Tess is an almost-thirteen-year-old girl just trying to save her suicidal cat while "zombie" dads, angry ghosts and even herself keep getting in the way.

What tropes, vibes and themes does this book include?
Themes of grief and understanding it in not only oneself, but in others around you. Generally, I could not pinpoint an exact vibe, but I guess you could give it a mystical or kind of spooky vibe.

Who should read this?
I suppose it's the right fit for anyone struggling with their own grief or someone else's.

What ages are appropriate?
This is classified as middle grade, but I do not recommend it for children under 10 or even 11 (even 12 if you're child is sensitive or you are strict about what they read).

Trigger warnings: ghosts, insensitivity to certain emotional and mental traumas, reference to drugs and sex, mild graphic description of gore (I use the term lightly), cancer and disease, (view spoiler), and a near constant mention of death and dying.

Review: ★★☆☆☆
For more than half of the book I just didn't like it at all. But I have to admit, Tess grew on me. Eventually. Let's get right to it.
The Ups:
Grief is a very serious topic that all children need to learn about at some point (if not through the death of a loved one, at least that of a pet). Understanding how it affects yourself and others is important so that they don't spiral out of control or shut down all together, and I think this book represented that very well. Unfortunately, that is all the good I can say for this one.
The Downs:
Of course, this is a matter of personal opinion. I am not the authority on you (or your children's) taste in books. Take what I say with a grain of salt.
From the first page, something felt off for me. And after reading some other reviews, it seems I am not alone in feeling uncomfortable with the very first page describing an underage girl's breast size, especially coming from a male author. But let's give him the benefit of the doubt and assume that Tess's self consciousness are due to what happened to her mother (view spoiler). The issue is we don't know that yet, so it just comes off as downright creepy.
I cannot begin to describe the "slang" and way of speaking used in this book. It drove me up a wall! I may not be a child anymore and haven't been for some time, but with social media these days one can understand how children talk, despite any generational gap. And it's not like this. Some offending words: buttnuggets, freakiacs, crapballs, gothies. Gothies. Borderline cringe. If it were just Tess, I could forgive it because she's a bit of weird kid. But the others children talked just as strange, like some artificial imitation of how kids are supposed to sound. If this book had been aimed at a younger audience, let's say 8 or 9, I could understand such silly words, but this book is upper middle grade. And I want upper middle grade to have a professional, well-written narrative. Not something so conversational and made-up it comes off as amateurish.
While the narrative felt childish, some of the subject matter felt a little too adult. Middle grade should present realities about life masked in a way children feel comfortable with. Those realities were slapped into this book raw. Death and dying drench this book, talk about sex and drugs, and even one instance where a 12 year old is accused of losing her virginity to an 18 year old. I don't believe that last one was meant seriously, but even just the implication did not feel appropriate. I like middle grade to be a bit more innocent. Save the harsh realities for later on in life.
As for the plot -- it wouldn't stay in one place. There were too many elements, and because of that none of them felt explored enough. Picking one could've solved this issue. Did this story need ghosts? Probably not, since they felt thrown in at the midpoint with no real build up. Which is odd since the ghost element felt like it had been so important by the end.
Conclusion:
With a little extra time and work, some plot reworking and polishing up, this book could've been a banger. If you're checking out reviews for your children, and you're not too worried about sensitive material, this might be a decent book for them to read. If you are simply an adult who is still a child at hear (like me!) than I suggest you move on.

i was really excited to read a middle grade novel that explores grief and how it can affect different people (and animals), but especially children. but there were some moments that left a bad impression, more specifically two where i almost put the book down.

the story opens with the main character talking about her breast size and how they were C-cups are twelve years old and not double Ds. this served no purpose later on in the story and was also just wildly inappropriate. young girls around that age are highly prone to body image issues, and already having the main character have C-cups was not a good idea. having the story start with talking about a child's breasts is so disgusting.

the second instance was when Tess says that depression is contagious. yes, i understand she's twelve and probably doesn't understand mental health. but the fact that an adult wrote this and was okay with showing this to children??? this entire dialogue exchange was so unnecessary and is so harmful to mental health discussions.

ultimately, i couldn't get over these two instances (as well as others but these two were the ones that stuck out most to me), and with them being towards the beginning of the story, it left such a terrible impression on me. i couldn't enjoy the rest of the story.

