After a brief recap of the first book Catfishing on Catnet in which we are reminded that CheshireCat, is actually an AI who is very good at figuring out who will be good friends to each other and created CatNet in order to do that and look at cat pictures, and through hijinks ended up revealing their AI status to one clowder on their site and helping one member, Steph, escape their dangerous father, Chaos on Catnet jumps right into the action with CheshireCat receiving an anonymous message that states someone knows who and what they are.

Steph, meanwhile, is starting a new school and from day one she meets a girl from a very strange religious sect who has a mystery attached to her in the form of a missing mother and is having a hard time adapting to living with her father, who is in a polyamorous relationship. Her name is Nell, and she is now a point of view character. Also, her girlfriend goes missing very shortly after she becomes a point of view character. At the same time, there are several social media sites that have people performing tasks which border on ill-advised and illegal. Naturally Steph and Nell end up joining and things spin rapidly and wildly out of control.

It is my opinion that Kritzer’s second volume would not stand especially well on its own, and readers would miss out on a lot of great worldbuilding and storytelling. The author’s note discusses how in writing this book Kritzer chose to make Minneapolis of the near future the one they wanted to see, and the explanation is a hopeful one, but it also hurts a little because it highlights the ways in which our current system has not done its best by its people. It is still a great world to read about though, for a number of reasons, but especially its characterization.

As with its predecessor, the queer representation in this book, is very good. It portrays queer and polyamorous people and relationships believably, giving them flaws as characters which do not derive from their sexual preferences or gender. It also discusses trauma and addressing it really well, as well as normalizing the processes for dealing with it, such as therapy, and finding support systems. Also well done are the portrayals of adults, who are almost all believable characters and not just cardboard cutouts strategically placed to fill plot gaps.

This is a worthy follow-up to Chaos on CatNet. The only complaint I have is that I miss reading about the Clowder, and would really, really like to read more about other members doing things and having adventures.

Chaos on CatNet is the sequel to Catfishing on CatNet, which I enjoyed so much! As for the sequel, I thought it was SO good. I had so much fun reading it as I did with book one. In book one I really loved all the friendships and I was happy to see them continue in book two with some new characters and friendships introduced. It was fast-paced and so many different things happening. It kept me guessing and even a little spooky vibe to it because I feel like it could be something that could happen today or in the near future with all those hackers out there! I don’t want to go into too many details in this review, because I don’t want to spoil the first book or anything that happens in this one either. If you like near future sci-fi, then I highly recommend checking out the first book and of course this one!

A delightful game of cat and mouse between two AIs and their humans!

One thing I love about this series is that it's just so fun, without compromising on addressing the kinds of hard topics teens deal with. The author is excellent at showcasing healthy relationships between flawed humans without it feeling forced or unrealistic.

I've lived in the midwest all my life and I have to say that the author completely nails the setting. I absolutely adore how she envisioned policing in Minneapolis 5-10 years in the future and how she wrote characters that have transitioned from small towns to cities. This story felt like home in a lot of ways for me, as a queer midwesterner who moved from a small town to a big city and has found family on the internet.

Chaos on CatNet is unique in that instead of addressing the age-old question of whether an AI is a person, it takes AI's personhood at face value and instead examines how humans manipulate each other, and how any intelligent being with access to mass amounts of data can use that for good, evil, or mischief. I think it's very common for stories like this to fall into the trap of assigning morality to tech, and I was thrilled to see this story go in a different direction.

Recommended for anyone who loves the magic of online friendship, cats, gaming, and teen shenanigans; as well as fans of Murderbot.

CW for cults and conversion therapy

I will start by saying that I did not read Catfishing on CatNet but I have heard a lot about the book and knew the story, so I wasn't going in without background to the story. I loved the POV switches and how the personalities (AI or not) definitely stand out amongst each other. The story continues where the other left off, trying to determine whether there is actually a second AI. This book really makes you think about the growth and dependency on technology, how much information we're giving about ourselves, and how much our "real" lives and online selves are being intertwined.

