Bad Kitty

Enter a new talent into the YA world: Michele Jaffe, queen of comedy! If BAD KITTY doesn’t make you laugh until your sides split, then I don’t know what will.

Six-foot-tall Jasmine Callihan is obsessed with superpowers. Her best friends all have one. Heck, even people she doesn’t like have

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them. But what’s her superpower? Only the unfortunately troubling one of attracting cats. Which is exactly what happens to her on her family vacation in Las Vegas.

The cat that jumps on her in Vegas belongs to the Fred, the young son of the famous Fiona Bristol, who is currently embroiled in a murderous love triangle between her lover and her ex-husband Red Early. With her eager but amateur detective skills, Jas detects a sinister plot designed to hurt Fiona and Fred…a plot that involves the underhanded involvement of a gorgeous (and tall!) Jack, whom Jas wishes desperately is her soulmate—you know, except for the he’s-trying-to-kill-her part.

But things are not always what they seem. Sometimes, the truth is not what you want it to be—it is much, much more dangerous.

BAD KITTY is completely hilarious. I honestly haven’t read a book this funny in a long time. Jaffe’s characters are quirky but well-developed, and I absolutely adored her constant play on the format of the novel (hint: footnotes). Pick this up if you’re a fan of Meg Cabot and the like, and you won’t regret it!

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All Jaz wants to do during her family vacation is lounge lazily by the pool at their Las Vegas hotel. It's not her fault that things just happen to her. Like a three-legged cat hurling itself onto her head and getting her all caught up in a celebrity mystery. Luckily her BFFs from home show up, to

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join in the amateur sleuthing hijinks.
My favorite part is when she dusts for fingerprints using the eyeshadow in her purse. That tells you so much about the character and this book as a whole: it's sassy, inventive, and fun. A thoroughly modern Nancy Drew.

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Despite the cover (your choice of pink or black) and despite the title, Bad Kitty is a surprisingly literary book. While it looks like, “lit lite” it is actually a very funny spoof of the sleuth mystery story. Jasmine is a forensic investigator wannabe who is, unfortunately, a much better

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klutz. When she is attacked by a three-legged pampered cat of a celebrity, it begins her investigative journey into celebrity scandal and intrigue, complete with metafictional footwear (a.k.a. footnotes). The characters and the plot aspects are purposely exaggerated to maximize the humor. If our BBYA vote (at this point in time) is any indication, half of the readers will really love this one and half will really hate it. Count me as a lover. Recommended for both middle school and high school.

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Selected as one of Teen's Top Ten books for 2007, this is a humorous romp through Las Vegas where a group of very well off teens attempt to solve a mystery.

This story is entertaining but tailored more so to female readers. Its a story about Jasmine who is a girl attacked by a kitty and then becomes a detective in a Las Vegas mystery. The story has a lot to do with her wanting to win the trust of her father and get the attention of a cute guy at the

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pool. Cute read but not really for the male mystery enthusiast.

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Jaz is a sixteen year old with a serious gift for getting into impossible situations, and a keen interest in crime and detection. She's always getting into trouble with her genius (McArthur certified!), and overprotective father. After losing out on a sweet internship in the LAPD crime lab, she's

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suffering through a family vacation at the Venetian hotel in Vegas with the Thwarter (dad), Sherri! (step-mom) and evil cousin Ashley and her hench-twin Veronique. Jaz has decided to be a Model Daughter, just like the one's in the Hallmark ads.

However, when a three-legged cat lands on her chest down by the pool, it gets the naturally nosy Jaz and her three best friends into a complicated situation involving supermodels, murderers, hot British guys, BeDazzlers, guns, underwear and cosmetics used as forensic tools.

This is a fun, if patently unbelievable read. The mystery plot is really just a setup to move Jaz and her friends from one unbelievable situation to the next. Jaz and her friends, funny and cool they may be, are no more realistic, being uniformly beautiful and rich. The ultra hip setting of luxury hotels and hot night clubs will appeal to teens, as will the complete lack of adult supervision while Jaz and friends solve the crime. A fun, fast bit of fluff.

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good, cute little mystery. i was (mostly) annoyed with the asides, but i could see how they might work with teenagers. a nice airplane bookstore buy.