This review delves into slight spoiler territory. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

This book follows Tess, a twelve year old girl who recently lost her mother to breast cancer. Her father is “a zombie.” Her cat, Tessa believes, is depressed. After Alice the cat runs in front of a car, Tess decides to run away in an attempt to save her cat. She is joined and aided by Eddie, the neighborhood outcast; and Cotter, a boy who has a crush on her.

Alice the Cat had potential to be a beautiful examination of grief and loss written for a middle grade audience. The foundation is there in the plot, with our young protagonist often filled with rage and unable to find outlets for it. She frequently explodes on others and then immediately apologizes. This anger associated with the loss of a loved one can be hard to understand, especially for younger people, and it was depicted well in this book. Tess often describes herself like a volcano, with a sudden onset of anger bursting out of her. The phrases used will be easy for middle grade readers to understand, and possibly to relate to.

There was also an opportunity to discuss how we project our own feelings of grief onto others–this could have been an explanation for why Tess thought that Alice was suicidal. This is where I had the highest hopes, and this is where the book fell flat. The story of what was wrong with the cat took a steep deviation from the path I thought we were on, and from the plot summary itself: “Tess will do whatever it takes to save Alice the cat, help the ghost, heal her dad…” Saving Alice is certainly part of the story, but not in the direction the synopsis would lead you to believe. And Tess spends the majority of the book angry with her father for the way he grieves. Rather than explore the different ways people grieve–her father just moves through the motions, while Tess is always angry–most of the time is spent with her saying she hates him. So much could have been done here.

There is an issue that in another book would likely be nitpicky, but because a large part of the plot hinges on it, I feel the need to bring it up. The feline leukemia virus (FeLV) is not leukemia in the sense that we know it for humans; it is a retrovirus. Calling it cancer is inaccurate. This could have been done by having Tess misunderstand because leukemia is associated with cancer in humans, and her mother died of cancer, so she connects the dots herself. However, this is not the case; a veterinarian is the one who tells Tess that FeLV is cancer. Again, if a major plot point did not rely on this, I would have written it off as a small error.

Some of the language used around mental health was troublesome. Early on, Tess is thinking about the rumors about what happened to Eddie, a 17-year-old who suffered from what sounds like a traumatic brain injury, and said he “became a druggie freakazoid.” While this is how some younger people may think in relation to behavior after a TBI, the language is still harmful. Additionally, Cotter, the boy who has a crush on Tess, says that when Tess’s mom died, “I cried so hard that my dad said he was going to admit me to a mental hospital if I didn’t stop.” There are so many people who have had terrible experiences in mental institutions, and also people who truly need to be hospitalized for their mental illness, so using it as a throwaway line feels reductive.

Lastly, there was one line on the very first page that didn’t sit right with me. Tess is lamenting the fact that she told a girl in her class that she has DD cups, when she actually has C cup breasts, and that it led to the boys on her school bus making comments about it. This had no relevance later in the book. It just felt gross for a male author to write the inner thoughts of a preteen thinking about her breasts.

This book had both potential and room for improvement. As far as the language issues, that could easily be fixed by using less harmful phrasing and handling mental illness/trauma with a little more care. While the representation of confusing anger was well-done, the handling of the subject of grief itself could have been done better. I think if the book had been maybe 10 pages longer, more time could have been spent on Tess understanding her anger as well as her father’s sadness. I do think that younger readers will still get something out of this book, just maybe not as much as they could have.

2.5 stars, rounded down

It was a really amazing book. Especially for who loves middle grade with advontorous kind of experience. I did really enjoy it. Friendship, humor adn gread adventure built this story. All the characters were so fun as well.

