This review is based on an ARC of The Bobcat which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publishers (Skyhorse Publishing and Arcade Publishing).

Even mouthbreathers deserve love. <3

This debut novel from Katherine Forbes Riley is a gorgeous story of healing and loving in times of vulnerability and self-doubt. Laurelie, the main character, is such a strong character that I'm convinced she's real. In fact, I think that all of the characters of The Bobcat are more reality than fiction. I was in love with the setting, the characters, the prose, and the plot. I love all of the little detail that make this novel so believable and the characters so personable. I love the tenderness, the realness. Most of all I loved how the story left such a strong impression on me without being dramatic and soap-y.

I will admit that I didn't understand the hiker's oddities through the majority of this novel. But I also have to say that this made the plot more intriguing; it made me want to read on and know more and more. Even when I wasn't reading I was thinking about the story and wondering when I could get back to reading it.

It's been a long while since I've read a book with such strong, deliberate prose. I haven't lately read any new authors who write as well as Riley does. I can't really put words to what it is that I so adored with this novel's style, but something had me hooked and desperate for the climax.

Overall The Bobcat is a perfect little spring read, and I definitely look forward to seeing what else Katherine Forbes Riley has in store for the literary world!

The Bobcat is a novel in which nothing “much” seems happen for the most part of it, except perhaps towards the end. Largely filtered through Laurelie’s perspective, so that the reader views everything the way she makes sense of it - altered and distorted through her art. This makes it hard to get a straightforward reading of what is going on at times, and I found myself on several occasions losing track of what exactly is going on (though I admit, this might in part be because I’ve been having trouble reading the book for long enough stretches of time this past week).

When Laurelie and the boy she babysits encounter the injured bobcat and its hiker companion, Laurelie finds herself somehow drawn to them. Even if the bobcat physically appears only a few times, its presence lingers throughout the story and in Laurelie and the hiker’s subconscious. I noticed that Riley kept her characters sparse, and hardly names them. In fact, despite the bond between Laurelie and the hiker, even as they become romantically involved and help each other get past their dread of human interaction, we are never told the hiker’s name until the very last chapter. It’s a very beautifully-written and clever book, but at times, intimidatingly so.

A “haunting and lyrical” short novel that packs a punch. This beautifully written debut follows Laurelie, an art student, who suffers from the aftermath of a sexual assault. She transfers from a city university to a rural small school in Vermont. Hiding from human connections, Laurelie finds a likeness in a hiker who is following a pregnant bobcat.

This will be one of my top reads for 2019.

Thank you to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing/Arcade Publishing for providing me with an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

perhaps you will observe that this book is under 200 pages and you will think to yourself, “my word! what a short book! i will read it quickly and be able to make some headway towards my reading goal for the year!”

this… is not the book for that.

yes, it is a book short in length, but it is a deliberate, descriptive book with very little dialogue, and it needs to be savored and sat with — rushing it will only ruin its mood, and in this book, mood and atmosphere are the dominant features, more central than character or even plot.

obviously there <i>is</i> a plot, there <i>are</i> characters — it’s the story of a young woman’s gradual healing after a sexual assault causes her to retreat from her life; switching colleges, moving from the city of philadelphia to the woods of rural vermont, becoming skittish and self-protectively removed from society — her only company a pair of cats and the little boy she babysits, until she meets a hiker, his dog, and the titular bobcat, and is drawn out of her fear and isolation back towards companionship, trust, and recovery.

but it’s a slow-dawning journey, and there’s <i>a lot</i> to absorb.

the natural world, particularly the nurturing aspects of the natural world, is the primary focus, and the events of the novel unfold mirroring nature’s steady, inevitable timetable. there is much in laurelie and in her tentative relationship with the hiker that suggests the woods’ atmosphere of hushed suspension, a sense of things stirring beneath the soil, both restless and inexorable.

the writing is gorgeous and vivid, and i especially love the way riley describes laurelie’s art — it made not-so-artsy-fartsy me really want to see these pieces realized. but even the most familiar situations are made all fresh and shiny when laurelie’s artist’s view of the world combines with riley’s thick prose:

