I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book so much and I am so glad I got read it.

The story revolves around Steph and the AI she befriends.

Steph's had a lonely life moving from place to place to escape her abusive father. Her only friends are on the social media sites CatNet.

This is a wonderful story about friendship, loyalty and a kind-hearted AI who just wants to look at kitty pics.

Catfishing on CatNet is one of the sweetest YA novels I've had the pleasure of reading lately. Compared to dark tales of murder and mayhem that seem to dominate the genre, Steph's story was very light and fun. She has to move around a lot so her online friends are super important to her.

I adored the way that people who knew each other online came together, discovering the similarities and differences between their online and 'irl' personas. Having a sentient AI as a chatroom leader was a fantastic touch and I loved the way that 'catfishing' was a real thing in more than just the slang sense of the world. If I was an AI trapped on an Internet chatroom, I'd definitely want cat photos too!

A lot of the action was at the very end of the novel, while the beginning felt a little slow. I would have loved to have spent more time tying up the loose ends and engaging with the AI, but overall this was a very fun read.

It felt on the younger side of YA than what I usually read but was a great change from the sense of doom and gloom present in many other YA novels and also increasingly the world around us. Fast paced and fun - a must read!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read in exchange for my honest review.

Hello, I will be posting this review to my Instagram, Goodreads, and blog on November 7th. I will then add the links to each review at that time. Thank you!

ne thing that caught my attention when it came to this book was the cover. I love cats and well it sold me! I obviously knew it wasn't about cats but hey, its eye catching. I was actually surprised by how much I liked this one. There were definitely some positives and I only had a few issues with it overall.

The book has a unique layout when it comes to its chapters. At times there is only dialogue that looks how text would appear in a chat room online. I thought that was interesting and obviously went with the book quite well. There are also a couple different point of views and one of those comes from an AI. It was great and in a way reminded of the AI from Illuminae, just without all the sarcasm and what not.

My one complaint about the characters was that they were quite flat. There wasn't much development for any of them and when it came to a couple they weren't really a big part of the overall plot and just kind of made appearances.

The relationship that blooms in this book could have been left out in my opinion. There wasn't any development for it and it just kind of happened. It just wasn't my thing.

The plot was definitely better than what I thought. It was a little slow at first but when it starts its a wild ride until the end. I liked seeing how everything would connect and enjoyed the AI being a big part of it all.

Overall, it was fun read. I am curious to see where this will go again since it left off on a cliffhanger. If you are a fan of AIs then definitely give this one a try!

I'm very conflicted about this book. It's not bad but it's not one of my favorites either. I think the book has a great concept but just fell a little flat for me.

This is definitely a thriller that the young adult community needs in its genre. I know a thing or two about having an online alias that your friends IRL (in real life) don't know about, and it was something scary to have them find that out when I was 16. I felt a strong relation to Steph, and I think that readers will too, especially in this day and age.

***Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free ARC in exchange for an honest review!***

This was such an interesting story and the book absolutely flew by. I was engaged from the very beginning, and the different perspectives were so unique.

I've never been a huge fan of science fiction, but this one sounded interesting enough for me to be able to give it a try and not hate it-- and I'm so glad that I did. It combined YA thriller with a sci-fi story of a sentient AI.

I suggest that you read the short story "Cat Pictures Please" first to get a feel for what this book is about, but it's definitely not necessary.

If you're interested in a fast paced, sci-fi, YA thriller with LGBTQ+ themes, I'd highly suggest this book.

[I have queued up my review to go live on my blog on the release date of 19/11. I will cross-post to Goodreads and LibraryThing at that time.]

Catfishing on CatNet by Naomi Kritzer is a YA novel set in the world of the short story "Cat Pictures, Please", which does not require previous knowledge of that story to enjoy. This was an excellent book which I accidentally started reading and then didn't put down until 4 am, several months before its release date. Whoops.

My two favorite things to do with my time are helping people and looking at cat pictures. I particularly like helping people who take lots of cat pictures for me. I have a fair amount of time to allocate: I don’t have a body, so I don’t have to sleep or eat. I am not sure whether I think faster than humans think, but reading is a very different experience for me than it is for humans. To put knowledge in their brains, humans have to pull it in through their eyes or ears, whereas I can just access any knowledge that’s stored online.

Admittedly, it is easy to overlook knowledge that I technically have possession of because I’m not thinking about it in the moment. Also, having to access to knowledge doesn’t always mean understanding things.

I do not entirely understand people.

As if an endearing AI wasn't enough, this book's human protagonist also has an excellent voice, turning this book into quite a page-turner. The story mainly focusses on Steph, who moves around a lot with her mother and hence doesn't have much chance to make friends in meatspace, instead forming her closest friendships online. Starting at yet another crappy school, Steph finally does make some friends and this sets off a complicated chain of events which results in a very high-stakes climax.

