I Know This is a Spoiler

but I feel like I have to write it, because it is just so horrible, I wouldn't want anyone to read this book and not be aware of the DEATH OF THE CAT before doing so. Yes, Roger, the beloved cat that we all come to know and love DIES. His death is DESCRIBED! Yes. So if you don't like cats, maybe you will want to read this book.
Although even before I got to the GRAPHIC description of a DEAD and BLOODY, BELOVED CAT, I was losing interest in My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece. I was getting what Bud describes as "book dust" in my eyes every time I picked up the book. It was a short book, but I found it to drag. Up until the DEATH OF ROGER, I thought I would still give the book 4 stars because I was thinking, "well it's an important book and maybe I just wasn't in the right frame of mind and Sunya is a wonderful character and so is Jamie, really. And his sister is such a fine, fine person..." But then, ROGER WAS KILLED. And I know that the author used ROGER'S DEATH to bring Jamie and his father together, to get Jamie to understand the tremendous grief that his father has felt since the death of his daughter in a terrorist attack in London, to get his father to finally start the healing process...yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it. But really?
Don't get me wrong, if over all the book had been amazing, I would have forgiven this. Let's not forget what happened in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian.