GOOD NIGHT TO READ MINI REVIEW

This story is immersive from start to finish. It brought back happy memories of reading Colin Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood as a young child, rooting for intrepid animals fleeing dangerous circumstances. It has the peril of Watership Down, the mysticism of Warrior Cats and the power of an emotive animal centric narrative. New Zealand born Gregg draws on the lore of cats to shape her narrative creating colourful characters with recognisable cat like personality traits.

Spurred on by the words of an enigmatic seer and memories of his mother, her plucky protagonist Pusskin is an engaging narrator who persuades a diverse band of feline breeds living in his cul de sac to run from impending doom. To survive these cats will have to live by their wits and trust in the bonds of friendship.

But as Pusskin and his pals travel towards Carmarthen, the Curiosity, engineered by an unthinking government, is not all they have to fear as an ancient evil stirs on a mysterious island.

With vivid imagery , heart stopping moments and dramatic illustrations by Suzie Mason, one can imagine this epic adventure on screen. Gregg uses historical facts and political realities to demonstrate the danger of humans scapegoating animals by blaming them for diseases and changes in the environment. Drawing on the treatment of cats during the plague, the events that took place in the 1990s on Macquarie Island in Australia and the fears that manifested themselves during the Covid pandemic, she has created a scarily believable dystopia.

An engaging adventure with memorable, plucky characters who teach readers the meaning of fortitude, blending myth and knowledge of animal behaviour that will appeal to cat lovers, ecologists, and fans of Adams' Watership Down and Dann's The Animals of Farthing Wood.

GOOD NIGHT TO READ REVIEW RATING- 4 CHOCOLATE LIBRARIES

Stacy's author's note The Real Story of the Cul de Sac Cats shines a spotlight on the hidden history of the relationship of humans with cat kind from ancient Egypt to plague ridden Europe to the catastrophe of policy on Macquarie Island to cat communities living on different continents.

The Last Journey is a middle grade children’s fiction book that tackles some rather serious themes about ecological disaster, and even the overreaching of government into the personal lives of citizens. Oh and the story is told entirely from the point of view of a cat.

We meet Pusskin when he is just a kitten waiting to be adopted. His mum tells him he has a great destiny and Pusskin has no reason to believe otherwise! Upon finding his home with Lottie we see his adaptation to domestic life and his exploration of the cul-de-sac and relationships with the other cats who are his neighbours. In the background you begin to see snippets of the deeper ecological messages as we learn about the diminishing bird population, the increasing insect population, and the damage that is causing to food crops.

This lays the foundation for the second half of the story which focuses on Pusskin and his cul-de-sac crew embarking on a journey of a lifetime to the semi mythical Isle of Cats to escape persecution (and execution at the hands of the government)

It’s a difficult book to rate really. The concept as a whole is nice, it is a fresh unique voice to tell a story like this from the point of view of the animal, however it feels a little like the tone is undecided. It handles some very serious topics and the deeper you dig the more thematic undertones you begin to discover. But, it also tries to retain the focus on the middle grade demographic. It feels to me like a book that tries to straddle two things and unfortunately slips through the cracks.

There isn’t anything inherently bad about The Last Journey, it just had too confused of a tone for me personally.