Look What The Cat Dragged In
By: Jason Rekulak
Narrator: Stephanie Németh-Parker
ISBN: 9781250451477
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
Publication Date: 10/13/2026
Format: Audio
My Rating: 4.5 Stars (ALC)
From the New York Times bestselling author of Hidden Pictures and The Last One at the Wedding comes a new supernatural thriller about a young woman pet-sitting a cat with a mysterious secret.
Meet Penny Padgett, a twenty-seven-year-old cartoonist in Philadelphia who agrees to pet-sit a very peculiar cat named Godfrey in her home. At first, he’s a warm and affectionate companion who follows Penny all around the house and insists on sleeping by her side every night. But soon strange things are happening: Penny is haunted by disturbing and violent nightmares. There’s a terrible insect infestation in her basement. Her cute cartoon illustrations turn dark and surreal, as if influenced by some invisible hand. And her health starts failing, as if her mind and body are under attack by a sinister, malevolent force.
Penny may be a cat person, but she’s starting to think Godfrey is no ordinary cat. . . .
"Jason Rekulak’s new novel is intensely plotted, wonderfully frightening, and wildly clever. He more than lives up to his reputation as having “a freakishly fertile imagination” —The New York Times
A Macmillan Audio production from Flatiron Books.
Praise
"The 80-plus pages of illustrations include both Penny’s comic panels and Barnabas’ 19th-century images, the latter also filled with hints of what will emerge in the dramatic, screamworthy climax. For readers who like their fun laced with skin-crawling weirdness."
―Kirkus
"Garfield meets Rosemary's Baby…Increasingly terrifying comic strips and haunting woodcut illustrations accentuate the tale’s sinister undertones, while Rekulak’s broad characterizations make room for humor. With a plot that’s by turns cozy, creepy, and comedic, this is good fun." ―Publisher’s Weekly
My Review
"A wildly original, addictive, and deeply unsettling thriller that starts fun and gets delightfully weird."
Audiobook Review
Intro
Whenever the mastermind behind the massive, award-winning hit The Last One at the Wedding drops a new book, the entire thriller community stops to take notice. Jason Rekulak’s latest psychological thriller, Look What the Cat Dragged In, is a wildly inventive, bizarre, and profoundly unsettling ride. The audiobook experience was a true trip; it begins as an addictive, highly entertaining puzzle before taking a sharp turn into the deeply weird, leaving me breathless, thoroughly creeped out, and completely hooked.
The Hook
An ordinary suburban home becomes the center of a chillingly bizarre mystery when a domestic pet starts returning with tokens that point to a dark, hidden horror.
Elevator Pitch
What starts as a quirky, almost fun domestic puzzle quickly spirals out of control when a cat begins bringing home highly disturbing items from an unknown location. As its owner tries to trace the animal's nocturnal hunting tracks, they uncover a dark, deeply eccentric secret hidden right in their neighborhood's blind spot, turning a simple curiosity into a high-stakes psychological nightmare.
Setting
A deceptively quiet, ordinary suburban neighborhood, sharply contrasted by dark, shadow-filled crawlspaces and an eerie, glowing window pane at night.
Vibe
Quirky, eccentric, deeply unsettling, and increasingly bizarre.
Genre
Psychological Thriller / Domestic Suspense / Horror
Themes
~The hidden rot behind manicured suburban facades
~Obsession and the limits of curiosity
~Unpredictable, chaotic consequences
~The blurry line between quirky and sinister
Standout Characters
~The Main Protagonist: A grounded, relatable individual whose life is completely upended by their pet's inexplicable habits, forcing them into a state of paranoid investigation.
~The Neighborhood Cat: An eerie, silent observer whose mysterious nocturnal wanderings serve as the catalyst for the entire story’s mounting dread.
Author Writing Standout
Rekulak’s writing standout is his brilliant mastery of tonal shifts. He expertly lures the reader in with an almost playful, fun domestic premise before slowly dialing up the strangeness, turning the environment into something deeply eccentric and profoundly creepy.
Takeaway
Some doors are closed for a reason, and curiosity can drag back things you can never push away.
Title Significance
"Look What the Cat Dragged In" subverts a casual, funny everyday idiom into a literal, bone-chilling warning about the dark secrets pulling their way into your home.
Metaphor
The cat's hidden path serves as a perfect metaphor for the subconscious mind—dragging deeply buried, uncomfortable truths out into the bright light of day.
Why You Should Read
You must pick this up if you want a completely unpredictable thriller that breaks away from standard, cookie-cutter genre tropes. It is a wildly original, incredibly immersive story that keeps you guessing.
My Thoughts
An incredibly smart, high-concept psychological puzzle. Following up his massive runaway hit The Last One at the Wedding, the brilliant Jason Rekulak masterfully takes a quirky domestic premise and slowly twists it into a deeply eccentric, unpredictable nightmare that completely upends your expectations.
A fascinatingly weird achievement. I was entirely captivated by the opening half, which felt incredibly fun, addictive, and cleverly structured. While the final act takes a turn into an exceptionally bizarre territory that might catch some traditional thriller fans off guard, Rekulak's sheer creativity and ability to manufacture pure, skin-crawling dread kept me completely locked in.
Verdict: 4.5/5 Stars
A High-Concept, Deeply Unsettling Ride " While it gets incredibly weird, the pure entertainment factor and atmosphere make it an absolute must-listen!"
Recs or Read-Alikes
(Note: If you love highly atmospheric thrillers that masterfully blend domestic normalcy with deeply eccentric, skin-crawling strangeness, dive into these standouts)
~The Last One at the Wedding by Jason Rekulak
~Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak
~The Family Upstairs by Lisa Jewell
Audio Standout
🎧 A Pure, Skin-Crawling Audio Masterclass!
Stephanie Németh-Parker's (a favorite) audio production is phenomenal and completely accentuates the story's rising tension! Her vocal performance is a masterclass in building psychological dread, effortlessly carrying the listener from the lighter, quirky beats of the beginning straight into the dark, breathless panic of the final act. The sheer atmosphere created through the narration made the hairs on my arms stand up. If you want the maximum, most visceral impact from this bizarre mystery, the audiobook is absolutely the way to experience it!
Special thanks to Macmillan Audio, #MacAudio2026, and NetGalley for sharing an advance listening copy in exchange for my honest thoughts.
@JudithDCollins | #JDCMustReadBooks
My Rating: 4.5 Stars
Pub Date: Oct 13, 2026
October 2026 Must-Read Books
About the Author
Jason Rekulak lives in Philadelphia with his wife and family. His novels include Hidden Pictures (winner of a Goodreads Choice Award), The Last One at the Wedding (winner of the ITW Award for Best Standalone Thriller), and The Impossible Fortress (an Edgar Award finalist). His books have been translated into more than forty languages.
