Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Nightbitch

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

11 reviews

ashleygreene03's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-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

0.75

When I read that this wasn’t meant to be a full sized novel, it made perfect sense and sums up my issues with this book. She went on and on about her issues with motherhood and I kept thinking “yes this is why no one is having kids anymore” and it was frustrating how she never accepted help. I don’t understand how her husband showed her his weird porn stash and she said to herself “this is a man to marry and procreate with.” Then again, I didn’t get too far before I DNFd, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about 🥸

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crybaby_chloe's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

I feel there are a lot of great moments in this book but I was left wanting more development. I felt confused by the relationship between the main character and her husband. This is the point, I think, but I just felt that the lack of fleshing out the husband's character made me confused about some of the main character's motivations or decisions relating to him. I also felt that I needed more of a conclusion for the plotline

about Wanda White. I didn't need an explicit answer about who she was but I felt that this thread got tied up too quickly and I was left wanting more.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but felt more interested in certain parts / themes than others.

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msradiosilence's review against another edition

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2.5

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fedelikeslego's review

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I don’t know how to feel honestly. I had very highly expectations because the premise is amazing. What I found is an extremely boring collage of ideas. There’s so many things that are just randomly put in the plot and then never explained/finished? It’s just frustrating honestly. It feels like Yoder’s publisher just forced her to make the novel longer.

- Who where those strawberry dogs? Was she just loosing her mind? I didn’t get it.

- What was even the point of the Wanda plot? I have no idea.

- The relationship with Nightbitch husband was just so useless, also he changed in a second? Like, so unexpectedly? I got the point of him just being good, but “typically male” the whole time, but it could have been deepen it better? It just sounds so stupid

- Honestly, just the whole dog thing that she randomly set aside.

- her son just disappear? Like, I get the point of her finally being a free human being (again, difficult after motherhood), but like, he just suddenly disappear?

What was I expecting from this book before reading it?
Literally a mother who turned in to a dog, but like, fisically, not only mentally.

What would i have preferred, after reading it?
A short book would have been much better, not a short story, but like a 100-120 pages book, so less then the half of it.

As a artist myself I loved every single time she talked about art, making art and being an artist. I also loved the performance at the end, made perfect sense with her feelings (Not feeling sure about his husband reactions? You’re eating a rotten cadaver from the ground? Sounds great! I’ll shower you, i’ll love your performance!)

The domestic cat violence was a blow to the heart, I didn’t want to read it.

So… I’m just disappointed, I expected much more in terms of both plot and general message? Let’s objectively look at it, no emotions, how could you not found obvious what she said? The “perfect mother era” finished like decades ago? A lot of people think that and admit that right now, there’s communities, support groups. Literally nothing was revolutionary about it.

Don’t get me wrong, the 1 star is not because “it’s too weird”, I read weirder books, it’s just not good, extremely poor execution.

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kateyoutka's review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

A Kafkaesque fever dream of a novel -- stressful, heartbreaking and hilarious.

I had no idea what was going on at *any* point of this book, and I enjoyed every second of it. It's either satirical, or it's playing a trick on the reader, or it's a metaphor, or it's magical realism, or it's somehow all of the above, but most especially it's -- as Kate Baer said it better than I can -- a "primal scream" of a book.

Readers are best off going into this book with as little knowledge about it as possible, which is good considering I wouldn't even know how to describe it. But any woman, mother or not, will see themselves in this story, bizarre as it is. I can't wait to see the Hulu adaptation (with Amy Adams, of course).

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emory's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

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bibliowhore's review against another edition

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1.0

this is gross, but not cool & entertaining gross; more like cringe gross

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helenamichelle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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finleyfrogreads's review against another edition

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dark funny 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? Yes

4.0

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cady_sass's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This is….. weird. Really, really weird. For a while, it’s okay that it’s weird. It’s very (almost obnoxiously) clear that this is a metaphor for matrescence. The loss of identity in motherhood, the struggle to find meaning in your life outside of your child(ren), the silent resentment that builds between partners over the distribution of parental duties… bonus points for the author bringing in mommy group MLM dynamics as this is a REAL problem. In fact, the choice to NEVER name the main characters (the mother/nightbitch, the husband, the boy) is a choice I didn’t love at first but I’ve come to respect by the end, it makes sense. I do think this could be quite good, perhaps, if I was a mother. Unfortunately (or, fortunately, perhaps) this just reminded me of the many, many reasons why I have no interest in bearing a child. Probably could’ve been 4 stars but I do not understand the ending at all. I’ve sat with it for a while and I think this will continue to live in my mind but whatever the author is trying to say with the performance art of it all is lost on me.
“Nightbitch” is such a great title though. 100/10 for that.

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