Part fairy tale, part legend, part animal adventure, this book defies categorization. It's certainly not for everyone, but I guess it was for me, because I can't stop thinking about it. All of my emotions while reading this book weren't good, and there were a couple of places where I just couldn't take any more sad, but I kept going. The writing is lyrical--very poetic and flowery. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not as much. But at all times while I was reading this, I was feeling SOMETHING. Scared, defeated, hopeful, relieved--I felt it and felt it strongly.
There are two stories going on here. We have a pregnant cat who seeks refuge under a rickety house, and befriends the hound dog chained up there. The house's owner, Gar Face, is the embodiment of true evil. He is a sociopath in a children's book. It's terrifying. The other story takes place 1,000 years before. We hear the story of Grandmother Moccasin, now sealed and buried in a jar because of her awful deeds, but about to be set free by the very next rain storm. She is also pure evil. Nothing made these two bad. They just are. I think that's a hard concept to work into a book for young people, but the author has done it, and done it well. Doesn't make it any less scary. The two stories tie together at the very end in a pretty satisfying way.
A weird, weird, book, but so different from anything I've ever read.
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