Stray Cat Strut is generally a fun read, although don't expect a lot of depth. At first, I thought the world seemed pretty interesting. However, the most depth you get is from the little quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Each character can be summarized in one or two lines, which are often repeated, and some of the writing is a bit clunky. However, the story is quick and fun.

Sadly, characterization isn't a strength of this story. Each major character gets a one line description. Cat is an orphan who is missing an eye and part of an arm. She's older than a lot of the kids at the orphanage, so she and another older girl, Lucy, often help out with the younger kids. That's it. Cat and Lucy are together. Are they dating or just screwing around? It isn't clear. We know that Cat cares about Lucy, but there's no more information. Cat and Lucy are just about old enough that they will have to leave the orphanage, and you would think that this would be played up as a stressful point for the future. Nope! They will leave together and have no idea what they'll do. Besides descriptions of physical acts and Cat worrying about Lucy, I didn't feel a lot of chemistry there, although I do believe that they are friends. In fact, the interactions with all the kids from the orphanage, even though they all have only enough depth for a single sentence of description, were really believable.

Beware! Cat spends a lot of time making sex jokes about someone getting "eaten", checking out other ladies, and generally being kind of an ass about sex. It came across to me as stupid and juvenile, but Cat is kind of stupid and juvenile. So, maybe it fits. Also, the writer seems to be a guy.

The sole character who has two sentences of backstory is Gomorrah, a side character, whose father, a chronic workaholic, was left as her sole caregiver after her mother skipped out and who sent her to a fancy religious school. Her mother returned after Gomorrah (this is her samurai name, btw, not her real name) got her samurai powers and is nice in a way that Gomorrah doesn't trust. Look at all that backstory!!! More than one sentence! Yeah, that's a bit weak. However, just as with the kids from the orphanage, the friendship between Gomorrah and Cat feels real.

The setting is pretty well developed for a story focused mainly on fighting and buying guns. Since bad guy aliens keep attacking, some other aliens have given humans the power to help themselves by choosing some teenagers (mainly teenagers) to have the ability to buy a lot of guns and other upgrades with points they get from killing aliens. This obviously creates some weird social dynamics, which the story goes into. Honestly, between the fact that the story takes place over just one morning and that the whole thing is so goofy anyway, I find it hard to be like, "Oh, no! A plot hole!" Honestly, I didn't see anything that was so awful that I couldn't stand it. I didn't care much beyond that.

The plot to this book moves. Lots of stuff happens, info is kept to short chunks (although the transitions aren't always super smooth), and I only found myself shouting "What is wrong with you?!?!" once. This isn't Dungeon Crawler Carl, so don't expect really clever moves on the part of the characters. However, the story that we get is a completely acceptable one.

I definitely intend to read the next book in the series. I expect that they will get better as they go, since most writers figure out what they are doing over these long series, but I have the impression that there will be a fair amount of hot lesbian action, since that's what the author has already primed us to expect. * shrug *

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy a good romp with a lot of explosions and a kind of found family dynamic.