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May 04, 2020 Corey Eiseman rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: challenge-laser, challenge-sffbc

This was a fun, interesting read. It kept me engaged throughout, although it lost a little steam toward the end, and the final destination was not as fulfilling as the journey. The online teenage voice seemed incredibly authentic to me, and there’s quite a bit of LGBTQ representation. I felt compelled to recommend it to both my teenage daughters, and hope they read it. I was impressed with how the author dealt with serious ethical questions and important issues about how technology impacts our l ...more

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Nov 29, 2019 wishforagiraffe rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019

Really, really excellent. More thoughts to come.

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Nov 26, 2019 Mark rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Just a delightful read. I did the classic start-reading-late-evening-unable-to-stop-til-finished thing.

This is an...expansion?...of the idea that Kritzer used in her short story Cat Pictures Please, in which a benevolent AI tries to look after people in various ways, because it loves people, and in particular their internet cat pictures.

Catfishing on CatNet (pretty much my only criticism is that the new title is a bit silly!) expands significantly by telling the story of Steph, a teen girl whose ...more

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SciFi and Fantasy...: "Catfishing on CatNet" - First Impressions No Spoilers	72	105	Jul 31, 2020 05:47PM
SciFi and Fantasy...: "Catfishing on CatNet" Discuss Everything Spoilers	39	81	Jul 27, 2020 05:08PM