Kagama -The Literaturevixen

Mesopotamian Blue cat, Varjak Paw, has never been Outside before; he and his family have always lived in the isolated house at the top of the hill. But Varjak is forced out into the city when the sinister Gentleman and his two menacing cats take over his home. With help from his mystical ancestor, Jalal, Varjak manages to overcome challenges such as self-survival and a threat from the gangland cats, and he ultimately discovers the terrifying secrets behind the Vanishings. But can he save his own family from their fate?

With wonderful integrated illustrations from acclaimed comic book artist Dave McKean, this book will appeal to all ages.

 Book no 1 of the 16 cat books

http://theliteraturevixen.booklikes.com/post/835048/the-16-cat-books

Varjak Paw is the only one in his family of noble Mesopotamian Blue cats whose eyes arent green and he is constantly teased and ridiculed for this reason.His older brother even claims this is the reason their owner-the Contessa has stoppedvisiting them and only stays in her room. 

One who doesnt make fun of him is his grandfather the Elder Paw and Varjak loves to listen to him tell stories about their ancestor Jalals adventures.

One day a strange Gentleman arrives with two ominiously black cats and takes the contessa away. Varjak and his grandfather are the only ones who thinks to question the weird events,but the others thinks things are just fine-as long as the gentleman keeps feeding them.

The Elder Paw tells Varjak that he needs to go find something called a dog,because its the only thing that can scare the Gentleman away so while the Elder Paw distracts the black cats Varjak sneaks over the wall but he knows they killed his grandfather.

In the end Varjak makes it to the city where he makes friends with two cats who teaches him the ways of the city.But even the city has dangers like rival cat gangs and cats  mysteriously going missing.And he still needs to find a dog.

And then there are the Dreams....

This was a great book with actual depth to it and not just a cutesy books about cats.For a middle grade book it actually had some dark themes.

Maybe its not as dark as Felidae but it does feature some unsettling things that had you wonder even at the end of the book what was going on.  The fact you only see the story unfold from a cats viewpoint makes some things unclear and makes the villain the Gentleman seem even more twisted than if we had viewed it from a human characters viewpoint.

Varjak was a symphatetic character even if he was far from forceful in his actions and when he finally through his experiences in the city takes charge of things he does suffer a lapse towards the end of the book and falls back into his old role.He gets better though. So its a coming of age story too.

The others characters are cats

[spoiler]

and one dog

[/spoiler] with some human traits but I never felt they were humans in cats bodies.There were just enough catlike qualities to make them interesting.

There is a sequel called Varjak the Outlaw  wich I plan to read.