Alice the Cat is a book about Tessa and her cat Alice that has been with her since babyhood. Alice was a kitten when Tessa was an infant. So a life together through thick and thin is the backdrop of Tessa’s journey over a few days to save her cat, her father, a ghost and herself. While Tessa learns more about herself, life, and grief over the death of her mother; she has several hard choices to make that many teens make in their lives today.

Tessa is almost thirteen, her mother has been gone for a couple months and one day when arriving home from school she finds that her cat had run out into the street as a car was passing. Alice, her cat, survived although the driver did crash their car. Tessa went looking for Alice and found her under a house the town said was haunted. There were many feelings that Tessa went through as she looked for Alice but the strongest was Anger. Anger is a strong, hard feeling for teens to understand, control, work with and Tim Cummings has done a great job of showing the Anger, explaining how it can manifest, what may lead to understanding it and then how to cope with it.

Tessa receives assistance from several different people in trying to save Alice. Although the house where Alice runs to is haunted by a ghost for 150 years that also wants her. Tessa wants to only save Alice but finds out why the ghost wants Alice also. During all this Alice has been at the Vet and when Tessa goes back to get Alice from the Vet, she finds that Alice is not there. Just as Tessa’s mom had to leave so did Alice. Tessa is still working through her grief over her mom and now she must deal with Alice being gone too. While Tessa was not able to physically save Alice, she does learn more about herself and her rage.

Again, she has assistance with dealing with her emotions, her loss, and who is still part of her life. New friends, old friends, family, and professionals all help Tessa through her grief, her anger and more emotions that many teens live with on a regular basis.

Tim Cummings is good at describing how a teen moves through all the emotions and choices thrown at them in normal and not so normal situations. While some may have a problem reading through this story, it is well written, very descriptive and moves through life in many of real life situations. A very good story to open conversations for teens living through grief and teen drama.

I received this eARC from NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review.

Alice the Cat is a unique story told in the first person voice of almost 13 year old Tess. She has a fresh and observant voice with the favorite insult of “buttnugget” and sees the people and world around her in rich detail:

“I love all the colors–blue water, purple sky, my mom’s red hair, green eyes, pink face, and peppery freckles.”

“They dressed in black t-shirts with scary faces on them, wore combat boots, lined their eyes in black, teased their hair into bird nests, and worshipped graphic novels, manga, vampires, horror movies, emo music, and death.”

There is a tree named Stanley and Tess refers to her depressed and grieving father as the Zombie.

Alice the cat is suicidal and is family to Tess: “Cats can see inside humans. I think they see souls. I think souls look like milk to them. Alice and I were sisters.” It is Alice that leads Tess to the haunted house and the beginning of her adventure trying to save Alice, while she also navigates her anger management issues and the profound feelings from the death of her mother 10 weeks ago.

The story manages to be funny, sad, touching and hopeful. This would be a great book for preteens–those dealing with grief and loss and those who are not.

It was a really beautiful book. Perfect for younger audiences. Serious topics, really serious ones, but mixed with adventure, with humour, with friendships, with growing. And that was amazing. I am glad I read it. I only didn't like the writing style, that just wasn't my thing. But the story itself made up for it. Great.

This has "Cemetery Boys" vibe to it and I absolutely love it. "Save the cat, help the ghost, heal her dad, survive the summer" pulled me in so hard I had no choice but to follow the tug of the story. One girl against the world, here Tess comes.

Thanks to Netgalley for this advanced reading copy.

Messy on the outside and emotion mixed with thought in the middle.

Almost-thirteen-year-old Tess is doing her best to cope after the sudden death of her mother due to cancer, but with her father transformed into a zombie and no one to talk to, it's proving more than tough. When she comes home from school to find that her cat jumped into the middle of the street in an attempt to commit suicide, which made her neighbor run into the tree in their front yard...which then, crashed into the middle of the street and the cat, Alice, then ran off...a chaotic and crazy string of events goes into play. Soon, Tess is chasing time against a ghost and the life of her cat...and maybe, her grief, too.