This was a cute book and I liked the characters, but the way the book was set up bugged me. There are constant footnotes where the characters rattle on about nothing with each other while you completely lose track of what's happening in the story. It's a nice teen mystery set in Las Vegas that can

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keep you guessing and ends well.

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Well written mystery as well as being very funny. I love her playing "crime scene Barbie".

it was very entertaining. Our main character wants to be a detective when she grows up, and it’s constantly landing her in trouble, especially with her father. So it’s really no surprise that she finds a mystery she feels compelled to solve while on vacation during summer break. The story is

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told after the events happened, so in footnotes on several of the pages are added conversations between her and her friends as she’s telling us the story. It was rather funny, a little bit of romance added in here too, of course, and not nearly as predictable as I would have thought.

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It's a cute book. it was recommended to me by someone (probably online), but I don't remember why. There were a lot of annoying things about this book. Footnotes for one. Secondary characters for another. I liked the mystery sort of happening to the heroine, but for a book referring to cats, there

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really weren't enough of them. I did enjoy the way the heroine's race was dealt with throughout the book though.

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Super silly, but VERY entertaining. Light, humorous fun.

I'm not a big fan of mystery books but this but was somewhat good. The main character, Jasmine, is very likable. The books gets better when her friends from Los Angeles come to join her in Vegas to help her solve this mystery but a lot of the footnotes that the author provides as side coversations

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between the friends get a little distracting to the main story itself. The story also gets a little dragged out when things occur that seem too crazy to believe.

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First of all, I can't believe this book won the Beehive award for best YA fiction. Eek! Although it is a good book and fast-paced, I don't think it should have won an award unless it was in the teenage-girls-who-like-to-dress-nice-but-who-secretly-foil-criminal-plans category. Now that I have that

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out of my system, Jas is a good narrator and I enjoyed reading all the little footnotes at the bottom. And I also liked that our heroine was smart AND pretty. Fun, beach read for teen girls.

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This is possibly one of the funniest books I've ever read. It's about Jas, who has the unique problem of having trouble follow her wherever she goes -- even when she's trying her best to stay out of it. She's also obsessed with forensics, so you can see where this is going. The novel takes place in

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Las Vegas and is scattered with some of the most hilarious footnotes I've read outside of a Terry Pratchett novel. We follow Jas as she, and eventually her three best friends, get into (and out of) trouble. I laughed out loud so many times that I lost count. I really hope the sequel is just as good.

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Girl + vacation in swanky hotel = perfection.

Right?

Not for Jas. Besides having to deal with her overprotective father (a.k.a. the Thwarter) making sure she doesn't get carried away with her forensic crime passion, there's also a guy who might be interested in her but more likely is a cold-blooded

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killer, her evil cousin and equally evil clone and this evil cat that keeps sinking his claws in her at the most inopportune moments.

Trouble? Obviously, but in the funniest way possible.

This book wasn't completely The Funny YA Novel I was looking for. There was more than a little innuendo, and I was not sold on the whole "hottie's looking my way, it must be true love" aspect - way too cliche, and not at all my flavor, if you know what I mean. When Jas's friends get involved, though, there's more than a few scenes where I just couldn't keep in a chuckle. It's like the Scooby Gang, but minus the talking dog - and no ghosts. This is the type of no-angst, no-pain novels that you just need to keep on the side for when YA dystopian/the end of the world is nigh/paranormal creatures are out to drink my blood ahh save me storylines are getting you down.

Also, who can't at least feel for a heroine who wants to bust the real-life bad guys? I might not want to make my career in crime science, but I definitely can't help but follow along with a good mystery - Jas can't either, which is why you can't blame her for most of the hijinks she gets herself into.

And a best friend who loves pink, but talks on her radio to truckers in order to get Intel - priceless.

Warnings: Aforementioned innuendo. A not entirely believable romantic side-plot. But you can be reassured that no animals were harmed in the making of this novel. (I hope.)

Final verdict: Need some mind candy? Look this one up. You won't regret it.

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So. much. fun.

Remind me to never read Bad Kitty in public, because I'm constantly bursting into giggles. There's not many books that makes me literally laugh out loud, but Bad Kitty is definitely one of them.

Jasmine is just awesome, let's face it, and her three pals are just as cool. Jasmine's

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forensic skills (which are actually pretty legit) paired with Polly's fashion advice, Roxy's gadgetry, and Tom's locksmith skills are a force to be reckoned with. Then throw in some suave Jackness and murder, and you have a winner!

