Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

114 reviews

mothie_girlie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Animal cruelty

dreamingpages's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

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

3.25

This book starts off strong and doesn't let up the entire time. I actually wish there had been more of a build up instead of diving in head-first. It made me feel like the book wasn't heading towards a climax.

I'm not a mother, so I felt I couldn't fully relate to this book. Maybe that's why I couldn't give it a higher rating. 

But I am a woman who has felt the injustices of sexism and devalued gendered work. I liked the exploration of womens' incubated primal rage not only being a handicap, but also a source of power and identity. I liked the idea of letting that rage out, throwing the idea of being a proper woman out the damn window. I was pleasantly surprised with

the husband's reaction to her transformation. That being said, I actually do think certain instances in this book can be considered child abuse, even though the book seems to be arguing that they're not.

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, Animal death, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse

rlfrick's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Animal death

soleinn's review against another edition

Crap, literal crap. 
Dnf-ed at 70% - poor cat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Animal cruelty

rinakei's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

2.75

Narratively this book feels slow, but the events move faster than they are told. A lot of the "slowness" comes from the third-person stream of consciousness experienced by the main character, the mother/Nightbitch, as well as depictions of the more mundane/typical/repetitive parts of motherhood. The plot is also interspersed with excerpts from a fictional book in the the novel that contribute to the worldbuilding and the main character's perception of herself. None of these are inherently bad qualities of the writing, and actually helped develop my belief in the magical realism that is used as the main device of exploring the book's themes.

The premise of exploring motherhood, womanhood, and various forms of violence and emotional turmoil against women in terms of magical realism and shapeshifting is extremely creative and compelling up until a particularly graphic and violent scene that occurs at the end of Part 2 and through the beginning of Part 3 that I summarize briefly in the Content Warning section of this review. 

After that first scene, I continued to read the novel because I wanted to see how everything would eventually turn out. However, in the middle of Part 3 and to the end of the novel, there is a similar scene described (I also summarize this briefly in the other part of this review). Both of these plot events irreversibly broke my immersion and belief in the overarching themes of this book, which could have been illustrated without the use of this graphic violence. It is with these events, and other adjacent, smaller and similar occurrences, where the length of this book could have been trimmed, which might have helped with some of the pacing described above, rather than, say, eliminating the mother's/Nightbitch's inner monologue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gore, Animal death, and Violence

Throughout the book, there are multiple instances of graphic violence against small animals (cats, birds, and bunnies, mainly). In particular, at the end of Part 2 and into Part 3, a graphic scene involving (cw: animal cruelty/death)

the mother killing the family cat

and its aftermath are described. I'm not sure that this was a necessary portion to illustrate the theme/purpose of this book. Similarly towards the end of Part 3, when (plot spoiler)

the mother/Nightbitch debuts her show

, it's slowly revealed that the show includes (cw: animal cruelty/death)

the onstage, live slaughter of a bunny by Nightbitch in her "dog" form

. The external actualization of the mother's emotions in this way is incredibly compelling, but even for a fictional work of "art" (in quotes because while I appreciate experimental art, I don't think it needs to include live violence) within a fictional book, it felt more like a gratuitous show of violence than a device to hammer the main themes of the book home.

grunbean's review

dark emotional funny sad medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a weird book, and I really enjoyed it. I did have to pause to process a particularly traumatic scene, but I wouldn’t say it was an unnecessary scene. It is dark, primal, and a strange insight into the role of women, female rage, and the power to overcome what is expected of us. I would say this is a feminist book, but it’s a feminist take you have not read before.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Dysphoria, Animal death, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Animal cruelty, Gore, and Mental illness

hangryhaley's review against another edition

Dense, over written, and unlikable characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Animal death

antonebooks's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Absolutely amazing. This is what I want when someone tells me a book is “magical realism”. 

Not a mother myself, but I found myself understanding completely while also wishing to never relate. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Violence

chelseadoherty's review

slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Violence and Child abuse

Minor: Injury/Injury detail and Body horror

stomachpains's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, and Mental illness