Benji Nate

Girl Juice pops up on my Instagram feed occasionally, so I was hype when I saw it's coming out as a book! There was some weirdness with my e-ARC and random white pages that may or may not have been actual content that failed to load, so I may have missed six or seven pages of this. That did not damper my enjoyment however! Nate's characters and writing are so ridiculous but at the same time feel so lived-in and real. Not a book to read for a overarching story; more like just hanging out with show more a bunch of friends who don't care about sounding stupid around each other. This is excellent bimbo [reclaimed] representation. show less

Olive is an art school graduate who lives alone with her cat Henry, who she considers to be her best and only friend. One night, she wishes on a shooting star that Henry could hang out with her like a person. When she wakes up, Henry has become a human-sized catboy.

Henry is definitely still more cat than human, even though he can now talk, which leads to occasional weird moments. Olive is kind of put off by the fact that he seems better at socializing than she is (he immediately becomes show more friends with Dixie, who Olive went to school with and dislikes). Still, Olive and Henry get along fairly well, and Henry prompts Olive to make some changes in her life, like actually getting furniture. It doesn't hurt that Henry somehow makes more walking dogs than Olive does trying to sell her artwork.

I was expecting to like this one a lot more than I actually did. The cover art is fluffy and cute, and I thought the story would be equally so. I think it was trying to be, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me and ended up feeling a bit too weird. Did we really need a page in which Henry tried to get the hang of peeing outside? And how did Henry make so much money just walking dogs??

The artwork was cute enough, and I enjoyed Henry's many outfits. This wasn't bad, exactly, just occasionally somewhat off-putting.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) show less

Olive Branch makes a wish on a shooting star, and suddenly her cat Henry can talk, walk upright, and share her wardrobe as he's instantly promoted from pet to roommate. Some gentle cat humor and lots of fashion pin-ups follow.

It's not bad, but it just didn't do anything for me. I cared not a jot for the characters or situations. Keep in mind, I'm a dog person

Four roommates hang, bicker, and have fun. Bunny is the sex-positive loose cannon who drives the funniest and most inappropriate jokes. The other three probably have personalities too, but mostly just exist to disapprove of or put the brakes on Bunny.

Told mostly in single page gags, there are a few short arcs about camping, an adult prom, and an overbearing mother. The last third of the book is a full-blown story about supernatural events happening in the house where they live that riffs on show more the toxic nature of social media.

Dirty and amusing. show less