📚 #NetGalley ARC review📚

Title: Catfish Rolling
Author: Clara Kumagai
Release date: 02/03/23

Thanks to NetGalley and Head of Zeus for the chance to read this ARC ahead of its release later this year.

You can read the full synopsis on the book's Goodreads/NetGalley page and elsewhere, but TL;DR: after an earthquake hits Japan and causes time to break, teenage Sora explores mysterious pockets of it to try and find answers.

First up, I'm a big Japanophile and I will turn my eye to pretty much anything set there. I've never been to Japan (sadly), but I've watched a LOT of TV and film both about and from there, and I believe that the cultural and historical references throughout create a really accurate and solid sense of place. This contrasts well with the very flexible sense of time that the plot revolves around.

Incidentally, if you read the blurb and are worried that the 'timey-wimey' stuff (to quote Doctor Who - probably badly, sorry) will be complex or difficult to comprehend, fear not, it isn't. Admittedly I didn't quite follow along with some of the scientific chat that happens at one point, but I honestly don't think it matters - after all, Sora is also trying to understand it, so a little bit of confusion keeps us firmly in her shoes.

It did not take long for me to get that 'I can't put it down' feeling - from the opening scene of the quake I was hooked, and raced through it. At one point I had to force myself to stop and go to bed, which is probably the second best endorsement a book can have after "I stayed up all night to finish it". (I'd have loved to, but I had work the next day!)

I can't think of anything I would change, there's nothing I could criticise. I found the characters to be well-rounded, the plot well-paced and the ending satisfying. Huge love for the cover art as well - I'll probably also buy a physical copy just to have it on my shelf 😄

As you probably gathered by now, I really enjoyed Catfish Rolling, so I give it 4/5 stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐

"In the zone, things are preserves. In the slow places, decay can be delayed. Night comes later. Back in normal time, everything readjusts to the correct now. Her smell had disappeared. All I had was the memory."

The honour of my first 5-star of the new year goes to Clara Kumagai’s phenomenal debut, that blends magical realism and sci-fi elements into a haunting tale of grief, family, time and the earthquake that shook a nation.

Synopsis:
Sora grew up with the legend of the giant catfish that lives under the islands of Japan; a creature of magic and myth responsible for earthquakes and tsunami’s by flicks of its tail. When Sora was eleven, the catfish rolled with an earthquake so powerful it shook time itself. Since then, the hardest-hit areas have fractured into zones, each flowing at a different pace of time. Due to the devastation, as well as the time-anomalies, these zones are off-limits to anyone but a restricted few governmental scientists. Both Sora and her father have been obsessively exploring the zones in secret, each with motives of their own. Her father seeks a scientific answer to the incomprehensible. Sora seeks her mother, who went missing during the Shake, hoping to find her trapped in a different time-zone somewhere. But dwelling in the time-zones isn’t without danger, and when Sora’s dad travels too far, Sora must venture into uncharted territory to bring him back to now.

Review:
Catfish Rolling is very close to my perfect book. It checks so many of my boxes; an emotionally layered, slowly unfurling story centring grief, change and the progression of time. Elements of folklore, philosophy and science. Generational gaps, family dynamics and a young-adult protagonist navigating desolate and haunted landscapes, mindscapes and combinations of those two. Kumagai juggles this ambitious cocktail of elements with remarkable ease and success.
Personally, it was the depiction of grief, and the intersection of grief and time, that resonated with me the most. The way the zones warp time is very similar to the effects that grief can have on our perception- and memory of time. Slowing it down, speeding it up, making entire chunks of it go missing, or trapping characters to get lost in times gone by. On a smaller scale, Sora and her dad lose each other and themselves within them. On a larger scale, we also see the rippling effects the earthquake has had in shaping Japan and its culture as a whole. Some zones seem stuck in time, held back by devastation and holding on to traditions to cope. Other large urban zones shifting into high-gear, speeding away from the past at dazzling speed. Kumagai nails the narrative on each of these levels in a way that only an incredibly skilful author can. Again; my mind is blown that this is a debut!

On an “objective reviewers basis”, I highly recommend this book. It’s a wonderfully written, thought provoking piece of speculative magical realism, that combines a post-apocalyptic-exploration mystery with an emotional character journey. You have to be okay with a slower pacing and not expect a flashy, plot heavy sci-fi novel, but if you surrender yourself the currents of this story, you’re in for an absolute treat.
On a personal basis, I’m deeply thankful to have encountered this novel. Wandering the desolate landscapes of post-quake-Japan, and experiencing the feelings of curiosity, displacement, liminality and deep longing for a place you can’t return to, touched my heart in a way that few grief-stories have lately. This is going on the favourite-grief-fiction shelf for sure.

Many thanks to Zephyr Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I read an eARC of this book so thank you to Net Galley, the author and the publisher for allowing this.