<blockquote>… her vision broadened again, deluging her with an accumulation of fresh detail. The motions of the hiker’s fingers opening the other package. The angle his neck made bent, as he worked his way in a few starved bites through one half of the enormous sandwich it contained. The depth of umber where his elbow creased as he folded the rest of it carefully away, and the rigid climb of muscle up his sleeve when he stuck his hand through the open truck window and pulled out a new canvas ball. Already the dog was scrambling to its feet and tearing away down the lane, and now she perceived what she hadn’t before, that these were the first intricate steps of a ballet. Dog running, hiker waiting, timing it before throwing the ball so low and fast that it shot past the dog and struck the ground exactly a foot ahead, and then the dog snapping it up without ever breaking stride and circling back to drop it at the hiker’s feet.</blockquote>

it is a damn good debut, reminiscent in many ways of [book:All the Birds, Singing|18142324], and i’m looking forward to reading more by this author — and seeing laurelie’s art pieces made into their own book, please!!

This book is beautifully written with lyrical prose. It’s the story of a young woman dealing with sexual assault and trying to rebuild her life life in its aftermath. I loved this book for its writing, but struggled to conned with the characters.

This is one of those fable like books that got to me and made me think. Some lovely writing about a difficult subject -- a young woman traumatized by a sexual assault who doesn't identify or accuse her abuser, but internalizes her pain and becomes more and more reclusive. Her trauma is indicated by her identification of those around her as types, which she incorporates into her graphic art panels. A truly original approach to the me-too movement.

This novel reads like a fairy tale in that it is utterly gorgeous prose and a sort of shimmering not-quite-there feel to the setting, but it deals with some heavy topics. So, yeah, just like fairy tales. Disaster and flight and finding oneself in the woods and learning how to live again. This is just a lovely, heartbreaking book.

At first coming off as tedious with minimal dialogue and loads of descriptions, I almost turned a sour note on this novel when the story got to me - and I have to applaud the author for her efforts. A while ago I read Robert Haller's debut novel "Another Life" and while it was an immensively impactful story it had plenty of tender undertones to it. The Bobcat has a very similar feeling to it, written in a very "artful" style.

Lorelei is not a petty character but, even with the shitty experience she had, pulls herself together and finds a new lease on life through her own experience with the world of The Bobcat.

Laurelie and small boy she was watching were peacefully enjoying an afternoon by the river when they intersect with a man, who we know as “the hiker”, who was tracking a pregnant bobcat. The Hiker is a peculiar character who has extrasensory abilities, but it isn’t what you think. The Bobcat took a huge turn that I was not expecting but pleasantly enjoyed. This one moved at a slower pace by focusing more on peaceful reflections of nature and wildlife. Thank you to NetGalley and Skyhorse Publishing for the advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review

I'm sorry to say that this one wasn't for me. The description sounded interesting and because the main character is an artist I was looking forward to read The Bobcat.
What I disliked was the extreme detachment that I felt while reading the book. We do get to know how she feels , but I wanted a more rounded approach. We don't get to know the names of the boy she baby-sits, the hiker or the linguistics-major.
It just wasn't for me.

If you like lyrical writing and short books (this clocks in at 192 pages), this might be for you.

Thanks Netgalley for giving me a copy of The Bobcat.

This novel follows Lauriele, an art major, who struggles to cope after being sexually assaulted at a party in University. She transfers schools and moves to Vermont where she starts to heal. She meets a young man, a hiker, and a bobcat who help with her healing. Lauriele’s artwork also helps her express herself without words.

The writing style was unique with tons of description and very little dialogue. As such I found the novel had to get into and it took me a while to get used to the style. Once I did I became engrossed in the novel. The writing is beautifully poetic with great symmetry and emotions.

The characters were amazingly well written with each character slowly reveling themselves. The budding romance between the hiker and Lauriele was written well except near the end when the hikers secret is revealed. I didn’t agree that such a small thing should lead to such a big disaster. There was a ton of research that went into the novel; from famous artists and their style to viruses. At times this dragged the novel down a bit as I have no interested in art but it did help define the characters more.

In summary this was a good literature piece with strong characters, an good plot and an unique writing style. Do not read this tired or in the mood for a easy read because if your mind wanders you will miss important details.

Thank you Netgalley and Skyhorse Publishing for this ARC.

But she was still herself, though with a torn apart feeling now, that of once again breathing alone.

