“Catfishing on CatNet” by Naomi Kritzer

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Rating: 4/5 Stars

This was a fun YA book to read. I am not a teenager now and don’t know how American teens may behave, but the book gives a believable portrayal of the life of a teen who has been on the run with her mother for much of her life (to hide from her abusive father who once kidnapped her mother), yet finds friendship in a social network called CatNet which, she later discovers, is being quietly run by an AI.

The AI itself likes pictures (especially cat pictures) and is eager to foster good relationships with the people on CatNet. When the teen, Steph, moves yet again to another town and finds actual friendship there and would rather just stay there, the AI decides to ‘help’ her, and ends up revealing their (singular they) existence to Steph to get her trust.

Unfortunately, the ‘help’ causes too much attention to become focused on her location. That, and her mother suddenly falling very ill, makes Steph decide to find out the truth about why she and her mother have really been on the run. The AI, and her friends on CatNet do some digging, inadvertently triggering some trip wires set by her father, who now knows where she is and is coming to get her.

As Steph goes on the run with her friends, the digging she, CatNet and the AI do finally reveal the reason why her father is really after her. But after her father nearly catches here, forcing the AI to act, the AI itself gets into danger. And now it is up to Steph and her friends to rescue them and, hopefully, stop her father and regain her mother.

The book is mostly written from the first-person, switching viewpoints between Steph and the AI, with occasional views of the ‘clowder’ (group) on CatNet involving Steph’s friends. The writing is easy to get used to, despite my lack of experience with the life of a typical American teen in a near future scenario where self-driving cars and robots can be a fact of life.

One note: while reading the book, I was unaware of the use of the term, “Catfishing”. It was only after reading that I looked up the term and realized how appropriate it is to the book as it involves people (and one AI) interacting and only later finding out about the reality behind the people on CatNet.

Book read from 2021/09/29 to 2021/10/06