If Cats Disappeared from the World opens Goodreads in a new tab

My thoughts

3.5/5stars Once you become aware of your impending death, you have to make a compromise in accepting the loss of the life you wish you could have led and the reality of your imminent death. Sure, there will always be regrets and broken dreams, but you have to go easy on yourself. Over the last few days, I’ve come to realize that there is a certain beauty in those regrets, they are proof of having lived. Maybe I will regret some of my decisions when the moment comes, but that’s ok, No matter how you slice it, life is full of regrets anyway. I love books that explore grief, and the larger purpose of a person in life, are introspective etc etc. While this book did try to do that, at times (and this might be because of the translations) it felt like the author is spoon-feeding the thoughts to us. The language seemed clunky at times instead of the quirky stuff you'd expect from Japanese lit. That being said, there were bits and pieces I absolutely adored. Talking animals is a very high selling point for me, and then this went ahead with a talking cat? Had to love it. I also liked the aloha shirt-wearing, wisecracking quirky Devil. He comes with an offer, obviously. You can put off your death day by day, but you have to remove one thing from the world every day. But the real dilemma comes up when it's the turn for cats (Cabbage being the MC's only friend) to disappear. It was a fun read. Cats and humans have been partners for over ten thousand years. And what you realize when you've lived with a cat for a long time is that we may think we own them, but that's not the way it is. They simply allow us the pleasure of their company. Book Trigger Warnings- Death, Impending death, death of an animal