Laurelie is still reeling after being sexually assaulted, haunted even by the images of the of crowded Philadelphia, the menace she senses everywhere. University in the city is no longer tolerable, though she tried to navigate her old life, new habits took over, fear of seeing her attacker. The trauma is ingrained in her very skin, and she can’t seem to overcome her fear of human interaction. She decides to transfer to Vermont where she can work on her panels and become a sort of ‘cave animal’ herself. Surrounded by nature, working as a sort of nanny to a two and a half-year old boy, son of her landlord and landlady, she spends most of her time outdoors, letting the beauty of her surroundings and her charge’s wonderment feed her artistic belly. Their interactions are more visceral, as she sees him as a half possessed being, still not fully formed with opinions and thoughts it’s much easier to be in his unthreatening presence, but then she sees HIM. A hiker and a wounded wild bobcat, stranger is that the animal seems to be cuddling up to the man!

Curious about the hiker and his bond with the wounded animal she finds herself reaching out to him, offering to let him wash his laundry, which sounds simple to most of us, but for someone suffering a form of PTSD it’s like a leap off a cliff. Her cats seem to like him, you know what they say about animals being the best judge of character…

As the little boy grows and begins to ‘seek order in things’ Laurelie tries to see the world through his point of view. There is such beauty in the simplicity of childlike observations, and it’s well written in the relationship between them, their jaunts in the woods, his words just beginning to emerge. Curious about the hiker and his bond with the wounded animal she finds herself reaching out to him, offering to let him wash his laundry at her place, which sounds simple to most of us, but for someone suffering a form of PTSD it’s like a leap off a cliff. Her cats seem to like him, you know what they say about animals being the best judge of character…

There is a stillness in him, his approach is cautious, gentle as he senses the fear living inside of her. It isn’t long before she is seeing the land through his eyes too, how he understands the environment down the very ‘root systems’ of plants. He has peculiar ways, senses things on a much higher level than others. Senses that are highly attuned, much like an animal’s. He is stirring more than her desire, her art is flourishing, working on her panels to sort through the chaos that is still lingering from Philadelphia and all that took place there, too she begins to feel she is always ‘waiting for him’. If she retreated from the world, he is drawing her out, as much as her art is a means to siphon the poison from her soul. Then Rowan, the boy, disappears off the trails and the bobcat’s existence comes into question.

The novel speaks more in the moments between people and nature than actual conversations, which can lose some readers. I think the writing is beautiful, and I understand why there isn’t meant to be a lot of dialogue, but there were times I longed for it. This is a quietly restless novel, you absolutely feel the anguish of her rape without anyone needing to shout. Sometimes retreat is louder, and staggeringly heartbreaking. The art as healing as release and the surroundings as a balm, all of it feels true. I enjoyed The Bobcat, was saddened, hopeful and always engaged. A unique debut.

Publication Date: June 5, 2019

Skyhorse Publishing

Arcade Publishing

Up until the last ten percent of the book, I would have said this is one of the best pieces of literary fiction I had read in a long time. I would have given it five stars and gushed about what a terrific short novel it was.

However, the story took a very odd twist near the end and, in my mind, completely fell apart. The ending was most unsatisfying, and I would have flung the book down in irritation if it hadn't been a digital copy.

I'm inclined to give this book three stars, but since the writing was so incredibly good up until the last several chapters, I'll be nice and give it four stars. Maybe somebody can explain to me what the heck went on in the last few chapters.

Saturated with emotion, vivid and sensual, THE BOBCAT tells the gripping story of a young woman rebuilding her life and self after trauma. Katherine Forbes Riley takes us deep into the Vermont woods to show the power of nature, art, animal companionship, and human connection. An exquisite debut.

Intimate, lyrical, dream-like and intense; "The Bobcat" is a hauntingly beautiful debut. The emphasis is on feelings, nature and art, and whilst the subject is definitely disturbing, the prose, especially the use of internal monologue and the magical realism elements, paints a vivid picture of the main character, Laurelie, and of the human need to connect emotionally.

