For He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll

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IFor He Can Creep by Siobhan Carroll

I tend to review dark books but now I want to recommend this short (54 pages on Kobo) 5 star fantasy where the main characters are cats. This isn't a cozy, the stakes are much higher, it’s a battle of good vs evil. It is only available as an ebook as of this date. And is not that  cover fantastic.

In 1757, the poet Christopher Smart was confined in St. Luke’s Hospital for Lunatics and he was accompanied by his cat Jeoffry. Smart was a real 18th Century poet, who was sent to a lunatic asylum, and had a cat named Jeoffry. The rest is fantasy…perhaps.

Smart led a dwild early life and Satan helped him out. Now the devil has come to collect: Smart is to write a poem that will bring about armageddon. The great Jeoffry, ruler of the asylum, a  warrior cat who fights  the imps that torture the inmates, has no intention of letting Satan interfer with his human. After losing a fierce, bloody battle with Satan, Jeoffry asks Black Tom, Polly, and Nighthunter Moppet to help him save his human.

For He Can Creep is funny, heroic, and poignant. It is a story of loyalty and courage, taking a stand against evil. NO cats die in case you were worrying. Carroll wonderfully describes the smug, superior attitude of the great Jeoffry. In the poem “For I will consider my cat Jeoffry”, Smart describes Jeoffry and Carroll brings the poem to vibrant life to create this fantasy:

From the poem:

For he keeps the lord’s watch in the night against the adversary

For he counteracts the powers of darkness by his electric skin and glaring eyes

For he counteracts the Devil, who is death, by brisking about the life.

Booktuber @ChanelChapters reviewed this book, on her YT channel and, like her, “I would follow Jeoffry into a battle, into a sunbeam, into hell itself.” Look for the “haunted housewives & heroic cats” post on her channel. Here's a link — haunted housewives & heroic cats | short books reading vlog | all under 200pgs

I’m sure even non-cat people will admire Jeoffry but as a cat person I was like “hell yeah Jeoffry I want a cat like you looking after me”. I recommend reading Smart’s poem, he really knows his cat. 

The Full Moon Coffee Shop by Mai Mochizuki trans. by Jesse Kirkwood

This is a fun, thought provoking, cozy, magical realism story set in modern Kyoto Japan.

The Full Moon Coffee Shop only pops-up during a full moon and only for those who need its services. Two things sets it apart: the staff are human sized cats and skilled astrologers who  know the star charts of the patrons; and the patrons don’t order but given what will best appeal to them.

Throughout the story, troubled characters, connected to each other in some way, find their individual ways to the coffee shop. These people have lost their way and don’t know what will make them happy. With good food and drink and guidance the cats help them find their path.

Okay, right away, I’m a cat person and any story with cats is a better story. The cats have fun well developed personalities and engage in amusing banter among themselves. As a reader, I enjoyed the cats and want to see more of them.

If you have read The Rainfall Market, you’ll see the similarities. Besides featuring cats, they both show people looking for what will make them happy. I was a bit concerned that a story with talking astrologer cats would be too twee for me but it isn’t. The theme is thoughtful and heartfelt and resonated with me such that I talked about both books with my therapist. There is something in the stories that everyone will be able to relate to. In fact, the messages you can glean from both books are more succinct and relatable than what I’ve found in self-help books. So, yeah, the book talked to me personally and that’s a testament to the skill of the author and translator for both books.