江ノ島は猫の島である

EDIT: Coming back to knock a star off. I’ve owned vol2 for ages and still haven’t read it. I never think back to this book like I do my other 5 star reads.

Protag quits his job after ~something~ happened and moves into his dead grandparents’ house in Enoshima, where he one day realises he can now understand cat speech. It’s basically structured into solving little cat related mysteries and problems. Each cat featured has their own unique speech style and distinct personality which is super fun. Just a very very endearing book, I was sure I’d give it 5 stars by the time I was like 20% through and I bought the sequel before I’d even finished reading this one. Just an absolute delight of a book if you’re a fan of chill books where not a ton of stuff happens, although this one has more stuff going on than most of the other books I read in that genre.

• No furigana for names, very little furigana in general
• The main cat speaks and occasionally narrates in the style of writing from 吾輩は猫である so if you’re unfamiliar it might be a bit of a surprise. You should probably read that first if you haven’t already before jumping into this!
• It’s published under a light novel brand but I wouldn’t consider this a light novel at all. It feels more mature, the protagonist isn’t a teenager, there’s no illustrations (a shame because the cover art style is lovely), etc.