Bookalicious

From Goodreads: Mary Richards is a normal sixteen-year-old girl living in Manhattan. Well, almost normal. She goes to private school on the Upper East Side, having been saved from a life of squalor by an adoptive family. But she’s also slowly transforming into a cat.

Struggling to hide her physical metamorphosis, Mary discovers that she isn’t alone. A whole race of cat people prowls the streets of Manhattan at night, including Mary’s long-time crush, Nick.

Aside from heightened feline senses, hanging out with Nick is the best thing about discovering her inner kitty. But Mary’s transformation is special and could decide the outcome of a citywide turf war. She must decide whether to embrace her powerful feline side and become a pack leader or go back to being a normal teenage girl. Can she land on her feet or will curiosity be her downfall?

Curiosity is killing me with this latest release from Sourcebooks Fire author Helen Ellis. I expected this book to be full of camp, wrongness, and silly paranormal prose that I would mock. What I got was a kick in the pants thriller with a strange plot line that had me thinking “wow”.

I met Helen Ellis at BEA and she asked me are you domesticated or stray. I chose a button that said domesticated and told her I am sassy but not feral. After reading the book I know I made the right decision. Mary is a foster child from a neglectful family. Her and her adoptive sister Octavia go to a great school in New York City and are picture perfect children. Until Mary starts turning into a cat.

Octavia happens to see the whole thing, and she has some really dark reasons for being afraid of members of the feline persuasion. Not only do we see Mary struggle with what she is becoming we see Octavia struggle to handle it.

Characters are well fleshed out. You have Ling Ling the mean girl, Nick the boyfriend, Yoon the second possible love interest, Ben the nerd and so many more. I love how the library plays a big part in the role of these teens fighting to figure out what is going on.

If this plot has you saying wow this can’t be good, just remember that we all said that about Rampant and Killer Unicorns as well. If you like Diana’s book you will love Helen Ellis!