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Catfishing on CatNet
Catfishing on CatNet: A Novel | Naomi Kritzer
27 posts | 19 read | 11 to read
How much does the internet know about YOU? A thought-provoking near future YA thriller that could not be more timely as it explores issues of online privacy, artificial intelligence, and the power and perils of social networks. Because her mom is always on the move, Steph hasnt lived anyplace longer than six months. Her only constant is an online community called CatNeta social media site where users upload cat picturesa place she knows she is welcome. What Steph doesnt know is that the admin of the site, CheshireCat, is a sentient A.I. When a threat from Stephs past catches up to her and ChesireCats existence is discovered by outsiders, its up to Steph and her friends, both online and IRL, to save her. Catfishing on CatNet is a surprising, heartfelt near-future YA thriller by award-winning author Naomi Kritzer, whose short story Cat Pictures Please won the Hugo Award and Locus Award and was a finalist for the Nebula. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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willaful
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I'm glad #BookSpin finally got me to read this; it's suspenseful and surprising, and I loved the authentic look at online bonds.

Interestingly both of my spins for this month featured true conscious AI, and both are very positive portrayals. I wonder what ART and AI/CatNet would think about the regurgitated nonsense posing as AI now.

TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 1mo
19 likes1 comment
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Centique
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Pickpick

Finally some great summer weather! (Gratuitous boat pic)
This YA thriller was my 1st read of the year - a random selection from TBR. Steph is a young woman whose only friends are those she‘s made online - because her Mom keeps shifting town every few months to escape her ex. This is a fun read if youre prepared to suspend your disbelief and if the concepts of “found family” and “sentient AI” appeal to you. Ie maybe just me and @Ruthiella 😂😂⬇️

Centique Good queer rep and if youre looking for YA with minimal romance this would also suit. Has a lot about finding friends & growing those relationships when you struggle to fit in. 3mo
Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks Gorgeous 💙 3mo
Ruthiella You had me at “sentient AI”! 😂 Makes me want to re-read this so I can cry happy tears again! 3mo
See All 7 Comments
Centique @Ruthiella i know what you mean! I have bought the audio book so i can listen to it again. Such joy those books 😍 3mo
Reggie How funny, that pic looks like gorgeous weather and we‘re about to get 2 days of snow. 3mo
Centique @Reggie eeek! Hope you dont get snowed in or anything Reggie. (Or attacked by zombie snowmen!) This lovely weather is making up for the floods we had last year - everyone says we didnt get a summer at all in 2023. 3mo
Rissreads Gorgeous picture! The clouds ☁️ ! 🤍🩵💙 3mo
58 likes7 comments
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Robotswithpersonality
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Pickpick

Okay, so the majority of the plot was NOT what I thought it would be, but I adored the AI that featured prominently in the story, and the non-binary rep, as well as the variety of queer-identifying characters. The sex ed robot hack was a particularly awesome statement on the state of such education for teens in the US. And I just found out there's another book in the series! Will be reading. 🤖♥️

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Robotswithpersonality
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"...in a decisive majority of those stories, the AI is evil...
It is important to me not to be evil."
? Hurray for non-evil Artificial Intelligence!

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kwmg40
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Pickpick

I loved this page-turning YA thriller about a teenager who befriends an AI. This story is suspenseful, thought-provoking and charming all at the same time!

#BookSpinBingo #JoysOfJune
@TheAromaofBooks @Andrew65

Andrew65 Fantastic 👏⭐️👏 2y
TheAromaofBooks Woohoo!!! 2y
28 likes2 comments
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Eyelit
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Pickpick

I tore through these YA Techno Thrillers in a matter of days (and just in time for book club, too)! 😄
I was primed to enjoy these because I loved the short story that inspired them - these books are much darker than the original story, but they are eminently readable and I highly recommend.

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effani
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Pickpick

Another book that I tore through in no time flat. Steph and her mom have been on the run from her dad as long as she can remember. When her mom gets sick, fortunately she has a group of online friends to help her stay safe. Even more fortunately, one of those friends is an AI who likes helping people almost as much as it likes looking at cat pictures.

I definitely recommend this one.

effani #ReadHarder2021: a book set in the Midwest. Most of this book takes place in a small town in Wisconsin. I'm really happy to have found this, since most of the recommendations I could find for this category were for heavy literary fiction, which just isn't the mood I'm in right now. 3y
kspenmoll Your kitty! Such dramatic eyes! #catsoflitsy 3y
effani @kspenmoll Aw thanks! 😻 He is very photogenic! 3y
23 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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HeyT
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This month‘s reading was on the lower side of my average but definitely not in slump territory so I still feel somewhat productive. Standouts this month would be Koli, Obelisk Gate, and Thousand Names.
2 eBook
5 physical
I‘m now at 2475 points in my #buriedalivechallenge with 103 points average per qualifying book.
#MarchWrapUp

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HeyT
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Pickpick

I really enjoyed this teenager thriller that encompasses not only the usual running for your life bits but also the importance of found family and the meaningful relationships found online. I especially liked the AI character and the way it thought through its ethical dilemmas.

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HeyT
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I‘m dying because we have an airlock like this but ours is for our cats. We call it the catlock.

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HeyT
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#BookReport
Had another good reading week finishing off four books and the complete Dragoneye Duology. The highlight of this week for me though was Book of Koli.

#WeeklyForecast
My goal this week is to finish the two books I've started and then move on to the last of my library pile. If I've finished those I'll then move on to my BookSpin selections.

