R.I.P. Scoot
R.I.P. Scoot
By Sarah Flemington
Nightwood Editions, 2025; 210 pages; $23.95
Reviewed by Jessica Key
Author Sara Flemington has created an oddball, yet charming, literary mystery with R.I.P. Scoot. Beloved surprise pets, a kaftan-wearing Walmart squatter, a Japanese muralist, and an ASMR specialist who charges $50 for 15 minutes of video chatting, make up only a fraction of the broad cast of characters surrounding the protagonist Austin, who is abruptly pulled out of his isolated existence when he is adopted by the eponymous Scoot.
Scoot shows up at the door of his tiny apartment (formerly the office of a mop and broom factory) with a bloody squirrel tail hanging from his mouth, bedraggled, louse-infested, and missing multiple parts of his body — and Austin’s life is seemingly changed forever by the decision to care for this unasked-for pet. Then, when Scoot dies abruptly, a mere three weeks later, Austin is left reeling. What do you do when something small and seemingly helpless so quickly entrusts their life to you, then just as quickly, leaves? His grief turns to feverish obsession, as what may just be a series of coincidences pieced together into a mystery that spans continents and crosses oceans. He tries to solve it from his crumbling 200-something square-foot apartment using a brand new Instagram account, and the consultation of assorted friends, family, and acquaintances. Half-broken keys and broken down communication abound, as said friends and family grow concerned over Austin’s increasingly erratic behaviour, questioning whether he’s having a mental health crisis or taking drugs.
As Austin strings together these connections (quite literally sometimes, with guitar strings and shoelaces on his wall) one may be left thinking of a much more charming version of the Charlie in It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia meme. What balances the comedy with some tenderness is that the things Austin is working through are very real and very human — yes, he’s stringing together a very strange mystery, sure. But he’s also processing grief, difficult family connections, struggles with communication and understanding, his lack of direction in life since he left school partway through and which he’s re-found through his search for answers. Plus, the potential reward for his dead cat may even solve his financial woes.
R.I.P. Scoot is more of a romp than you may expect for a book ostensibly about a dead cat — a surprisingly earnest and occasionally delirious one, where the protagonist makes all sorts of weird, eccentric choices that you may not understand, the same way many of those surrounding him did not. There may be points where he, and the reader, have no idea what is going on. But they always felt true to his character, betraying neither the narrative nor the reader. And alongside this romp it’s simultaneously an empathetically told depiction of grief and clumsily navigating life’s changes. As Austin stumbles through the story, following the trail of Scoot’s three-and-a-half ghostly paw prints, you can’t help but root for him to find the answers he’s looking for. If not in the mystery, at least in life.