Asta and her brother Ash love living in the forest with their mum. She is teaching them how to catch their prey when they are caught instead. Petrified, they are taken by humans and dogs to the vast city of London. Their mother had told them of this place, crawling with humans. It is even worse than they imagined, with foul smells reeking through the air and their grief over their lost mother filling their hearts.

Sold to an ruthless apothecary who uses their whiskers and blood for his many concoctions to sell as medicine, Asta is desperate to escape her cage. There is already another cat (Beauty) living with the apothecary and it slowly causes a rift between Asta and Ash. Ash begins to believe all Beauty’s lies, and decides is quite happy to stay in the house and give up the wild, but Asta refuses to be tamed.

She is sold again, this time to something even worse, having to fight for her life every day in a betting ring, surrounded by cruel and merciless humans, both men and women. All she can think about though is returning to free her brother, no matter what he believes about his new life.

When her chance to flee comes with the help of a clever raven, she takes it, only having to face fires deliberately set across London. Ash is still clear in her thoughts as she avoids one danger after another.

I picked up this book because of the cover, thinking it might be a wonderful adventure of two cats in Victorian London. It is much more than that, taking me deep into the filthy streets of London in 1666. There are good humans and bad, and the same with animal characters, but be warned if you are an animal lover.

The descriptions of first the hunters, the apothecary and then a fair that only keeps animals to bet on in fights are authentic and brutal, so this book isn’t for the soft hearted.

Asta however is a character to cheer for as she does everything to survive and then help other animals. Three brave humans helping free animals from their cages is heartening but frightening too as they are incredible danger every time they try to save an animal.

Courageous animals, human kindness, secret tunnels, the River Thames, ruthless medicine men and roaring flames of the devastating Fire of London, layer the story with one menace after another. How can a wild cat survive?

The author’s note in the rear of the book gives some information about real wild cats in Britain and the decline of so many other species. Details of the real life people she based some of her characters on is also interesting as well other facts and figures from this terrible time in London’s history.

Not for the soft-hearted animal lover.

Author – Anna Fargher

Illustrator – Sam Usher

Age 10+

(2022, Macmillan, Cats, Action, Animals, Betrayal, Crime, Historical, Murder, Ravens, Cruelty, Kindness, London, Apothecary, Medicine Man, Hunters, Traps, Grief, Loss, Danger, Courage, Great Fire of London, 1666, Caged, Bait fights, Freedom, Escape)