3.5 stars
I jumped at the opportunity to listen to Look What the Cat Dragged In because Jason Rekulak’s Hidden Pictures is an absolute classic of the supernatural thriller genre for me. This one didn’t quite reach those heights, but it has such a fresh and unusual setup, and the pacing is excellent.
Penny Padgett is a cartoonist who writes children’s books about the adventures of Penny and her beloved cat, Popcorn. Penny is exactly the kind of cat owner you would expect her to be: Popcorn is spoiled, adored, and absolutely central to her life. She’s also been dating her boyfriend, Dean, for about six months. Her agent would love for Penny to add a love interest to her books, but Penny isn’t sure she wants to put Dean into them. After all, once she does that, he becomes part of her fictional world forever—and that feels like a very big commitment.
Then Popcorn goes missing, and Penny is devastated.
Not long afterward, Penny gets the opportunity to cat-sit Godfrey, a peculiar cat belonging to a very bizarre older woman. Godfrey initially seems affectionate enough, but once he comes into Penny’s life, things begin getting increasingly strange.
And then increasingly disturbing.
And then increasingly gross.
This is a supernatural horror novel, and it eventually goes very firmly in that direction. There are demons and some fairly grotesque moments, so readers who prefer their horror grounded entirely in reality should know that going in.
What impressed me most was the pacing. This is a true slow burn, but I never found it boring. Rekulak creates that wonderful horror-novel sensation of sinking into quicksand: things are getting worse almost imperceptibly until suddenly Penny is in very, very deep.
I also really liked Penny as a protagonist. She changes considerably over the course of the story, and there is a genuine character journey underneath all of the supernatural chaos.
The ending is where things get VERY big. It is over the top. It is a little cheesy. But sometimes cheese tastes good! I was willing to go along for the ride even when it became completely bonkers.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Stephanie Neméth-Parker, and her performance is fantastic. She has quite the assignment here because the voices aren’t limited to ordinary humans, and she handles the human, feline, and supernatural elements wonderfully. Even as the story becomes increasingly strange, the narration remains very easy to follow.
This probably won’t make my top ten books of the year, especially given how much I had been anticipating it after Hidden Pictures, but I definitely enjoyed it. For readers who like slow-burn supernatural horror—and particularly horror involving cats—this is a very fun addition to the spooky-season reading list.
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Publication date: October 13, 2026
Format: Audiobook
Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the gifted advanced listening copy.
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