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Catfishing on CatNet, by Naomi Kritzer
Dec. 5th, 2019 08:19 pmA number of years ago Naomi Kritzer wrote a short story called Cat Pictures, Please about a baby AI trying to figure out morality and how to interact with humans. It was very popular and won awards. I liked it a lot too!
This book is something of a sequel to that story. It's a near-future YA novel about a teen girl named Steph whose mom is constantly on the run from her abusive ex-husband but won't tell Steph hardly anything about the situation. Steph, because of all the moving, gets most of her social interaction online on a site called CatNet where she has a group of good friends. One of whom is secretly the slightly-less-baby AI from the short story!
A quick, easy read. I don't have a lot to say about it but it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening. Also: lots of queer characters, for those for whom that's a draw.
My one complaint is that the ending is more of a set-up for a sequel than a satisfactory ending on its own. Dangit, don't end books with brand-new game-changing information that you're not going to address in that book!
This book is something of a sequel to that story. It's a near-future YA novel about a teen girl named Steph whose mom is constantly on the run from her abusive ex-husband but won't tell Steph hardly anything about the situation. Steph, because of all the moving, gets most of her social interaction online on a site called CatNet where she has a group of good friends. One of whom is secretly the slightly-less-baby AI from the short story!
A quick, easy read. I don't have a lot to say about it but it was an enjoyable way to spend an evening. Also: lots of queer characters, for those for whom that's a draw.
My one complaint is that the ending is more of a set-up for a sequel than a satisfactory ending on its own. Dangit, don't end books with brand-new game-changing information that you're not going to address in that book!
