Dead Weight

Thank you to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Macmillan Audio for the advance copies for my unbiased review.

My first year of college, my roommate and I walked to the supermarket that was about a mile or so from our dorm room. The basket was getting heavy, so we moved the items to a cart, and it wasn't until we got to the sidewalk that it occurred to us that a basket that was too heavy in the market was not going to be fun to carry for a mile.

Which is to say, I related to Unner right away when she complained about carrying the grocery bags on the walk home because she didn't feel like going to get her car first.

Then, when she arrives home to find a strange cat on her sofa, her negative reaction immediately turned that around.

Part of the fun of Dead Weight by Hildur Knútsdóttir is that Unner feels like a real person. She is a likeable narrator overall even though she doesn't like cats and is sleeping with a married man - though that almost makes her more sympathetic as she seems to sincerely believe "their marriage is over" and that "it's complicated" because of the kids.

When the strange cat's owner Ásta comes to retrieve her, Unner is relieved to be rid of the feline (again, Unner, what is your problem with cats?) but doesn't realize that Ásta and her cat Io are going to become her best friends - and bring way too much excitement (not always in a good way) to her fairly mundane existence.

Though Unner narrates, there are really three main characters in Dead Weight: Unner, Ásta, and Io, and it's amazing how easy it was to get invested in their outcomes, even in the short span of this novella. I recommend waiting until you have a few hours free to read it because I don't want you to stay up way too late like I did as it was impossible to put down if for no other reason than to release the tension that builds, builds, builds.

I listened to this on audiobook and read the ebook (I just learned this is called immersive reading - I like it). The audiobook production was top-notch as expected from Macmillan, and the narration by Mary Robinette Kowal was well done. She also translated the novel to English, I realized as I was checking the details, which explains how flawlessly (to my American ears, anyway) she pronounced the Icelandic names.