The Goodbye Cat by Hiro Arikawa [Fiction Review]

• I spotted this title while browsing NetGalley. The Goodbye Cat is a companion to The Travelling Cat Chronicles (link to my review). However, The Travelling Cat Chronicles is a novel, while The Goodbye Cat consists of seven short stories.
• My favourite story was “Bad Father”. The father’s son narrates a story of his dad’s relationship with their family’s cats, the dad being a no-filter gruff likes what he likes and doesn’t like what he doesn’t like type of man… until later in life, as his health declines and his opinion on cats evolves.
• Another story (“The Night Visitor”) is just a few pages, but it’s a cute lil story with a closing sentence that tied it up in a simple fun way.
• Two of the stories connect back to The Travelling Cat Chronicles, which was kind of sweet. Because of that, I do recommend reading the novel before picking this up. It’s not strictly necessary, but frankly, I found this collection mediocre especially when compared to the original novel. So I can only recommend it if you loved The Travelling Cat Chronicle and really really love little stories about cats. The nature of the short stories means they don’t pack the same emotional punch as The Travelling Cat Chronicles. To me, The Goodbye Cat gives the impression of a writer trying to capitalize on the success of one of their books….
• 💭 The Bottom Line: Skip this one unless you’re quite enamoured with cats.

How do you feel about anthropomorphized animal stories? Do you have a favourite animal tale?