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A review by looney_moons
New Animal by Ella Baxter
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-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
3.0
Thank you to NetGalley and Pan MacMillan UK for giving me access to an early copy in exchange for an honest review.
When I saw New Animals on the front page of NetGalley for its UK release, I was intrigued. The cover looked incredible (I mean look at it! Big kudos to the cover designer!) and when I read that the main character worked in a funeral partner, I was morbidly hooked. With the added bonus of the book being about exploring sex and grief, this book was right up my street. New Animal tells the story of losing yourself in grief and in sex, and it also tells the story of finding yourself through those very things once again. While I think this is a great debut, I am hesitant to recommend this book. It is an incredibly difficult book to read, and it is most definitely not for everyone - and, unfortunately, it was nowhere near being the favourite I assumed it would be. I was hoping to be more connected to the protagonist, but unfortunately I found her a bit bland. While I understand that she was making decisions through grief, I also could not help feeling enraged at her for the choices she makes in the book - primarily because she, in her internal dialogue, tends to reflect on how bad of a choice it is to make. I wanted more character development, but the pace of the book was too quick for the character to follow it, and I wish there had been some more reflections on lust, sex, and, perhaps most importantly, grief and death. Nonetheless, New Animal is a completely okay debut, and I will definitely be picking up whatever Baxter releases next, albeit with some hesitation. 3/5 stars.
When I saw New Animals on the front page of NetGalley for its UK release, I was intrigued. The cover looked incredible (I mean look at it! Big kudos to the cover designer!) and when I read that the main character worked in a funeral partner, I was morbidly hooked. With the added bonus of the book being about exploring sex and grief, this book was right up my street. New Animal tells the story of losing yourself in grief and in sex, and it also tells the story of finding yourself through those very things once again. While I think this is a great debut, I am hesitant to recommend this book. It is an incredibly difficult book to read, and it is most definitely not for everyone - and, unfortunately, it was nowhere near being the favourite I assumed it would be. I was hoping to be more connected to the protagonist, but unfortunately I found her a bit bland. While I understand that she was making decisions through grief, I also could not help feeling enraged at her for the choices she makes in the book - primarily because she, in her internal dialogue, tends to reflect on how bad of a choice it is to make. I wanted more character development, but the pace of the book was too quick for the character to follow it, and I wish there had been some more reflections on lust, sex, and, perhaps most importantly, grief and death. Nonetheless, New Animal is a completely okay debut, and I will definitely be picking up whatever Baxter releases next, albeit with some hesitation. 3/5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, and Death of parent
Moderate: Death and Abandonment