The Outlaw Varjak Paw by S.F. Said
My rating: 5/5 cats
okay first things first: (((elizabeth)))!!!
thank you so much for such a wonderful stack of birthday books! and for somehow creating a paperback edition of this book to go along with my paperback of the first book. i could only find hardcover editions listed online, and i like my books to match. and now they do.
best.
so last week, i tore through varjak paw so i could get on this one. it is also illustrated by dave mckean, and is another dark little tale of littlecat survival in a bigcat world.
in the first book, varjak paw was taught physical fighting skills by the dream-vision of his famous cat ancestor. in the sequel, he learns how to fight a mental game—the psychological tactics that keep a cat alive in a tough world.
because this time, the stakes are higher. sally bones, the super-creepy one-eyed cat who knows the same ancient fighting secrets as varjak, is taking over the city: she and her gang are barging into territories and intimidating the non-gang cats into giving them food and slowly forcing them into smaller and smaller free-zones where they are allowed to live and try to sustain themselves. “pussies,” you scoff, “why don’t they fight back??” oh, because sally bones’ gang is big and strong and if she doesn’t like you, she will have them rip off your ears and your tail which is pretty damn badass, as far as creatures without opposable thumbs go. bad kitty!
so, yeah, it’s pretty dark. but varjak has a motley “gang” of his own, with a dog and a classroom while he sleeps. so he’s going to be okay. but some of the cats around him, cats that he considers to be friends…there will be consequences. i really like that this isn’t a sweetie-pie story where all the good fluffy kitties are okay and all the nasty kitties get punished. there is a little of that, but it is still a little tougher than a lot of middle-grade fiction.
this book is nearly twice as long as the first one, and the cast of characters is much bigger and more developed. i assume he is finished writing these, because this one came out in 2005, and there hasn’t been another since then, but i really hope he chooses to revisit these characters, because i think this could be a successful series, if someone could keep the damn things in print!!
and again with dave mckean—there is no better choice for an illustrator for this book.
nicely done.
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