Cathy's Book and Cathy's Key Book Reviews

Cathy's Book & Cathy's Key by Sean Stewart, Jordan Weisman, and Cathy Brigg
(Paperback, Running Press)
Rating:


In Cathy's Book, Cathy is just about to finish high school. She's an artist with a mysterious older boyfriend. Her best friend Emma is a super-smart girl with big entrepreneurial ideas. When Cathy wakes up with a needle mark on her skin and her boyfriend is the prime suspect in a murder case, Cathy & Emma have to do some hard core detective work. Cathy's Key continues Cathy's story. She's now graduated and is grappling with the idea that her boyfriend is an immortal. To top things off, his immortal dad is stalking her and her own dad may not have died years ago.

Both of these books were fun, quick reads. Written in diary form and containing a multitude of doodlings in the margins, the books sound like something a teenage girl would write. Cathy is sarcastic, witty, and only slightly self-absorbed. There are also websites and phone numbers in the book that teens can actually visit and call. The idea is that these books are a multi-media experience. I didn't actually visit the websites or call the numbers as I was reading, mainly because I was too interested in the story to stop reading. I visited a few of the websites after I finished the books and I wasn't that impressed, but they probably mean more if you visit them as they are mentioned in the books. What I enjoyed most about the books were the drawings. I thought the diary form made the perfect backdrop for the drawings. Cathy draws random pictures associated with her story, sometimes people, sometimes bits and pieces of the setting, and sometimes just scribbles. My favorite were her self portraits. Overall, these were an entertaining twist on the usual detective fare and I'll be checking out the third book in the series, Cathy's Ring, when it comes out in May.