This book is perfect for anyone who understands how someone can form a real, invested, solid friendship with someone when you have never met them, have no idea where they live or what they look like, and don’t know their name or gender or anything.
Steph is 16 or so, in her junior year, and has never lived in one place more than a few months in her life. She and her mother move constantly, always terrified that Steph’s father (who, she is told, burned down their house among other things) will find them. Steph’s mom makes a living as a freelance coder, but anytime something happens that might leave a clue for their father to find them (or when Steph’s mom just gets a bad feeling) and they bolt.
Unsurprisingly, Steph has had a hard time keeping friendships. The one exception is the anonymous pet-photo-sharing forum CatNet, where she has a close group of friends from all over the United States. The chief site admin has the screenname CheshireCat, and is (unbeknownst to any of the site users) an AI. Who happens to like looking at cat pictures, quite a lot. The plot centers on Steph’s father, CheshireCat’s desire to protect Steph from him, and Steph’s relationship with a girl named Rachel at her new highschool.
Though this book has fairly high stakes and a very real sense of danger, the best adjective to describe it is “adorable.” Steph’s relationship with her friends on CatNet, her confused feelings towards her new friend Rachel, her worry, confusion, and excitement when a cat decides that she lives in Steph’s room - it’s all just adorable.
This book was a pure delight to read, and I’m looking forward to the sequel.
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