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HeyT
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Wasn‘t feeling up to post apocalyptic with Trials of Koli today so I thought I‘d start this one. Cal seems to think it‘s a good choice.
#CatsOfLitsy

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AutumnRLS
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Finally conquered the book slump! Awesome book. #readingglasses

9 likes1 stack add
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Lindy
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Pickpick

Captivating and fun, this techno-thriller is set in the near future, peopled with queer teens and sentient AI. If you're a fan of Martha Well's 'Murderbot' series, check this out. #YA #SpeculativeFiction

Centique That sounds like one for me than! Stacked 😊 3y
Lindy @Centique 😁👍 3y
34 likes2 stack adds2 comments
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llwheeler
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Parts of this book make me super nostalgic for my rp buddies... staying online as long as I could, all the group msn chats... Though afaik none of us was secretly an AI, and our coding was limited to figuring out enough html to make geocities sites and character graphics... Good times ❤️

(cat picture because of course it has to be a cat picture)

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swynn
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Pickpick

It's a YA thriller, apparently the first of a series, featuring the benevolent AI from Kritzer's story, "Cat Pictures Please." In this one, the AI helps a girl who is on the run with her mother, hiding from an abusive father. It's mostly fun, with some implausibilities. But all false notes are redeemed by the beginnings of an appealing queer-inclusive Scooby Gang; and by a brilliant set piece starring a sex-ed robot. I'll read the next.

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silentrequiem
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Pickpick

This was amazing! I LOVED it and I'm super salty that the sequel isn't due out until April of NEXT year.

Don't judge this book by the title and cover. It's so freaking good. If you read "Cat Pictures, Please," this is the follow-up.

rubyslippersreads I can‘t wait for the sequel! 4y
silentrequiem @rubyslippersreads I don't wanna wait!!! Omg. 4y
31 likes2 comments
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silentrequiem
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The metaness of this picture. #catsoflitsy

Suet624 😂 😂 4y
Tamra 👍🏾😄 4y
Mimi28 Love this!! 🐱 🐈 🐱 4y
AlaMich The best thing I‘ve seen all day! 😻😻😻 4y
Vee_Bookish *choo* 4y
37 likes1 stack add5 comments
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silentrequiem
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"Having access to knowledge didn't always mean understanding things."

I loved "Cat Pictures, Please" so am really looking forward to this book. Good to hear the AI's voice again!

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thegreentealibrarian
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Also some Hugo finalists I'd like to get to. #MarchTBR

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quietjenn
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I have read multiple reviews of this one, which basically boil down to "good book with a terrible title." Let's see, shall we?

Erinreadsthebooks Definitely a terrible title... 4y
PaperbackPirate I worked at my college newspaper & they would always put in temporary joke titles while laying out the paper. This title is totally line that! 😹 4y
59 likes1 stack add2 comments
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deargeekplace
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Next up! #amreading

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esurient
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Pickpick

My feelings about this one oscillated wildy while I read it, but I'm settling on 'low pick.' The pacing was off throughout -- super slow for the first half, super rushed for the second, and while it ended on a satisfying conclusion, I'm grumpy at it.

esurient But, my biggest problem is that the author decided to write this as YA. That's hardly this book's fault, but so much of the slowness at the beginning was getting the cast of teen characters up to speed, when I was really only interested in the AI character, already introduced from the short story. 4y
esurient Then, the villain went from background bogeyman to luckiest and most-skilled villain in the history of all antagonists in a flat second. 4y
esurient I'm lucky the author was skilled enough to keep the first person, present tense POV from grating on me. And I did legit love the queerness of the cast and there were some really funny, zippy lines of dialogue. 4y
10 likes3 comments
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esurient
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In addition to the focus, I'm having real problems with the pacing on this. I'm a good quarter of the way in, and the story drags and meanders and repeats.

esurient I'm guessing that's intended to be a feature, not a bug, of the YA genre? To be tailored so like that for younger readers? But I seldom read YA and don't usually click with what of it I read, so take may opinions with a grain of salt. 4y
Clare-Dragonfly That is certainly not my experience of YA. 4y
esurient @Clare-Dragonfly Hmm, interesting. 4y
8 likes1 stack add3 comments
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esurient
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So far, this book seems to be 20% teens talking in chat groups and zero percent from the perspective of that cool AI character I loved from the short story, but it's still early on yet. It could improve.

esurient I'm being overly snarky. There's a part from the AI's perspective at the very beginning of this, which I misremembered as being a prologue, but it is Chapter 1. So, this is shaking out to be one-fifth AI, one-fifth chat group, three-fifth teen girl. 4y
esurient On to Chapter 5. 4y
12 likes2 comments
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esurient
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#releasedayyay! I did have this preordered, but it being YA I was on the fence about it, and then I was frustrated with Macmillan's new policy on library e-books and so fell completely off. Currently on the waitlist for the library print copy.

https://boingboing.net/2019/11/19/setec-astronomy-kitteh.html

esurient Also: UGH review states this ends on a cliffhanger. I have strong thoughts about cliffhangers and they are not good ones. /grumpy (edited) 4y
rubyslippersreads I just started this. Cliffhanger 😾😾😾 4y
esurient @rubyslippersreads Fingers crossed that it's the sort of cliffhanger that's an emotionally satisfying conclusion with an open-door invitation to come along for the sequel. I once read a book like that. Once. 4y
13 likes3 comments
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esurient
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(Releases November 2019) I had adored the short story this novel is expanded from, but I'm apprehensive about the novel. Kritzer's opted to make it YA, and that's... not really my genre.

Still! The excerpt is very much in the voice of the AI character, which I had so much loved reading in the short story. So, I'm tentatively very interested in this?

10 likes1 comment