Review: Kato by Otis West

Kato by Otis West

Blurb from Goodreads:

A darkly funny, low-stakes caper set in early-2000s Seattle—featuring a stolen BMX bike, a clapped-out Celica, and a ferret named Milo.

After a rough breakup, Keith crashes with old friends at a dilapidated Ballard house. He quits his job, buys a rusty Celica for $400, and starts dating a Swedish nanny. But when one of the sketchier roommates steals his younger brother’s prized BMX bike, it sets off a slow-motion train wreck of epic proportions.

Soon Keith finds himself living in a guest house behind a mansion and working as a personal assistant to a shady tech bro named Chad, whose startup might be porn-adjacent. There’s also drunken bowling, putrid corporate bathrooms, grow lamps, a reunited grunge-turned-rockabilly band, a houseboat, a flare gun, and eventually, a shootout.

Set in a city where flannel had just given way to fleece, Kato is a deadpan, slacker comedy about revenge, roommates, sibling rivalry, and trying to grow up without a plan.

For fans of Nick Hornby and Douglas Coupland, with the hijinks of Office Space and Dude, Where’s My Car?

 

This is a short, fun, nostalgic read.  I spent time in Seattle around the time in which this book is set and it felt authentic to that time.  I enjoyed it -- it was funny even amidst incomprehensible decisions and mistakes.  Give this a try!

Kato comes out next week on July 22, 2025 and you can purchase HERE.  

The first thing I thought when I saw Kelly was that I wanted to fuck her. This took me somewhat by surprise-only a small percentage of women aroused much of anything in me, and usually, it built up more slowly. With Kelly, it was instantaneous. I realized that this was the first thing that had happened since I got dumped by Sara that made being dumped seem not all that bad.  Normally, lust would be countered by a vague feeling of guilt and confusion. There was no guilt and confusion here.