Catfishing on CatNet

CatNet, Book 1

By: Naomi Kritzer

Narrated by: Casey Turner, Corey Gagne

How much does the internet know about you? A thought-provoking near-future YA thriller that could not be more timely as it explores issues of online privacy, artificial intelligence, and the power and perils of social networks.

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 from Steph’s past catches up to her and ChesireCat’s existence is discovered by outsiders, it’s up to Steph and her friends, both online and IRL, to save her.

Catfishing on CatNet is a surprising, heartfelt near-future YA thriller by award-winning author Naomi Kritzer, whose short story “Cat Pictures Please” won the Hugo Award and Locus Award and was a finalist for the Nebula.

©2019 Naomi Kritzer (P)2019 Audible, Inc.

Amazing

Haven't been this happy with a book in a long time! Great writing and narration!

Unusual plot, fun adventure, and more thought-provoking than one might expect

It’s a fun and engaging story, but it also explores darker topics such as controlling relationships, stalking, and kidnapping. Even so, since none of the characters is the brooding/surly type, the overall tone of this story is more on the lighthearted side.

The characters are also quite PC. They talk about their gender identities, sexual orientations, and pronouns; and they attempt to eliminate discriminatory words from their vocabularies.

The audiobook ends with a cliffhanger, but the all the major plot lines are resolved. It only leaves one question unanswered: who is that mysterious person that contacts the main characters near the end of the story?

Set Up for a Sequel?

Interesting enough but took a off on a tangent or two. The ending? Not there.

Engaging!

Listened to this straight through because I HAD TO KNOW!!!!! Looking forward to the next book.

I love “Sci-Fi” and LGBTG Romance!!!

I enjoyed the entire book inside and out and I loved the fact the you get to hear some of the story from the AI and the Clowder. The story was amazing and in my top five favorites for sure, can’t wait to read more!!!!

Feels appropriate for young teens

This is a fairly juvenile young adult book. At least that's how it feels based on the other young adult books I've read in recent years.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing at all I just wanted to throw it all in the review.

I enjoyed the idea of CatNet though it felt a little old-fashioned for being such a recent book. It felt more like cute picture-based AOL.

I liked all the characters and I'm interested in the evolution of Cheshire Cat.

Teens & a young AI find some major trouble

Steph Taylor and her mother move a lot--roughly every six months or so; sometimes more often. And they don't make friends anywhere; that's her mom's choice. They're in hiding from Steph's stalker father, who burned down their house when she was a small child, and has been chasing them ever since.

At least, that's her mother's story, and Steph remembers just enough that she believes it. Her father is dangerous.

So Steph doesn't have a smartphone, just an old-fashioned flip phone. She can't post any selfies online, or her real name, or her location. They don't stay anywhere long enough for her to make friends, and if she did, she wouldn't be allowed to stay in touch with them when they move again, anyway. Instead, she has her friends on CatNet, her favorite online site. On CatNet, she's Little Brown Bat, and all the friends in her "clowder" have similarly anonymous handles. That includes a moderator, CheshireCat.

One of the things Steph doesn't know is that CheshireCat is an AI--a real, intelligent, full-person AI.

Another thing she doesn't know is just how dangerous her father really is, or why.

But after their latest move, landing them in a little town where the high school only has two years of Spanish, and has a robot teaching sex ed, Steph starts to make a few real friends. And between her school friends, and her CatNet friends, she winds up hacking the sex ed robot so that CheshireCat can take it over and give real, and accurate, answers to the students' sex ed questions.

This, of course, blows up into not just a school scandal, but "hits the national news because it's so strange and funny and alarming" viral news story.

And that attracts attention Steph and her mother really, really didn't need.

We get the story, in alternating chapters, from Steph and from CheshireCat. And CheshireCat, while having effectively unlimited information, has only been in operation for five years, and doesn't have nearly enough experience with people and the outside world to handle some of what's coming at them. This includes the secrets Steph's mother has been keeping from her, why her father is so dangerous, and who, exactly, created the CheshireCat AI.

The characters are diverse and interesing and very individual. The teenagers feel like real teenagers, and the parents we meet aren't cookie-cutter, either. It's an exciting, satisfying YA adventure. I really enjoyed it, and look forward to the next one.

Recommended.

I bought this audiobook.