Books: The White Cat’s Revenge

By Jeannette Ng.

The ever-lengthening ever more direct yet elaborate light novel title is a commonly observed phenomenon and The White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap, by “Kureha”, is a particularly evocative example. It fills my mind with all those fluffy cats lounging spoilt on the laps of villains. Much to my frustration, this offers very little of that feline vindictiveness, though vindication it has in spades.

The story follows Ruri, a gorgeous young woman who has been magically dragged from our world to another by one of those classic hero-summoning rituals. She arrives along with her childhood “best friend”, the sort of friend with no concept of boundaries, who steamrollers every attempt Ruri has ever made to extricate herself from her.

White Cat’s Revenge is wish fulfilment at its most saccharine. In this other world, Ruri is followed around by flocks of cute and powerful spirits, making her their “Beloved”, a title that grants, her immense social and even quasi-religious standing. She quickly makes friends with other powerful beings, including the legendary Spirit of Time, which coincidentally also grants her access to all abandoned pocket dimensions. Another series of misunderstandings results in her disguised as a white cat at the court of the beautiful and besotted Dragon King. Her titular revenge is not one of cackling, gleeful villainy so much as her utter vindication that everyone who has ever wronged her on earth is indeed, in the wrong. It is hard to describe or even entirely recommend a story in which the main character’s special power is to be so utterly and universally beloved, but what is pleasure without a little guilt?

Jeannette Ng is the author of Under the Pendulum Sun. White Cat’s Revenge as Plotted from the Dragon King’s Lap is published by J-Novel Club and available to pre-order from Anime Limited.