When I read the blurb, I expected this one to head more in a paranormal adventure direction. This, however, is a tale of grief and dealing with loss. And it's chaotic, which adds a new dimension to keep it more than interesting and...well, chaotic. Tess's home life is a mess in the sense that her father has collapsed into a blackhole, not even bothering to run his business since the loss of her mom. This leaves Tess alone to deal with everything, and at twelve-years, she's in over her head. The cat, Alice, is the last string holding her together. There's a lot going on, and this hits very serious themes as well as emotions.

Tess is in a frantic, confused battle to handle everything, and this is mirrored in the world around her. She has two 'friends', who are all-over-the-place on the mental and behavioral end. One, who has seizures and is claimed to have mental problems (although he seemed more down-to-earth than other characters) and another, who has a super-inflated desire to act of scenes and characters. The three together are like Bonnie-and-Clyde to middle grade extreme...just without the hard crime. Then, there's the ghostly side, which includes a group of odd goths and a ghost, which plays a role but not to the lengths I thought it would. It creates a crazy and quick-paced plot. But again, this all centers around Tess's own dealings with the loss of her mother.

The plot runs quick and draws in with Tess's slightly odd-ball personality. While this will speak to middle graders, I don't see it as completely in their ballpark due to the depth and true issues driving the tale. This hits grief hard and demands to be digested in every way. Older readers will be much more able to handle this, where I'm afraid it might be a bit much for the younger audience to truly absorb or even begin to embrace. It's well-written, brings points completely home, and it's the insanity makes the difficult aspects really sit. I can recommend this one and found it to be quite the ride.

The cover and title of this book really caught my eye. And as a cat lover, I was instantly drawn to it. After reading the description, I knew I had to read it. And I'm so glad I did! I was pleasantly surprised by how much I actually enjoyed this book as it's geared towards a much younger audience. But it pulled me in, and I couldn't put it down. The overall theme was the perfect balance of emotions, in my opinion. This book takes you on an adventure and is very relatable. I recommend it to readers of all ages!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free digital copy to read and review.

I dont think I'm the right audience for this book. I found it tacky and uninteresting. It tried to hard to be quirky and lost me after the first two chapters. Luckily it was a shorter book.

𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐭
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 23 May 2023

A middle grade read (teen & YA) but I really enjoyed this story from author Tim Cummings! Surprisingly deep, it reminds you no matter the age, people all struggle and could benefit from kindness. If you’re into sci fi, fantasy, cats, and almost-teens with sass, this is for you!

˗ˏˋ 𝑷𝒍𝒐𝒕 𝑺𝒖𝒎𝒎𝒂𝒓𝒚 ˎˊ˗

It’s almost Tess’ thirteenth birthday, a magical time. Instead, her life is falling apart and not in a mellow dramatic sense. Her mother died. Her father is like a zombie. Her cat, Alice, has started trying to get run over. The only thing Tess can think of that might help? She needs to run away.

Upon her departure, Tess immediately stumbles upon adventure. Thanks to a seance in the local haunted house, she discovers the entity desperately wants a cat… and it has its sights set on Alice. Armed with a new friend and the kid who has a crush on her, Tess is determined to save Alice the cat.

˗ˏˋ 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝑳𝒊𝒌𝒆𝒅 ˎˊ˗

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙵𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚗𝚍𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚜. Unexpected yet it shows how if you give people a chance, they can surprise you in the best ways.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙿𝚊𝚛𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝚁𝚎𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚑𝚒𝚙𝚜. It shows how things aren’t always what they seem, how parents are just people, and how miscommunication can cause plagues.

𝚃𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙳𝚊𝚛𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝙲𝚊𝚝. As a cat owner of three, I relate to the experiences had and totally understand how strong personalities rule.

𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝙰𝚍𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎. I love how Cummings uses words to take you through multiple worlds without ever leaving one town. He’s able to hold your attention and urges you to ask for one more chapter.