The Bobcat
by Katherine Forbes Riley
due 6-15-2019
Arcade / Skyhorse
5 / 5

Fantastic and inspiring, this gave me all the feels-happiness, sadness, love, hope, humor and imagination. Written in an engaging and relatable way, I was instantly drawn into the life of Lauelie, and artist / student at Montague in Vermont. Laurelie rents a small cottage behind the home of a young couple and in exchange for some of the rent, she also watches their 2 year old son, Rowan. They enjoy following the trail behind the cottage through the forest to a river.

One day while sitting on the riverbank, Laurelie and Rowan see a bobcat limping from the forest to the water. She is pregnant and obviously hurt. They are not sure how to react, when a hiker comes out of the trees, following the bobcat. He tells them he has been following the bobcat from Bangor, Maine-about 300 miles away- after seeing it being shot by hunters. The hiker, Laurelie and Rowan begin meeting and form a friendship, that enriches them all, convincing them to reach beyond their pasts and learn to trust again.

The action, flow and suspense are absolutely perfect. The relationships between the characters is inspiring and delightful. The interaction with the bobcat- and the character of Rowan is heartwarming.This is an endearing story that I just can not forget. Highly recommended
Thanks to Arcade/ Skyhorse for this e-book ARC for a fair and honest review.
#netgalley #TheBobcat

This isn't a bad book, but it wasn't for me. Although the writing was indeed lyrical, the pacing was a little too slow for me, and the vibe was the wrong kind of awkward. Reading it as an abuse survivor myself, I just found myself uncomfortable a lot of the time. I didn't end up finishing the book. I would recommend it to other readers who were a little more patient with slowly unfolding, slice of life plotlines than myself.

I received a free ARC from #NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really liked this book! The Bobcat is not for everyone since most of the story is internal monologue. Laurelie, a college student, is more of an observer than a participant in the college life. Her sexual assault leads her to become more internalized and eventually she withdraws from college. Wishing to continue her education, she enrolls at a Vermont college, Montague (Middlebury?) where social and physical isolation is acceptable and even appreciated.

As an art major, Laurelie expresses herself through her art that functions almost like therapy. Her happenstance meeting with the hiker establishes a very slow yet steady journey to finding peace and connection to others. The hiker remains unnamed until the end of the book. He, too, has difficulty with connecting with other people but his relationship with the natural world is extraordinary. He has followed an injured, pregnant bobcat who is unable to hunt hundreds of miles intending to aid her survival. Together, Laurelie and the hiker slowly and tentatively begin to heal each other's shattered souls.

Riley establishes a clear and powerful sense of place with her Vermont setting. Nature serves as a shield and as a comforting embrace. Well done.
#TheBobcat #NetGalley

This has been one of my favorite reads in a while. I loved the multi-layered characters and the depth of emotion their experiences evoked. This was a poignant and difficult read, but one I enjoyed very much.

A fresh and original voice is said to be the number-one thing publishers look for in a manuscript. Katherine Forbes Riley’s debut novel "The Bobcat" is definitely outside the mainstream, with unusual word choices that seem befitting of an unorthodox heroine. While the architecture and style of the novel took some getting used to, the story pulled me in and never let go.

Laurelie is an art major who transfers to a smaller, more remote college after repressed memories of a date-rape drug in her beer start coming back to her. The more she remembers, the more isolated and withdrawn she becomes. Living off-campus in a cottage near the woods in rural Vermont, she focuses on her art while keeping people at a safe distance. Until the bobcat appears, followed by the hiker.

Laurelie is a classic tortured artist, keeping unpleasant memories just of of reach and not letting people probe her too deeply. Scenes from each chapter become part of her artwork, which adds a unique layer of interest and depth.

Her narrative voice seems to suggest a weirdly fractured connection with the outer world. The confabulated opening sentence of the book will be either arresting or jarring, depending on the reader's sensibilities:

"Physically the fog signaled only the tail end of a long Vermont winter. But nature assumed a kind of sentience, given space. So it pillowed against Laurelie'swindows as a soft asylum wall and leaked its internal fluids on the sills and acted as a deranged refractor on the view, magnifying the crags and pores down her cottage's stone walls into dizzying cliffs, while drowning the yard and forest beyond in uniform gray particulate." and a sentence or two later, "Ice computed a massive geometry, drifting white in shards down the new black water."

