Book Title: STRANGE FAMILIARS
Character Name: Percy the cat
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I was never a “child”, since cat children are not called children, but rather “kittens”. However, I shall forgive your temporary lapse of knowledge, even despite your purporting to be a website of literary merit.
My kittenhood was dreadful. I never knew my father, and I was most unfortunately ripped away from my mother and four siblings before I was barely weaned. Following this, I spent fourteen years living with Mr. Nathaniel Price, a cold-hearted, narcissist of a man, and his awful wife. It was only recently that I was rescued by a kindhearted woman called Gwendolynne Chan, who is either my savior or my jailer - depending on my mood and the direction the wind is blowing.
What was your greatest talent?
I am a cat. Therefore, my talent is, well, everything.
Significant other?
I have no significant others. I have only enemies.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
The biggest challenge in any of my relationships is that no one can hope to match my intellectual prowess, handsome looks, or unmatchable charisma.
Where do you live?
Right now, I live in Gwendolynne’s awful room in the residential halls at her veterinary university. It is covered with abominable cat hair. Yes, the cat hair is mine, but - that is beside the point!
I spend most of my time sprawled across her bed, though I do also, on occasion, survey my kingdom from the top of her old bar fridge. From this vantage point, I am able to observe her awkward mating rituals with a man she claims is her nemesis: Harrisford Briggs. Well, I call it a mating ritual. She calls it ‘arguing’.
Do you have any enemies?
In book one of my fictionalized memoir, STRANGE FAMILIARS, I refrained from going into too many details about my enemies. As the primary protagonist, I did not want to alienate any of my readers and come across too combative.
However, in book two, my rivalry with Gwendolynne’s … friend … Harrisford Briggs, as well as the infernal Golden Retriever dog she rescued, Fergus (shudder), is well documented.
What do you do for a living?
Gwendolynne likes to call me “unemployed” but I prefer to call it “being an object of joy and beauty”.
Greatest disappointment?
This interview.
Greatest source of joy?
The day that Gwendolynne rescued me is a most favorable memory; it allowed me to escape the most heinous, torturous conditions. If you wish to know more about this, it is well documented in chapter one of STRANGE FAMILIARS.
Licking my crotch comes a close second. You should try it one day.
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
What sort of question is this? I have zero personal failings.
What keeps you awake at night?
I sleep for twenty-three hours a day and only interrupt this for brief intervals to eat.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
Apparently, I am a witch’s familiar, and therefore am supposed to be channeling magic for my human, aka Gwendolynne. However, this has the unfortunate effect of interrupting my beauty sleep. Would you mind speaking to her about this? I rather think that I should be permitted to remain a feline of leisure.
Two scholars of magical veterinary science must put aside their lust and loathing to save the world as they know it in this whimsical, romantic dark academia novel.
All Gwendolynne Chan needs is to get through final year. As the top student in the magical familiars stream, she is on track to be awarded Dux of the entire school—as long as the pretentious prat Harrisford Briggs doesn’t beat her to it.
Harrisford Briggs’s father, the chief financial officer of Magecorp, a major global distributor of magic, expects him to come top of the class. Harrisford, though, can’t help but notice that his father has been acting odd. And there are strange whisperings, too, of uncontrollable surges of excess magic.
When these magical surges begin to rock London, causing chaos and explosions and familiars going feral, Gwen and Harrisford find themselves reluctantly involved, putting both of their veterinary careers at risk.
Along with Gwen’s snarky cat familiar, Gwen and Harrisford must team up to diagnose the problem. But as the two academic rivals fight their burgeoning feelings, they quickly realize that magic is not the only thing surging.
Fantasy Magical Realism | Romance Fantasy [ Ace, On Sale: May 19, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book, ISBN: 9780593956489 / eISBN: 9780593956496 ]
Keshe Chow is a Malaysian-born Chinese-Australian writer of novels, short fiction, and poetry. She won the 2020 Perito Prize, the 2021 Rachel Funari Prize for Fiction, the 2021 Yarra Literature Prize, and the 2022 Victorian Premier's Prize for an Unpublished Manuscript. The Girl With No Reflection is her debut novel.
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