𝑻𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒌 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝑵𝒆𝒕𝑮𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑭𝒊𝒕𝒛𝒓𝒐𝒚 𝑩𝒐𝒐𝒌𝒔 (𝒂𝒏 𝒊𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝑹𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒍 𝑯𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒆) 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝑨𝑹𝑪!

Tessa is almost thirteen. Her mother passed away recently, her father is in shambles, and Alice, her cat, keeps running away. After chasing Alice into the grounds of her neighborhood’s haunted house, Tessa starts to think that there is a presence there that wants Alice for themselves. Together, with the help of old and new friends, Tessa sets out on an adventure to protect Alice while dealing with the grief of her mother’s passing and the uncertainty of her new family life, where everything seems to have been broken apart.

This is an emotional, hopeful middle grade story that presents themes of grief and some of the ways it is outwardly manifested. I enjoyed the diverse characters, Tessa’s adventures, and gradual growth, as well as the ways her friends show up for her when she needs them the most. Even though I thoroughly loved Alice (I love cats) and Tessa, my favorite character is Eddie: self-aware and endlessly kind, even as his own family considers him a burden. I also appreciated the themes of hope, closure, and the importance given to mental health wellness throughout the story. Overall, a four-star book for me.

I highly recommend it to those who enjoy themes of ghosts, haunted houses, grief, acceptance, friendship, and hope.

Thanks to NetGalley and Regal House, Fitzroy Books for providing me with a free digital copy to review this book.

#AlicetheCat#NetGalley#bookstagram#booktrovert#booklover#netgalleyreviewer#bookstagrammer#bookreviews#goodreads#netgalleyreviews#bookstagram#booktrovert#booklover

a challenging read for me even though it's labelled as middle grade. The main character experienced grief and anger, which were showed through her words and actions. The magical realism element is okay, but I found it insufficient to provide me the convincing backstory and motive especially for the ghost. Some characters need more exploration. like Eddie, I'm curious about what really happened to him, and Alice the Cat herself, even though she is the title of this book, I didn't get her part enough so it feels like she's so faraway from me as a reader.
I love how it ended, the closure for Tess and her dad, the therapy, the support she needed, and also the new friends she made there (and of course the issue she mentioned earlier in this book).

This book gave exactly what was expected a fun light-hearted (with some sprinkles of angst, grief and anger) adventure of a young girl and her cat. Overall the story worked you could relate to Tess and being her age going through natural hardships with the terrible death of her mother and 'zombie' father.
The characters are loveable, you're rooting for Tess on her emotional journey, the romance is adorable:

However sadly I just couldn't get into this book it didn't fully absorb me, perhaps I wasn't the right audience, and I believe many people and children/young adults would love this and on the whole feel like they can understand Tess and her reason behind running away. But I feel like it should be given a go as it is a quick, fun read.

On the surface, this felt quite messy. There was so many things going on. Tess being angry at her dad, Tess and her cat, Alice. Tess running away. Bullying problems. Adventures with Eddie and Cotter. Then the whole supernatural ouija, making 'psychic friends' communicating with the dead and having premonition dreams.

But underneath the hullabaloo actually lies a story on death and grief. Anger that stems from not knowing how to embrace that feeling when you lose someone when they pass. And that grief and loss is felt at any age, even adults. And the MG level of storytelling makes the story an interesting adventure one to attract the attention of the younger ones yet at the same time the sad story makes it also relatable. Loved this.

this was a beautifully done young adult scifi novel, it had what I was hoping for from the description. It had a great plot going on and a unique concept. The characters were what I was hoping for and loved the way they were written. It was a cute concept for the scifi story and worked in the young adult novel

"What if I don’t get to hold her again? To feel her thick fluff and outline the little “M” above her eyebrows with my
finger? What if she never slowly blinks her glowy green eyes at me again? Those whiskers long and thick as milkshake straws. What would happen to her whiskers? Do whiskers die too? How horrible."