This book is about grief, and be prepared to be really sad if you read it! It’s devastating at times. It’s not depressing, it’s just hard not to feel for some of the characters with what they go through.

This book blends an almost sci-fi exploration of time with Japanese mythology and I found it utterly fascinating. The book starts with an earthquake in Japan when our main character is a child. She’s out with her father when it happens and her mother is lost. We meet our main character again when she’s graduating high school and we see the ramifications grief is having on both her and her father.

There are zones where time moves differently and our protagonists father works researching these zones, however the zones can cause harmful effects to humans. Time moves slower or faster than outside the zones.

I thought this was a beautiful book, the exploration of grief, the coming of age our main character experiences, the importance of family, all of these themes were so thoughtfully woven through this book.

I loved this book. It was a feeling of animation in paper format. The story was brutal and ambitious and really shone throughout.

First up, LOVE the cover.

A perfect blend of science fiction, mythology, family drama and romance. I especially admire the way the author was able to describe the out of bounds areas so well that I could easily visualise what the characters were seeing and hearing.

This book ticked a lot of boxes for me. The family drama drew me in, the dystopian element had me intrigued and the sci fi/fantasy was captivating. The romance thread felt natural and didn't overpower the rest of the narrative. And the ending left a few options for the reader rather than tying everything up perfectly.

Not aimed at middle grade as I thought but an excellent sci fi choice for young adult and adult audiences.

I received this arc from netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

Emotions and loss transcend time, and this young girl only sees both as being beyond anyone's control.

Sora and her family are vacationing in Japan when the earthquake hits. While a 'normal' earthquake would have already been devastating, this one causes pockets in time. Some places move faster, while others are slower. None can be understood and all are dangerous. Sora's mother was lost during the catastrophe, leaving her father and her behind. But unlike most, they are studying time and the areas, venturing secretly in when no one is allowed. Plus, Sora has noticed shadows, which no one else seems to see. When her father goes missing, she sees no choice but to hunt him down because she suspects he's slipped into another time. But it's a dangerous venture...one that could leave her as nothing but a pile of ash.

I do love the cover on this one, and that alone made me one to pick this one up. Luckily, the surmise is interesting, too. The prologue grabs with the first scene as Sora and her father experience the earthquake, and the world turns upside down around them. Then, it fast forwards to her graduation, where she's still suffering under the loss of her mother (years later), but considering the various time pockets, which have formed, her attitude is understandable. Her determination to work with her father to uncover the secrets of these scattered time areas, makes her easy to root for...especially when she begins to see shadows and her own father seems to be slipping as if caught in his own, odd time bubble. It's an intrigue world and circumstance, which leaves many questions and offers the hope that she'll not only figure things out...but maybe find her mother again. So, get ready for a deep dive into emotions, loss, and hope because this read dances around that heart the whole way through.

The addition of the catfish adds the right touch of magic to keep dreams flying...since the time pockets are quite dangerous. And all of this sticks enough in 'reality' to keep the scenes and characters familiar and sympathetic. There's even romantic nods and friendship to make sure everything is grounded, and warmth and hope. Still, with all of this going on, it is not a fast-paced read. Sora's thoughts run deep as the reader sinks into her head. For those who tend to enjoy more action and adventure, it's on the slow side, and there are still many questions left open at the end about the fantastical aspects. Those readers, who enjoy the emotional ride and are more into the heart than the reason, are in for a treat.

Catfish Rolling sounded really good and I was really excited to read it!
While I did like this book, I really struggled with it as well.
I liked the main characters but sadly I just really struggled with the writing style.
Which kept me from fully enjoying the story.
I'd still recommend this as I know many people would love this book!
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for allowing me to read an advanced copy!

The prose fits well with the magical realism backdrop, and I love the way the themes play beautifully with the timelines. I was a bit confused more often than I’d like with the timelines, however. That being said this book was still an absolute joy to read!

The premise of Catfish Rolling - that Sora, the main character's (new) home in Japan suffered from earthquakes that affected time, leaving zones that run faster or slower - is absolutely fascinating. Throw in some of the mysterious elements that Sora sees within the zones and I was so intrigued on how the story would play out.

Unfortunately it didn't quite live up to that premise to me, and while I appreciate the fact that essentially the novel was about grief and acceptance and so not all questions would be answered, I felt that was a bit of a letdown as I would have been a lot more interested in that side of the story!

I also thought the characters were good and well rounded, Japan felt like a character of its own which I loved, and the writing was very good, but overall the latter half of the book was just a bit of an anticlimax for me and I was left wanting something different.

Thank you to Netgalley, Head of Zeus and the author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Great read, so interesting!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read an advance copy of this book.

The catfish in the title is the one that lives below the islands of Japan. To stop it moving and causing damage a huge rock is placed on it but every now and again the catfish moves the rock and Japan shakes.

