DemonessTenebrae

A delightful and charming book with more layers than meets the eye.

Blueskin the Cat is a former highwayman that was hanged for his crimes. Reincarnated into a blue-black tom cat he seeks revenge on two brothers that captured him. He is very surprised when one brother, Anthony, shows him kindness. He decides to follow them so he could seize the moment and get them killed along the way. Through a few adventures they were in together, he changed his mind without realizing it. He grew attached to them. Matilda, Anthony's wife, was his safe harbor. She fed him, kept him warm and petted him. So when their ship was attacked by pirates, Blueskin saved Anthony's life and when they were caught in a storm he threw him a saving rope. All of them surviving a shipwreck they found themselves in a strange land of the New World. Soon they were befriended by natives of the Washo tribe and Blueskin found himself on the path of a new adventure.

The author, Daniel Nanavati, made a beautiful and original tale of a cat and his adventures. I adore cats. Blueskin's soft paws and his blue-black appearance had me from the first page. There was no mercy, I have read the book in one sitting all the while imagining what I would do if I found myself in this predicament.
Also, I loved the language used, for example:
"A food fight means being a cat facing a dog over a hog's foot and blood being shed."

Or the description of a ship's doctor:
"To call him a ship's doctor is slightly misleading. What confronted Blueskin was a thirty-five year old man who enjoyed cutting people's limbs off, polished his hatchet and five inch saw endlessly whilst waiting for someone to be brought in with a stomach ache. This man was so sadistic the sight of blood make him feel well, screams of agony made him feel like he'd been to a concert and a burial at sea only made him unhappy because he lost the right to examine a living body."

The watercolors used in Blueskin the Cat are amazing as well. They were made by Gabriela Sepulveda and I hope she continues to do them for the sequels. They bring this story to life.

Despite the great story, there were some grammatical mistakes and one sentence doesn't seem to be finished on page 35 ("He spent several minutes every half-an-hour    "). That is the only downside of this book.

The book made me think, it made me smile and made me care for that beautiful cat. I eagerly await his next adventures (all hail the City of Cats). I recommend it to everyone, young and adult because its charm remains despite your age and gender. It has action, adventure, friendship, reincarnation, cats, ships, pirates, natives... what more could one possibly want? :)