4/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Addressing the first major standout of this novel, the writing quality has greatly improved from the first. In Catfishing on CatNet I found that the characters all felt a lot younger than they were supposed to be. That was not the case in this book.
In terms of narrative structure, this felt a bit more like a mystery, and while some aspects of the plot were predictable; others were not. This kept everything pretty exciting despite the fact there weren’t any cross-country car chases. I also enjoyed the interactions between CheshireCat and the other AI, as well as CheshireCat’s continuing friendship with Steph.
Unfortunately, I was disappointed that we didn’t get more of the Clowder. They were pretty prominent side characters in the first book, so I was looking forward to learning more about all of them. Yet, they kind of fell by the wayside in this one. Additionally, as a character I knew that Nell didn’t really buy into the belief system that her cult had attempted to indoctrinate into her. Yet, her thoughts seemed to randomly fluctuate back and forth between someone fully brainwashed and someone aware that the cult was being abusive. It threw her perspective off, and made it less enjoyable.
Overall, I think that Chaos on CatNet was a pretty good second novel, and I will probably continue to follow the series as it progresses.

First: you have to read Catfishing on CatNet before reading this. That's usually a good idea with any sequels, and this book definitely won't make sense if you haven't read the first.

CHAOS follows the same pattern as Catfishing: chapters from the POV of CheshireCat, the AI who loves cat pictures and tries to help humans, sometimes with disastrous results; chapters as Steph, the protagonist of the first book, who is no longer forced to keep running away with her mum in fear of her dangerous father. And for this book we get Nell, who's as broken as Steph: she's grown up in an ultraconservative cult, and now her mother has disappeared so she's living with her father - who left them many years ago - in her father's polyamorous household (a nest of sin, of course, to the people in the cult).

At the end of Catfishing, it was revealed that there was a second AI out there, who was trying to make contact with CheshireCat. This story is basically about that: what is this other AI like? should Cat make contact? And the weird things that people are doing as part of "missions" from their favourite social media sites/ games - how are they connected?

This book is coming from Tor Teen and I don't really know whether it will work for actual teens (I am not one). I, however, enjoyed a lot of aspects: it's fast-paced, I found the characters largely believable - except, perhaps, for CheshireCat; I don't know what I expect of AI but this isn't quite it. Maybe I'm too deeply into Martha Wells' Murderbot, or Ann Leckie's Breq, but this all-I-want-is-cat-pics-and-to-help-you just seems... weird. And borderline creepy. Maybe it's that it's too human! Anyway; I enjoyed the diversity of characters and I enjoyed the interactions between characters; the incidental notes felt very real. Nell's suspicion of, and stiffness towards, her father's household make complete sense in her context.

The use of social media games, and the idea of apps following people and basically spying on them, feels very pertinent right now and of course very creepy. I know that people are often already unaware of how much their phone in general, and specific apps, are accessing their data and making use of it. Kritzer is taking a logical next step that honestly freaks me out.

Robots, car chases, romance, family, social manipulation, snark, and AIs. That's what this book has going for it.

I received this YA book from the publisher via NetGalley.

I read the first CatNet book as part of the Norton Award finalist packet last year. It gripped me from the start with its relatable young heroine Steph and fantastic hook: a teenage girl who has spent her life with her mom on the run from her abusive dad relies on an internet chat room for support--and when her dad finds her, discovers one of her dear online friends is a sentient AI (who happens to love cat pictures), and really relies on them to survive.

The sequel starts out slower as the stakes aren't quite as high. Steph's dad is in prison. Her mom is trying to make a normal life for them in Minneapolis. When Steph starts at a new school, she finds the kids are really into new phone games that ask them to complete tasks in real life--tasks that weirdly match the kids own lives and environments. Even her new friend Nell, recently moved in with her dad after leaving a cult, plays a Christian type of phone game. Steph and her AI friend soon suspect that these aren't mere games. Another AI may be involved, and this one isn't content to just stare at cat pictures.

