Literature Review: The Cat That Caught the Canary

We have dreams...hopes...ambitions...fantasies! Yep...and in a fairy tale world our family and friends are there to support and encourage us. Then there is reality. Our family and friends aren't as supportive as they claim to be. Nope...we are told to get back in line and be the person they expect you to be. Their way is safe...but not very satisfying. Sometimes you feel like exploding and sprinting to your dreams. As the old world and tradition tries to suffocate you, something just may give. Hence, a horrific tale of...well...something giving, Ann Fox' The Cat That Caught The Canary.

Her dreams are quashed. A traditional, old country Italian family in Brooklyn has no patience for her desire to be a great ballerina. Her widowed mom wears black all the time and mourns full time. Because of a horrific display of cruelty, the young girl has an experience that may be possession, or a bold escape from her miserable existence...or, well...you'll see. The 13 year old does escape and ends up at a mysterious, and quite prestigious theater company in New York. She's taken in and her ballet skills...oh yes, her ballet skills. Just how did she become the world's best ballerina practically overnight? With her newfound feline agility and inhuman aggression, nothing will stop her.

Now she is Pearl, still 13, but no one knows that. The mysterious troupe emerges as a weird, well, maybe 'cult' is the word. Ann Fox has created a setting that will put forth the same mood found in "Rosemary's Baby" or "The Sentinel." The spooky theater, now housing Pearl, has secrets...bloody secrets. All of its residents seem friendly and helpful, but also weird and perhaps cult-ish. However our protagonist (or she something else?) excels and manipulates her surroundings and colleagues, there is something horrific, ominous, and very blood looming.

Warning...the last several pages are among the most shocking and horrific ones you will ever read. Taboo...gory...and gratuitous in carnage and evil, Ann Fox' The Cat That Caught the Canary will affect you. Ballet, adolescence, and a dream...all mixed into a cauldron to pour a horror down your throat that will terrify and stun you. You may never read a novel with a more shocking ending, so beware. Kudos to Ann Fox...this, at very least, will be one of the most terrifying (there's that word again) novels you ever read...move over Ira Levin.
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