Book review: ‘My Beloved Monster’

My Beloved Monster: Masha, the Half-Wild Rescue Cat Who Rescued Me by Caleb Carr. Little, Brown and Company, 2024. Hardcover, 352 pages.

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Although millions of people have shared their homes and hearts with cats, I would wager few of these relationships have been as intense and as healing as the one novelist and historian Caleb Carr experienced with Masha, a “half-wild” Siberian forest cat, following her adoption from a Vermont shelter. In My Beloved Monster, the introverted novelist has written a moving and, at times, poignant memoir of the 17 years he and Masha shared in his rural home in upstate New York.

After the death of a much-loved feline, Caleb found himself in an animal shelter in nearby Vermont looking for another cat to share his heart. One cat in particular drew his attention. A Siberian forest cat piqued his interest when she decided to claim Caleb as her new guardian through her playful antics. As it turned out, the writer and the cat seemed destined to be together. Masha, as she came to be known, hadn’t shown interest in any other potential adopters and had challenged shelter staff to such a point that one staff member informed Caleb that he was not leaving the shelter without Masha.

[Book review: ‘Gifts From a Feral Cat’]

So began their life together. Caleb details the trauma he endured as a child. Masha couldn’t share what she had been through. Some wounds might seem healed, but, in the case of the author and Masha, the scars never really tell the entire story of the suffering. Suffice it to say, Caleb and Masha saw themselves in each other and became kindred spirits whose bond was strong and soul deep.

In this intense and incredibly loving memoir, Caleb chronicles the life he and Masha shared and how illnesses on both their parts only strengthened their connection. Not an easy book to read at times because of the details of Caleb’s troubled childhood, My Beloved Monster is ultimately a quiet celebration of the power of love and the healing it can bring.

Our goal at Best Friends is to support all animal shelters in the U.S. in reaching no-kill by 2025. No-kill means saving every dog and cat in a shelter who can be saved, accounting for community safety and good quality of life for pets. 

Shelter staff can’t do it alone. Saving animals in shelters is everyone’s responsibility, and it takes support and participation from the community. No-kill is possible when we work together thoughtfully, honestly, and collaboratively.