This story begins where not just the earth moves but time also shifts. It leaves Japan's islands in a state of flux with some fast time zones and some slow. However The Shake has captured many people in the zones and they have disappeared. Sora's mother has been lost so Sora and her father stay in Japan to look for her in the zones. Its inherently dangerous but neither care.

The story is really about love, loss and learning to accept the way things are. Being Japanese the story encompasses much of the polytheistic and animistic religions. Gods and their representatives are everywhere. The love of nature permeates the whole book. The question is, can Sora stop hating the catfish long enough to help her father and herself?

I found some of the book a little confusing but on the whole it is well written and easy enough to follow. I've been a fan of Japanese fiction for a while now and anything that melds together the love of the natural world with a surreal story is fine with me.

I'd recommend it for any fans of Japanese fiction or anyone who wants a coming of age story with a difference.

“There’s a catfish under the islands of Japan. That’s what shakes everything up: the catfish twisting and turning in the mud beneath us. It rolls and the ground trembles, water crashes, time cracks and breaks.
I hate that catfish.”

Sora was only eleven years old when the catfish rolled in a way that changed everything. Time became something that was variable. In some place, time ticked away as it always had. In others, time slowed or sped up.

Sora and her father have been left to try to make sense of their new world, one that doesn’t include her mother.

“We had been shaken. Our entire world shook.”

This book is so many things I love to read about, all meshed together in a way that felt like time had changed for me too. There was the urgency I associate with a compulsive read but this was at odds with an almost tranquil feeling, as though I was casually wandering around absorbing everything this world had to offer.

It’s magical realism, it’s mythology, it’s philosophy, it’s sciency. It’s how the tremors and earthquakes we experience in our lives unbalance us. It’s figuring out who you are in a world that no longer makes sense to you. It’s the impact of grief on individuals and families over time.

I want to say it’s wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey … stuff, acknowledging it’s very likely I’ve bungled the reference entirely. Maybe it doesn’t fit this book at all but when I think about how time works in Sora’s world, wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey just sounds right.

Time runs as we expect it to. Time runs fast. Time runs slow. Some fast time runs faster than other fast time. Some slow time runs slower than other slow time. And the people in Sora’s world are only barely beginning to understand what it all means.

While I was satisfied with the answers I found, a number of my questions remain unanswered. Part of me is content to imagine exploring Sora’s world to gradually discover the answers myself. Another part of me wants bonus material in the form of newspaper articles, research papers and journal articles by the experts of this world: philosophers, scientists and historians, all sharing their theories.

‘We can get stuck in time, and time can get stuck in us’

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Zephyr, an imprint of Head of Zeus, for the opportunity to read this book. I’m rounding up from 4.5 stars.

A fascinating premise with Japanese culture. I quite liked the writing however, I found the MC both likeable and unlikeable. An engaging read that I quite liked.

*Thank you to NetGalley and Head of Zeus, Zephyr for providing me this book in exchange for an honest review*

This book had magical realism. Due to this fact I went biased. But it turned out it was really well written. Although I didn't like it, hence the 3.5 stars. Sometimes it confused me with the different time zones, but overall it's a really good book.

Catfish Rolling is like a coin, it has two sides. One is a dystopian story about earthquakes in Japan that, surprisingly, moved not only ground, but time itself. The land is divided into zones, each one moves slower or faster than the rest. Clocks aren't truly helpful in such world, and neither nature's way of existence. People get lost, and Sora's mother was one of them. Her dad dedicated his life to research this weird phenomena of time, and Sora's here to help.

The second side is a story about loss. Grief you can't relieve live through, but can't ignore it, either. About losing yourself, the almost impossible journey to find your place as world around tries to exclude you from everywhere. Sora is not Japanese enough to be as her classmates, but not foreign enough to be treated in different conditions. Her dad slowly floats away from his mind, forgetting little things like what day it is or when something happen. It's extremely subtle, but every action in this book is both literal and metaphorical.

Clara Kumagai manged to write a complex yet little story about time and how we exist in this strange river of it. It reads greatly, both as a fantastic adventure and emotional journey.

As someone very interested in Japanese mythology and culture (as well as the scientific implications of time rifts and the like), I was so excited after reading the synopsis, and it certainly didn't disappoint.

Without giving too much away, the book achieves an excellent balance between connecting the audience to Japanese mythology, lore, and the like without alienating them, and it's very accessible even for those with little to no knowledge of Japanese culture and myth because the explanations bridge the gap in an engaging way. I will say, however, that if you aren't really interested in Japanese mythology or the implied settings/themes then you might find it hard to engage, but please stick with it because it's well worth it.

The prose, philosophical ponderings, etc. were also a plus! They weren't overly drawn out and although the book reads as somewhat of a slow burn it does so in a way that grips you throughout and brings you along for the ride. I never felt like my time was being wasted and it was definitely a page turner for me.