I almost declared this a DFN (do not finish) but kept on with it, thinking the tortured syntax might be deliberate--carefully crafted to reflect the heroine's mental state--rather than, as one reviewer put it, a case of a debut novelist "trying too hard" (that's a strong judgment).

The story steadily emerges, fragile as a fresh, wet butterfly, so I kept reading. I love Laurelie has a babysitter and "the boy' is incredibly lucky to have her in the afternoon, taking him on nature walks, letting him discover the world on his own terms, and letting him get as dirty or wet as need be. I hated his mother for complaining that Laurelie brings him home "dirty." How lucky could that mother be to have such a babysitter?

Laurelie's more comfortable in nature, and with a child, than she is in society. I began to think this was intended to be a nature book like the ones our son read in college for an Ecological Literature class. His favorite novel that semester was "The Song of the World,"a 1934 novel byJean Giono, a French author and early environmentalist whose poetic nature prose was said to be inspired by Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass."

When Giono writes anthropomorphism, it's pure poetry. His river man and his man of the mountain are unspoiled by civilization and Western thought. On page one, Antonio lays a hand on an old oak tree and listens to its shiverings, and the birds, like him, listen to the river. The woman "evoked her great, tragic life, clad in love and hayfields, and joys more dazzling than hawthorn hedges." Line after line, page after page, is lyrical and rhythmic and alive. Not jarring. Not like Laurelie's deranged fog leaking its fluids or her impression of ice computing a massive geometry. But Laurelie is not the mountain man; the hiker is; and we don't read this story from his point of view.

The advent of the wounded female bobcat is epic, but even more epic is the hiker who's followed her for 300 miles because--well, read the book and see.

Laurelie strangely avoids naming the boy or the hiker, even after they grow increasingly familiar with each other. Apparently, when the hiker is named on the final page, it's a major milestone, a sign of Laurelei having moved past the weirdness of an being extreme introvert who tries to keep people at a safe distance.

The narrative is leisurely but not too slow. Weird, yes, but never a dull a moment. There's a lovely scene involving dolphins, a strange scene reminiscent of Woodstock, then the drama of the boy going missing. Chapter 17 was my favorite, with the scientific explanation of how the hiker came to be the nature man he is, a bobcat whisperer, a nomad living out of a tent, an expert on native flora and fauna, He's an herbalist, chef, and healer as well as a hiker. The reason for his extraordinary traits might force him to be isolated from Laurelie for reasons (Spoilers!) I cannot explain, much as I'd like to.

The linguistics major is a fun character who shows up again toward the end and takes on the role of leading Laurelie out of her hermitage and into Friday happy-hours and fun times with fellow students at a pub near campus. These scenes shine. It's fun to watch butterly Laurelie unfolding those wings and flapping them a bit.

It's the pages describing the hiker that had me wondering if the author knew what she was doing. The hiker's nostrils are mentioned 37 times. I kid you not. His nostrils flared white; his nostrils rippled with irregular vibrations; they pulsed, flared and flared again, settled into a strong steady pulse, flared thoughtfully and even "went into full flight." His nostrils"went from a flicker to a dance and started "going lightspeed" at the door of the fridge. His nostrils fluttered and whipped like sheets in the wind; they flared, half-flared, flickered erratically, spasmed erratically, pulsed gently, pulsed hard, rippled tightly, flared and flickered a dozen more times.

And while his nostrils visibly moved and captured Laurelie's attention, the hiker also did a lot of mouth-breathing. I could have sworn "mouth breather" was a derogatory term, but not in this novel. I didn't count how many times the hiker was mouth breathing, but it was a lot. "Mouth breather" is not a sexy thing but I suspect the author must have thought so, or maybe she was trying to depict something else but the right words eluded her.

In all, this is a pleasing novel, with intriguing characters who are not cardboard cutouts. They're real and believable. Odd, yes, but to me, "quirky" is good. Predictable and normal are boring in fiction.

Fiction workshoppers would demand more fast-paced action, peril, and suspense, but I was very happy that nobody ended up dead in the woods here. I've read more than I care to of thrillers, whodunnits, and murder victims. "The Bobcat" is a fresh, original, and very satisfying tale, and I don't see nearly enough stories that dare to deliver vibes of warmth and hope. More please, Katherine Forbes Riley!