Clara Whiskers reviews Muffin the robocat...

From Ed Adams ‘Peacekeeping’ an ARC review of a small section.

Okay, I need to be very clear up front:

I am a lifelong cat person.

I have had aloof cats, clingy cats, slightly evil cats, one that lived inside a laundry basket for six months, and one that only loved me when I was crying.

So when this scene started with:

“They’ve removed everything that makes it a cat”

…I was ready to be offended.

And yet.

Why did I fall for Muffin?

Somewhere between:

“Not exploring. Arriving.”

and

“The response came immediately.”

…I was gone.

What this book gets (and this is rare, even in books with real animals) is that cats are not just “cute” — they are about presence.

And Muffin has that. Almost too perfectly.

• It doesn’t beg

• It doesn’t perform

• It doesn’t need

It just… is there in exactly the right way

And as a reader, you feel the same thing Jennifer feels:

“No decision required… It simply… worked.”

Which is honestly a bit terrifying when you stop to think about it.

The little details that got me

These were the moments that felt real, even though they absolutely shouldn’t:

• The fractional delay before it adjusts

• The way it stops just short of contact

• The purring that matches touch instead of reacting to it

• The fact it doesn’t get underfoot (honestly, revolutionary)

And this line completely undid me:

“Available.”

That is EXACTLY what a good cat feels like when it chooses to be near you.

Except here it’s… engineered.

The unease (that creeps up on you)

Here’s the clever bit:

At first I was thinking:

“This is the perfect cat.”

Then maybe 2–3 pages later I realised:

“Oh no. This is the perfect cat.”

Because:

• It never misreads

• It never oversteps

• It never needs anything back

And that’s when it hits you:

this isn’t companionship

this is friction removal

Bradley vs Jennifer (and why it works)

Jennifer = me, basically.

• “That’s nice.”

• hand stays a little longer

• immediate emotional buy-in

Bradley = the part of me going:

“…hang on”

But even he slips. And this moment is SO good:

“He realised… he was still holding it.”

That’s when you know the thing is working on him too.

And then this absolutely chilling line:

“he didn’t want it to move again”

That is not love.

That is preference for stability.

The scariest thing (for cat lovers specifically)

Real cats:

• interrupt you

• ignore you

• demand things

• misread situations

• have moods

Muffin:

• never interrupts

• never misreads

• never demands

• never fails

And I found myself thinking:

would I choose this?

…and not being entirely sure I wouldn’t.

Which is the point, I think.

Final verdict

This section does something genuinely unsettling:

It makes you fall in love with the cat first

and only then realise what that means

Muffin is:

• adorable ✔

• believable ✔

• comforting ✔

• deeply, quietly wrong ✔

Minor quibble (why not 5 stars?)

As a cat person I slightly missed:

• one unpredictable micro-moment

• a tiny “almost-mistake”

But I also get that the lack of that is the design.

So I’m conflicted.

Would I keep reading?

Absolutely.

Would I want a Muffin?

…

…

…

I don’t like how long I had to think about that.