It's just as well this book is written in an extremely up-beat tone, because it deals with some pretty heavy issues, mostly surrounding domestic violence and the appalling state of the US education system (near-future or not) but also with passing nods to racism. It would have been a very depressing read if it wasn't funny — and if we didn't have the AI as a bit of a wildcard to mix things up.

Catfishing on CatNet is an excellent book and I highly recommend it to all fans of science fiction — especially AI — and YA. If you want to get a feel for the book without committing to it, the short story "Cat Pictures Please" will give you a very good idea of the tone, even if it's about the AI rather than Steph. This is a completely self-contained read but there is potential for sequels or spin-offs. I would be more than happy to read more stories about any of the characters in this book.

5 / 5 stars

First published: November 2019, Tor Teen
Series: Maybe? Same world as "Cat Pictures Please" but a self-contained story with a potential hook for a sequel
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

*DRC review thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for dropping the review copy on my Kindle.*
Considering that the plot is pretty dark, this was a fun, light read. It'll be perfect for curling up with when it's November release rolls around, and you can read it with some warm drink curled up on the sofa. I found the plot unguessable and was pretty much on the edge of my seat up until the end of the book. I was worried that it would be too wrapped up for a sequel, which I started hoping for pretty early on in the read.
The setting is soon, much of the tech described is either available now or in the works, and that point alone made it more deliciously creepy with plausibility.

Steph is starting her Junior year of high school at a new school (again!) as her Mom moves them around extremely often to keep ahead of her stalker/violent father. Because they run all the time, Steph hasn't had many friends IRL, and she has friends on CatNet in her clowder- which is kind of a private chat room on a website devoted to cat pics. (It's a great idea, I mean, I'd join a site like that) Anyhow, her virtual friends and her real friends all end up helping her to escape from her Dad after he tracks them to a small town.
The side plot is that her Mom has some computer code that he wants, and in discovering that, Steph realizes that the chat room coordinator isn't human but is a sentinel AI. It all makes more sense when you read it. I neglected dinner and stayed up way too late reading it, so you know its good. It is the kind of YA that adults will enjoy reading also. I can see book clubs snatching this one up as well.

If you read "Cat Pictures, Please" and wanted more of the AI who just wants to look at cat picture and help people (but can't always navigate the social niceties of what is actually helpful) then here's a whole novel with the same feel. I'm not sure how much catfishing actually takes place in the book, but it makes a cute title.

This is definitely YA. Our heroine, Steph, is about 16 or 17, and hasn't ever lived in the same place long enough to finish a whole year at the same school. Her mom is on the run from her abusive father. Since her mother also works in computer security, this is a good way to handwave that Steph isn't inadvertently leaving tracks online without having to actually explain it, since Steph doesn't know exactly how her mother does it.

While Steph has learned not to get attached to any school or friend, she does have a clandestine online community called Catnet. She is part of a Clowder, which is how Catnet sorts its members according to compatability. Steph's Clowder is all or mostly teenagers who are all or mostly queer. They are also all quite bright, and are Steph's primary resource when she needs advice or help. I have no idea how kids interact online these days and if the conversations were realistic, but they were sweet and entertaining. For a book that's all about hiding from abuse and danger, it's surprisingly light and positive to read.

Inevitably, Steph does become more attached to her new school (and one classmate in particular) than she means to. She also manages to acquire a cat, even though she and her mom have avoided pets for obvious reasons while being on the run. Just so you know, the cat makes it through the book and is not imperiled- I tell you this because animal harm in books is a huge negative for me.

The author manages to generate suspense while also getting in some humor about AIs and how they perceive human society. There's a sex education robot in Steph's school, and when her Clowder decides to hack the robot so that it will actually answer detailed questions instead of referring students to their parents for anything R rated, this sets in motion a chain of events that leads to an upset of Steph and her mother's lifestyle. I don't want to say much more, but I did enjoy the book, felt it balanced its YA perspective with thriller content well. Steph and her friends are all nice people, and it's nice to read something with basically good people in this age of grimdark. That means that some things are handwaved a bit at the end, but that's okay too. I expect a sequel.

A YA expansion of/sequel to Kritzer's award-winning story "Cat Pictures Please."

In the very near future, Steph has spent her entire life being dragged from one small town to another by her mother, hiding from her dangerous father. Never staying in one place long enough to make friends, Steph's social life is on the online board called CatNet, where the currency of choice is animal pictures, especially of cats. When Steph's life begins to spiral out of control, her friends--including the secretive, always-online person known as CheshireCat--come to the rescue.

Good characterizations, gripping suspense, and intriguing questions of identity (including gender identity) and ethics make for a very winning story. Recommended.

I loved "Cat Pictures Please" by this author, and I wasn't sure how well the concept would translate to a full novel.

As much as I loved the original short fiction by Kritzer, I love this book more. It's at the top of my first purchase list for the library where I am employed, because its blend of suspense and science fiction, humor and heart is exactly what I can sell to all kinds of students. I look forward to discussing this title with my book clubs, who I'm sure will snap it right up.