Even though the pace was slower, the circumstances were still intriguing, and the tension does escalate. I zoomed through the book in all of two days. A few trigger warnings: the book does address abusive family and extremist religious sects, but the book is also about hope and support. Really, the importance of found family is a prevalent theme. At one point, the teenagers need a refuge, and they go to a house with a rainbow flag, and get just the support they need.

Beyond the characters, the book brings up intriguing near-future science fiction questions about sentience, AI, the power that phones have over our lives, and even what the future of policing may look life. Good subjects are everyone to ponder these days.

I received a copy of this book from Tor Teen and Netgalley.

Does this sequel stand up to what was laid out in the first book. Oh, yes! Absolutely! Not only that but Kritzer does wonders with the near-future setting.

We meet Nell, a young woman raised in a doomsday cult that has been mysteriously abandoned by her mother and left with her polyamourous father.

Nell and Steph's meeting changes both their lives drastically.

This book is a wonder.

One of the concerns we have about the creation of the Lodestar Award is that its existence could prevent deserving books from earning a spot on the ballot for the Best Novel Hugo Award. That is, books written for a certain age group might all be sequestered into the Lodestar by default, when they might also be strong candidates for a Hugo award.

Fans of “adult” science fiction should not ignore Chaos On CatNet.

Set in the very-near future, the CatNet novels centre on a high-school-age girl Steph, who is befriended by a friendly web-based artificial intelligence that goes by the handle Cheshire Cat. The previous works in the series (the Hugo-winning short story “Cat Pictures Please,” and the Lodestar-winning novel Catfishing on CatNet) focused on the good that a highly intelligent AI with access to big data could do, and on battles over control of data. In Chaos on Catnet, Kritzer starts to look at the other side of the same coin.

Picking up within weeks of where Catfishing on CatNet left off, this latest novel introduces a second artificial intelligence — one whose goals and motivations are murkier than a simple appreciation of domestic felines. This major plot-line explores just how creepy and ugly AI-directed behavioural change algorithms can get; both in terms of beguiling people into destructive fantasy-based worldviews, and in terms of turning people against each other. The fact that Kritzer ties these algorithms both to destructive religion and to tribalist Q-Anon style groups is telling, and insightful.

This book is set in the very, very near future. There are self-driving taxi cabs, the General Dynamics quadruped robots are now consumer-ready, but there are no technological advances that are overly fantastical. In many ways, Kritzer is in conversation with several other authors who have been playing in similar sandboxes: people like Karl Schroeder and Cory Doctorow. It is interesting to compare Kritzer’s approach to the future of policing with that of Doctorow’s approach in his novel Attack Surface. Kritzer’s thoughtful, hopeful blueprint for a better system of policing in Minneapolis is a highlight of the book.

One aspect of the novel that helps elevate Chaos On CatNet above the preceding CatNet works is the use of space and place. Kritzer’s near-future Minneapolis is recognizable to those who have spent time in the city, but also offers a constructive and thoughtful framework for how a city might respond to the riots of last summer. Those riots — which she briefly writes about in a terrific afterword — took place as she was in the process of revising and editing her draft. She decided to “write the Minneapolis you want to see.”

In many ways the present is already catching up to a novel whose first draft was probably written just over a year ago: the chaos caused by the AI antagonist has clear parallels to the ways in which social media algorithms helped fuel the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Late in the novel, there are some plot elements that seem to vanish mid-stream (What happened to the big scary robot army? We don’t know!), and the ending is a little too nice and convenient. But despite these quibbles, the novel holds together remarkably well.

Chaos On Catnet should be seriously considered for the Hugo Award for best novel alongside other more “adult” works.

I mean, right off the bat I have to agree with The New York Times Book Review. This book is perfect.