Overall an incredibly unique and interesting concept that was executed well, I hope a lot of people will give this book a shot!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A uniquely quirky intelligent dystopian novel where the apocalyptic occurrence is a huge earth quake which alters the way that time flows in patches of the world
I loved the concept and it’s link with ancient Japanese fairytales of a giant catfish rolling under the earth
The book has a strong Japanese feel to it but is immediately accessible to Uk audiences as well .The author has a beautifully flowing writing style which I enjoyed a lot with great chapter sizes
The characters of the father and daughter are well developed and there are a number of other smaller well described characters
The concept of time moving at different speeds was entertaining and the sections set in out of standard time areas were described in cinematic detail .I can’t help thinking that this would make a great film or tv series
I loved the book art which is truly beautiful
I read an early copy of the book on NetGalley Uk the book is published in Uk by Head of Zeus publishing 2 March 2023

**Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for an advance copy of this title in exchange for a fair and honest review**

We all know that Japan is vulnerable to earthquakes but in this story the latest earthquake hasn't just damaged the country's infrastructure, it's damaged time itself. There are zones that now run faster (or slower) than normal and many people have simply disappeared.

The zones are too dangerous to visit but Sora and her father are fascinated by the science behind these time shifts and are desperate to find out what has happened to her mother and grandparents who all disappeared during the quake.

Learning quickly that Sora has a sensitivity to the zones, and can detect them in a way that no one else can, they are drawn into trying to solve the mystery and maybe even reset the time shifts..

A beautiful book from front cover to last page. I particularly enjoyed the references to Japanese culture and traditions. I must read more books set outside the UK / US.

A giant catfish under Japan; earthquakes and time quakes; love and friendship; and self discovery. I absolute loved this

From its action-packed beginning and the terror of the Shake when the earth moves and the mythical catfish rolls, we are plunged into a fractured landscape of a post-apocalyptic Japan. Sora has lost her Japanese mother who is feared dead and she is determined to find her in the devastation of the forbidden time zones. But she is lost too. The first person narrative is full of grief, both Sora's and her Canadian scientist dad's. He is obsessed with his independent research into the time zones and she doesn't know if she has the strength to hold him as his behaviour becomes increasingly erratic and disturbing.

Sora is the bridge between her parents' two worlds: that of Vancouver and Japan, but she doesn't feel as if she belongs in either. Kumagai explores the reality of the mixed identity experience through language and social attitudes. According to Sora, in Japanese one is neither direct or sarcastic; in English one is less nuanced - 'even my body changes.'. Through Sora, Kumagai expresses the Japanese views on 'hafu', revealing how she is called a foreigner in Japan, but finds an empathic closeness to Maya, who is mixed black-Japanese. At one point in the story, Sora hides her face with a mask in order to pass for a Japanese girl; when she argues with her boyfriend, Koki, and he tells her she's not like them as she can go back to her real home, she replies: 'I am Japanese... and it's my home. Maybe it's not real but I don't have anywhere else to go.' Though her dad speaks fluent Japanese and works in Japan, he shares her sense of 'otherness' and their relationship is touching. I enjoyed the humorous dialogue and pitch-perfect exchanges with Koki and her dad: 'Everything is strange here,' Dad says, in an almost-whisper. 'We fit right in.' Also, when Koki leaves for Tokyo University, Sora's dad meets her on her level as they joke about ways to kill him. They are united in their ritualistic preparation of food and Kumagai's love of Japanese culture is at its most evocative in her descriptions of eating pickles and tofu, fish and rice. Sora's memories of her mother's love of nature and they way she spoke to her are sensitively written too: 'soak in the sunshine' and 'reach tall, reach deep, grow strong,' giving the narrative a fable-like feel. Additionally, the setting descriptions of the natural environment are richly detailed.

The book has a strong sense of philosophical enquiry around the themes of time and memory, with fantasy elements which are liminal, just visible at the corner of the eye: 'There are places so deep in the zones that nobody dares go there now. Some did, at first; self-defence forces or search and rescue parties, but they didn't return.' The sense of desolation in the book reminded me of Patrick Ness's, 'More Than This' and through the references to the ghostly shadows of those who have disappeared, Kumagai draws parallels between the traumatic events of Japan's history, in particular the aftermath of Hiroshima, though she is keen to avoid a direct correlation. However, I would have enjoyed a more in-depth exploration of the mythological, animistic landscape of the Kinimuna spirits - red-haired demon children who live in the banyan trees - and felt that a less subtle approach to plot might have diverted from the repetitive story structure, as Sora moves in and out of the zones.

Overall, the theme of renunciation and rebirth is clear. Kumagai writes in an economical style but conveys emotion deftly. A scene between Sora and Koki is particularly touching, as is the final scene in the forest where Sora learns that to live, she must let her mother go.