Author: Bob Harvey
ISBN: 1-933538-38-4

The following review was contributed by Mary Simmons:  Click Here To Read Mary's Reviews

After a fire barrels through a townhouse complex, six strangers and their
pets are brought together with a common mission to stop a corrupt
businessman from levelling what's left of their homes and destroying the
local ecosystem.

The fire turns everything upside down for Justin Eagleton, the protagonist
in Bob Harvey's 'Catalyst,' who ponders "the seeming randomness of the
circumstances - the why-theirs-but-not-mine. One moment taking things for
granted - the next fighting to get them back. His life was now redirected
and it pained him."

Out of the fire grows the idea to create an Eco-Homestead where no people
are allowed without pets. It is designed to be a model community devoted to
harmony.

Justin, who has never had a pet, is now the proud roommate of You Too, a
stray cat who adopted him two months before the fire and sparked a change in
the lives of the humans he came in contact with.
The feline hero of this story is a wise being who uses his senses to warn
the humans around him of pending danger. You Too's heroic actions save lives
and remind us that there are times when we should put our human logic aside
and pay attention to the heightened senses of the animals with whom we share
the planet.

Harvey says the book is intended as a work of "sensory fiction, a novel that
portrays with vividness, the rubbing together of the real and the
imaginary."

The novel is presented in KaleidoscriptT format, a "magic carpet of
impressions upon which travel the words." It is intended to enhance the
sensory experience of the text. This unique presentation takes some getting
used to since words vary in colour, size, font and shape, appearing on
glossy, coloured paper, sometimes superimposed over images. At first, I must
admit, it was distracting and I felt the flow of the text was chopped up by
the emphasis placed on certain words, but as I continued to read, I adapted
to the variation from the norm and could appreciate its benefits.

The first of four in the 'Me & You Too' series, 'Catalyst' is an
action-packed instalment which will make you appreciate the humans and the
animals in your life. It ends on a mysterious note that leaves you waiting
for 'Dogma,' the next instalment of the Tetralogy.