I read Catfishing on CatNet last year (2020) in October and my obsession began. I first heard about this book from a podcast I listen to about reading called Reading Glasses. The host who read it said so many good things about it and their recommendations never steered me wrong so I picked it up. Easily one of my favourite books I read that year and probably how I discovered I enjoy reading some thrillers. The beauty of this thriller is the science fiction element with the AI (Artifical Intelligence) and self driving cars. I easily got sucked into the world that is like mine, with subtle differences (that I would actually like to see btw... Elon Musk I am talking to you). While I loved the first book, there is always that moment of panic when you are worried the second book won't be as good or capture you the same way. Luckily, Naomi Kritzer kills it again. I was hooked immediately and the storyline was different enough from the first book that I just couldn't put it down. I don't know how she does it. But I hope she continues to do it for a long long time.

So in this installment of the series, Steph is finally settled down after all the CRAZY from the first book only to be thrown into even more unexpected CRAZY in the second book. And while she like to try to figure out most of her problems on her own, I appreciate she knows when to ask for help and when to tell the adults around her of the situation so they can also help. One thing that I absolutely adore is how there is such attention paid to the language around pronouns and other LGBT relationships without it being a focal point. It is just part of the story and really has nothing to do with the story but I just love that it is there and prevalent. It makes me feel hopeful that eventually it will just be like this for real and how good that would feel.

I know, this book isn't out until April so what are you supposed to do until then... go pick up the first book and then let me know what you think.

Would I recommend this book?
- Absolutely I will. I won't soon forget about this one.

This was such an interesting idea and you couldn't help to want to see where it could go. I enjoyed the dynamics with the characters.

I loved this sequel! I would recommend reading the first book "Catfishing on CatNet" before this one. This story pretty much picks up where the first story ended. I was so excited to see that Steph, CheshireCat, and friends were back! I really love this these stories have realistic representations of LGTBQIA+ characters. This story was a little more dark than the first one but still just as thrilling. I ended up hurriedly finishing it one evening just because I couldn't stop reading it. I really really hope that this is the second of a long running series, if you keep writing them, I'll keep reading them!

In this LGBTQ-friendly near-future dystopia, we pick up with Steph again as she is starting a new school. On her first day she meets Nell, an odd girl who’s been homeschooled until her mother vanished, and she was sent to live with her father and his new wife (and also a girlfriend). Nell, who has been raised to distrust everyone outside of her mother’s religious cult, is horrified to discover herself in this situation.

But Nell’s two biggest problems are finding her mother, and finding her girlfriend. She is especially terrified on her girlfriend’s behalf, fearing she’s been sent to one of those sinister “therapy” retreats meant to brainwash kids into their parents’ worldview.

Watching Steph and Nell form a friendship is a real pleasure, a contrast to the bleakness of the storyline. Steph asks CheshireCat to help find the girlfriend, but that proves disturbingly difficult.

Even more disturbing is the new “Pokemon Go” type game that all the kids seem to be into, asking kids to do “tricks” in the real world in order to gain game points. Some of these tricks become increasingly alarming, like “go steal a hammer from a store and leave it in a special place.”

Nobody seems to question this crossing from the game world to the real world, and as more people join the game, riots form. Another positive besides Steph and Nell’s friendship is the police in this restless, unsettling near future. Cheshire Cat, the AI (are there two?) and the teens and the dystopia all come together in a white-knuckle climax that kept me reading very late.

I loved the new characters (Steph’s grandmother especially) and the many ideas raised. It’s such a fast, absorbing read that the many thoughtful ideas buried in the story really come to the foreground in contemplating it afterward. Like, Kritzer doesn’t make the adults stupid in order to keep the kids in the foreground. Loved that--loved all the characterizations, including the villains in their unblinking anger.

I think it’s safe to say that if you liked the first book, you’ll like this one. At least I sure did—I hope we get to see Steph, Nell, Cheshire Cat, and all the others in further adventures.

The sentient AI who befriended a group of youngsters is back, but has competition from another AI who seems to be raising an army for unclear purposes. Kritzer imagines a completely altered Minneapolis police force focused on helping people more than hurting them, but that isn’t enough to stop the AI. If you liked the first one, you will probably like the second.