If you want a good laugh -and- a good mystery, then Bad Kitty is definitely for you.

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If you like Nancy Drew, chances are you will like this very cute story! Had me giggling and laughing out loud, and didn't want to put it down.

Compared to Michelle Jaffe’s current run of ‘rich white girl with problems’ psychological thrillers (which I have enjoyed), I liked this book a lot more. While the mystery element isn’t as deep or complex as say, Rosebush, this is just straight-out plucky girl detective fluff. And it’s

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exactly the kind of cotton candy brain fluff that I love to read—interesting characters, a decent plot hook and just plain old fun.

Jas is fantastic. She does read a little younger than seventeen at times, but overall she works as a very strong character. I love that while her interest in mysteries and forensics could be tied back to her mother’s mysterious death, it’s gleefully lampshaded in making Jas a perky seventeen-year old girl who just happens to use her eyeshadow for lifting fingerprints from time to time. There’s also the detail that Jas knows exactly wants she wants to do when she grows up and that she’s trying to get experience in the forensics field. (Maybe it’s because the vast majority of YA heroines strictly align themselves with the arts. Now I kinda want to read/write a YA wherein the heroine wants to be an accountant. /tangent.) I love that she has an actual relationship with her parents, not too perfect and not too dysfunctional. Her dad doesn’t like her being interested in murder, but it feels genuine given the circumstances of his first wife’s death. Sherri! could have been very easily written off as a vapid trophy wife, but Jas rarely talks down to her stepmother and I love that they have a close relationship.

Jas’s friends border on the outrageous, but this feels like the type of book that her friends’ craziness works. Token Guy Tom is very much the straight man deadpan snarker, but I like that he does contribute to the group. Polly feels like the best friend fashionista, cranked up to eleven. When a character drives a van emblazoned with the name “The Pink Pearl,” it actually crosses the line from ludicrous to being kind of awesome. And then there’s Roxy, with her MacGuyver skills using nothing but noodle implements. Again, it crosses the line into being kinda awesome. But aside from the quirks, I do like the friendship that comes out in the group. The trio worries about Jas, and tries to console her in the dark moments, but aren’t afraid to step up and get into the line of danger. Also, their conversations are hysterical. While the footnoted asides get a little too random and out-of-place, they are very funny and do manage to lighten the situation. I also like the edgy friendship between Jas and her cousin Alyson and Alyson’s crony Veronique. Like the other characters, Alyson and Veronique are exaggerations of the bitchy popular girls, but I like that they have their moments of intelligence and contributing to the plot. You get the idea that Aly and Jas aren’t close, but they will put up with and look out for each other.

The central mystery is one of the weaker parts of the book. The build-up is solid, I actually like a lot of the characters involved, and there’s a lot of potential for good twists and turns. What doesn’t seem to work is the reveal. It’s set-up in the text, but the way the dots are connected are very weak and I had to flip back to make sure that I didn’t miss anything. However, I did like that there’s a very real sense of danger and that Jas and her gang do land in potentially fatal situations. Adding to that, Jas’s fling with Jack is actually handled very well, and I like the question of what side Jack is really aligned.

I have massive issues with the slang used in here. I know Alyson and Veronique are supposed to be exaggerated prissy rich popular girls, but the slang that they use just plain does not exist. Anywhere. I will eat a quart of coleslaw if someone can point me to the use of the phrase “That’s so Mastercard!” unironically. (And considering that I despise coleslaw with the passion of a thousand suns, that is saying something.) I also really didn’t care for the dancing around of the deeper mystery of Jas’s mother’s death—I know there’s a sequel out, but the few times it popped up, it very obviously felt like a set-up to a larger series, and this could work as a decent stand-alone.

But as I said in the beginning, this is a good example of cotton candy brain fluff that’s not so insulting to the reader’s intelligence, but doesn’t take itself so seriously. If you haven’t read Michelle Jaffe before, I’d recommend starting with this book over her newer ones.

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This book was hilarious. I thought Jas's voice was funny and the situations they were in were crazy. I'd LOVE to see this one made into a movie.

It was fivestar material, but the footnotes were distracting and kept pulling me out of the story. Other than that, Good Times!

This was a fun romp - mystery, romance and a kick ass heroine. Looking forward to the next in the series.