An intriguing, contemplative tale. After a great earthquake alters life in Japan, a teen girl navigates a time-distorted world. Legend says that a giant catfish lives under the islands of Japan, causing earthquakes whenever it twists and turns. ( )

2.5⭐️
I won a copy of this book in exchange for a review on LibraryThing.

I enjoyed the concept. The illustrations at the beginning of each chapter were lovely. The progression of Sora's relationship with her father throughout the story is beautifully done. The themes of grief and loss were well told.

Unfortunately, the premise of time could have been explored more deeply. I'll be honest. I naively expected to see a Godzilla-sized catfish physically crack the earth's surface. I was expecting something a little less contemporary. Outside of faster time zones causing things to age faster. The different time zones did not feel dangerous at all. Because of this, the novel lacked a sense of urgency after Sora's father went missing.

Overall, I liked it. ( )

I loved this book! Written by a fellow Canadian and therefore holding a special place in my bookworm heart, this was story included adventure, philosophy, a tiny bit of romance, grief, growth and a touch of magic (or spirituality). I learned many new Japanese words (and there's an eggplant recipe I definitely need to try now) and I just fell in love with Sora and her tenacity. This book may be labelled as young adult, however the themes and exploration of time are ones that can be appreciated and should be contemplated by many adults! The author does a beautiful job of describing the natural world and I felt the intense need to go hug a tree at the end of this book. IYKYK ( )

I really enjoyed the concept behind this story. I found the ‘time zones’ to be imaginative and interesting, giving this book a science fiction bent that I wasn’t totally expecting. I found the pacing a little slow, but other than that, it’s a wonderful coming of age story that works through themes of loss and love (both romantic and familial). ( )

This one really connected with me.

A quiet, thoughtful coming of age novel, Catfish Rolling is, at its core, an exegesis on grief personal, familial, and collective. Also, not only is the cover art gorgeous, but there are one or two page greyscale illustrations for each chapter, based on a part of the seasonal calendar that are just stunning. More of THAT in books, pls!

The story starts with Canadian pre-teen Sora with her parents in Japan for a yearly trip to visit her mother's family. Sora is out with her father when an earthquake literally and figuratively tears their world apart, leaving timey-wimey zones all over Japan and Sora's mother and grandfather among the many missing, presumed dead. Seven years later, still in Japan, Sora's father works for a company that studies the timey-wimey zones and Sora is adrift, left behind by her schoolmates who have moved on to university, unsure of where she fits and who she is.

While Kumagai writes a very strong first person point of view - especially hard for teenagers where it's easy to make their inner narration either too complex or too simple - there's a part of me that thinks that if this was written from the third person, it might not be lost among so many other speculative young adult novels. Catfish Rolling felt a little more sophisticated in theme and tone.

Sora is an interesting protagonist, aware of her own stagnation but unsure of how to reconcile what the time zones, which move time slower or faster in different parts of the country, have done without the help of her equally stagnant father. Both of them are obsessed with the idea of somehow, some way finding her mother lost in the zones in a way that has left them unable to connect with each other.

The story wrapped up in a way I didn't expect, but found poignant and pleasant. Not perhaps I wanted but what I needed as a reader. ( )