Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Nightbitch

this must be what it means to be an animal, to look at another and say, i am so much that other thing that we are part of one another. here is my skin. here yours. beneath the moon, we pile inside the warm cave, becoming one creature to save our warmth.

Content Warnings

sarabethcoyle's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Content Warnings

hanbanane's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

Really enjoyed it, I have never read something quite like it. Immediately thought 4/5, but the abundant use of the word "quotidian" bumped up to a 4.5/5.

Content Warnings

bethaniethebeast's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is SO WITTY and charming to read!! I've never seen a book dive into the difficult, disturbing, even grotesque parts of motherhood like this one does, while still showing that its beautiful. Go read it right now!!!

Content Warnings

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark

3.25

Well this was a weird fever dream of brutality. And you’d think with those words I would have adored it…and I definitely think Yoder has so much skill, there were moments of genius and I love the idea. The prose and brutal nature of the book viscerally makes me never want to have children. But somehow despite the book’s fairly short length, it still felt too long? The first 50 pages were my favourite and I feel like none of the ideas ever really developed from these first pages, the whole book was just more of the same.

Note: There’s an extremely graphic, gruesome cat murder scene that I found extremely disturbing as a cat owner myself and hadn’t been expecting.

Content warnings: graphic killing of a cat, animal death, animal cruelty, body horror, childbirth, child neglect, emotional abuse, blood and gore

Content Warnings

sarah_bookshelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging emotional mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this but I don't think I expected it to wrap things up so neatly at the end. For a book about the messiness and carnal destruction of motherhood, it really tied things up in a profit-driven little bow at the end. I also took issue with the sentence that claims rabbit ears have bones... they don't. Ears are cartilage.
I did really enjoy the visceral language, however, and the spectacle of the whole story kept me enthralled.

Content Warnings

svb96's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

slimy's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have never read anything like this. Rachel Yoder really hit the gas and kept pushing. Didn’t let up for a second. Saw your hand fly to the handle, locked the door and said buckle up babe.

This book follows a woman in her early 30’s as she struggles with her sense of identity and purpose while being a stay at home mom to her toddler son.

She becomes paranoid that she is turning into a dog and wrestles with her instincts as a mother, as an individual, and as a Woman. She finds amusement and comfort in the support of other women. She finds balance in letting her odd instincts take over. She kills her house cat and starts to eat raw meat. She crate trains her son.

This is a creative and surreal journey into self-identity within and alongside motherhood and womanhood.

Content Warnings

More...