A very solid sequel! I very much enjoy that Steph’s mom doesn’t even think twice about how her daughter is queer, but we also have an awesome story of a super wild cult. This series is such a unique voice in the young adult world, and it truly deserves more attention.

In the follow up to the wonderful Catfishing on Catnet, Steph and her mom are settling down in Minneapolis now that Steph's dad is in jail. At her new school, Steph befriends another new girl whose mom and girlfriend are both missing and may be in the hands of a religious cult. Luckily, Steph's "very particular set of skills," namely having an AI friend, make her the perfect person to investigate.
But what if there's another AI out there, and it's into more nefarious things than looking at cat pictures?
While not quite as exciting as the first book, it was great to catch up with Steph and her friends.

I begged for there to be a second book after reading Catfishing on CatNet and my dreams were answered, almost as if CheshireCat was listening in on my conversation. (If only I were so lucky!) So we're back with the team. Not much time has passed since the ending of the first book. Enough time for Steph's mum to have made some progress on her therapy and for Steph to start at yet another new school. Only this time it's under her actual name, with all of her transcripts and with nothing to hide. Her dad is in jail and they're no longer on the run. 

Things never appear like they're going to be quiet around poor Steph, though. On her first day in her new school she meets Nell who has been homeschooled up until the point her mother disappeared. Although their family always seems to have been religious (on the mother's side at least), for the past two years they've been in a cult. But since her mother's disappeared Nell has been sent to live with her father (who walked out on them when she was young). He now lives with a new wife, who has a girlfriend, and he (Nell's dad) has a girlfriend himself. They all live together, so Nell now has a family of four adults in a nice polyamory family-unit. Despite Nell's cult-religious upbringing she has a girlfriend herself, so I'm not entirely sure why this initially seems to disgust Nell when she's telling Steph about it - perhaps it's just in the way of 'eugh adults'.

Either way, Nell seems to have baggage. It also appears as though her girlfriend (who was also part of the cult) has disappeared, and she fears she's been sent to one of those illegal but probably-still-exist conversion therapy retreats under the guise of being 'therapeutic Christian boarding schools' or something. This is something that Steph asks CheshireCat to look into for them, but even our favourite AI is having trouble tracking her down... which, if you know what it's able to do certainly says a lot for where Nell's girlfriend must be stashed. 

There are also Pokemon Go style games and websites popping up more and more around the place - the kind that track where you are and give real-world quests, though as the book goes on they get more sinister. Instead of 'walk 12k to hatch an egg to get a low-IV boring pokemon', you get 'walk into this hardware store, steal a hammer, leave it in this box for someone else to pick up' and that kind of thing. And then riots and mass group activities start happening, where, at least, we see a version of the police that the author hopes could be reality someday... but more on that later. 

It also seems as though there's another AI out there, one who is contacting CheshireCat, saying that they know who and what they are. This is the main crux of the book, and although everything ties in together (as well as into events from the first book, so you'd really have to read that one before coming into this one) is all about how we function as people - whether we are hardwired to be a certain way or if we grow organically, made of things around us. Even with AI this is the case, such as CheshireCat liking photos of cats rather than videos of dogs, and that sort of thing. 

We see most of the cast of the first book with a bonus introduction of a grandmother Steph never knew existed. The bonus about this book being set 10+ years into the future is that even the older generation have pretty incredible skills - this grandmother can steal cars and was one heavily into drag racing, so she's their ticket in and out of some fairly tight situations.

Overall I found this book bleaker than the first. The riots, the religion, and everyone willingly doing absolutely stupid things because an app tells you to and so forth... it was all a bit depressing. I have no doubts that this was its intended impact, and it's not as though the first book was all sunshine and kittens - it has a father trying to steal a child and guns and things after all, but this book... I don't know. It hit a little too close to home, I suppose. This series certainly does make you stop and think for a while about all the tech we surround ourselves with, how easily we click allow to give various apps access to microphones, photos, app data and so on... 

