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A review by nicdoeswords
Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Oh, this was a delicious horrorshow. Our titular nightbitch is a mother who turns into a dog. Not kidding.
This book took me through a wash cycle and then a dry cycle and then a quick wrinkle release run at the end and when I stumbled out windswept and disoriented it slapped me across the face and I thanked it.
It's about a lot of things but maybe more than anything it's about the pieces of ourselves we lose and leave behind in the name of getting shit done, with a heaping helping of examining and critiquing the patriarchal forces that create the conditions of loss in the first place. Nightbitch is awake and she angry. Nightbitch is scared of how easy it was to give up her entire life in service of motherhood.
I think a lot about the genre of posts that are like, "I need to go to the woods and scream." Nightbitch goes to the woods and screams and also becomes a shapeshifting dog mother. Like us, she's sick of the doldrum pretending-i'm-fine-isms of life. Like us, she finds solace in escapism, devouring a book that makes her feel seen and understood and writing fervently to the author with no response. The difference is she is transformed by how badly she wants things to change. But is that so different, actually?
This book is at its best when you're not sure what you're even rooting for anymore. Is it when she succumbs to normalcy and does things that make her an "amazing mommy"? Is it when she goes to the woods and hunts rabbits for sport? Do we want her clean and pretty and smiling or covered in mud and scratched up and half-feral? When is she best for her son? For her husband? For her new mommy-blogger friends? Is her happiness allowed to be part of that calculus?
I was stunned by this. I don't want to give it back to the library, and may end up just buying a copy for myself so I can shove it into people's hands.
This book took me through a wash cycle and then a dry cycle and then a quick wrinkle release run at the end and when I stumbled out windswept and disoriented it slapped me across the face and I thanked it.
It's about a lot of things but maybe more than anything it's about the pieces of ourselves we lose and leave behind in the name of getting shit done, with a heaping helping of examining and critiquing the patriarchal forces that create the conditions of loss in the first place. Nightbitch is awake and she angry. Nightbitch is scared of how easy it was to give up her entire life in service of motherhood.
I think a lot about the genre of posts that are like, "I need to go to the woods and scream." Nightbitch goes to the woods and screams and also becomes a shapeshifting dog mother. Like us, she's sick of the doldrum pretending-i'm-fine-isms of life. Like us, she finds solace in escapism, devouring a book that makes her feel seen and understood and writing fervently to the author with no response. The difference is she is transformed by how badly she wants things to change. But is that so different, actually?
This book is at its best when you're not sure what you're even rooting for anymore. Is it when she succumbs to normalcy and does things that make her an "amazing mommy"? Is it when she goes to the woods and hunts rabbits for sport? Do we want her clean and pretty and smiling or covered in mud and scratched up and half-feral? When is she best for her son? For her husband? For her new mommy-blogger friends? Is her happiness allowed to be part of that calculus?
I was stunned by this. I don't want to give it back to the library, and may end up just buying a copy for myself so I can shove it into people's hands.