Look What the Cat Dragged In
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Have you ever taken a job that sounded almost too easy (pet-sitting, house-sitting, watering someone's plants)? Tell us how it actually went.
Before we get into it: what is your relationship with cats? Are you charmed, suspicious, allergic, or fully devoted?
When you got to the illustrations, what did you do with your body? Did you lean in, hold the book further away, or keep reading past them? Describe that moment.
This is a story about being alone in someone else's house. What is the sound or detail in an unfamiliar home that most unsettles you in real life, and did this book name it?
The book asks you to take an animal seriously as a presence rather than a prop. Has a pet in your life ever seemed to know something you did not? No judgment here, we are all believers tonight.
Where in the book did you actually feel comfortable, even briefly? A warm room, a kind gesture, a small routine. What did Rekulak give you to hold on to?
Think about how it felt to keep turning pages when part of you wanted the main character to just leave. What kept you (and her) in that house, and what does that say about how you handle a bad feeling you cannot yet explain?
Without saying how things land, how did you feel in the last stretch: more tender toward the characters, more spooked, or oddly calm? Where did the book leave your heart rate versus your heart?