But one of the positives was the police force. In the afterword the author references the tragic and disturbing death of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. To that end, as this book is set in the future, the author has given us a police force she hopes they can work towards - one that isn't threatening, one that seeks to help rather than hinder, and so forth. One of the interactions show them trying to get Steph a warmer coat when she finds herself out at night in freezing conditions, for instance. Seeing speculative fiction edging us towards this future to help make it a reality is something I want to see more of, certainly. 

I demolished this book in a day so I clearly couldn't put it down and I needed to know what happened next. I also would love to see a third book. I just hope that Steph, Rachel, Nell, Glenys and CheshireCat can all go somewhere nice. Maybe it's time they attend a convention and save the Concom from something. That'd be awesome.

[Review scheduled to go live on 27 April 2021]

Chaos on CatNet by Naomi Krtizer is the sequel to Catfishing on CatNet, which was an excellent book and I recommend reading it first. The short story "Cat Pictures Please", is also set in the same world and makes a nice introduction to one of the characters, though is not necessary to follow the story in the novels. Furthermore, do not be put of by the very generically US YA cover, the book inside is much more unique than the cover makes it seem.

It takes an AI to catch an AI in Chaos on CatNet, the follow-up to Naomi Kritzer's award-winning near future YA thriller.

When a mysterious entity starts hacking into social networks and chat rooms to instigate paranoia and violence in the real world, it’s up to Steph and her new friend, Nell, to find a way to stop it—with the help of their benevolent AI friend, CheshireCat.

Chaos on CatNet was an excellent read. We return to Steph, CheshireCat the AI, and their human friends, plus some newly introduced characters. Steph is now living (permanently) in Minneapolis and makes a new friend at school. Her new friend just so happens to have recently left a cult, which makes more some unexpectedly interesting and ominous reading.

Overall, Chaos on CatNet had higher stakes than the previous book, and the brewing confrontation was very menacing and disconcerting. I don't want to spoil anything, but I found the rising background tension unnerving and, which I think was the intent. It was still a compelling read, but less fluffy and comforting than Catfishing on CatNet (which had more of an isolated climax).

I enjoyed this book a lot and I would definitely read a sequel if one were forthcoming. This series has made for very unputdownable reading. I highly recommend Chaos on CatNet to fans of Catfishing on CatNet and the series generally to people who are intrigued by the concept of a cat-loving AI befriending a bunch of nerdy teenagers.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: April 2021, Tor Teen
Series: CatNet book 2 of 2 (so far)
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

This was an interesting read! I did not know before reading it was a sequel but I will definitely go back to read the 1st one now. I liked the representation in the book, I think it is important to have characters with various backgrounds, life experiences etc. Well done to Naomi Kritzer!

This was such an excellent sequel to Catfishing on CatNet! Like the first book, this is very fast paced and engaging. There's exciting plot threads, including some dealing with cults. I thought this was perfect to read as the weather is getting colder since the cold definitely plays a factor in some of the events that happen! There are some very tense and chilling (both literally and otherwise) moments in this book. I really enjoyed reading the author's note about how events of 2020 affected some plot points. This book envisions a future Minneapolis where change has occurred, particularly with the police force.

The characters continue to be absolutely wonderful with many great friendships. We have Steph and CheshireCat returning as POV characters, and we have a new POV character in Nell. I absolutely love getting to follow an AI character and seeing how they want to help their friends. Steph is such a good person, and I really enjoyed seeing her help Nell out, even though they just met. Nell was a fascinating new character. She comes from a cult background, so it's very interesting to read from this perspective. There's excellent representation here again with plenty of LGBTQ+ characters (some new rep this time includes polyamory and an ace character).

There are certainly some grim topics here, including conversion therapy, cults, survivalist mentality, gun violence, riots, and more. However, I still feel like this book has an overall message of hope. Many characters are accepting of others and genuinely do want to help!

I would absolutely recommend this book (and series in general)! I can't wait to see what Naomi Kritzer does next.

I received a copy of this for review from the publisher via NetGalley - thank you! All opinions are my own.

My video review can be seen on my channel (around minutes 29:20-32:53 of this video): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqKqrU9LmyY