Nightbitch: A Novel

Trigger Warning: Pet Murder For about 70% of this book, I was “meh.” I thought the writing was interesting and connected with the commentary on mothership, but thought the dog bit was weird. Then the cat gets murdered. Hated it. But also, I think it’ll inspire a lot of conversation.

5/5 stars
"Her anger, her bitterness, her coldness in that darkest part of the night surprised even her. She wanted to think she had become another person altogether the night before, but she knew the horrible truth, that Nightbitch had always been there, not even that far below the surface."

You know when you're at the grocery store and suddenly you feel over stimulated and are filled with rage and also your head hurts and the produce isn't good enough and your period is coming? That's what this book feels like.

The unnamed protagonist of the book is a woman in the brink, or perhaps right in, of a crisis. She's recently become a stay at home mother and is trying to find the balance in her life but nothing seems to make sense. Then, she becomes convinced that she's turning into a dog which changes her whole life and relationships.

The premise of this book captivated me and I was ready to let it take me along for the ride. It's more of a reflection about what being a woman and mother is all about, the anger deep within ourselves, with a lot of introspection tinged with magical realism. If you want a book with an easy to follow plot that moves along at a stable pace then this book isn't for you.

I debated between giving this 4.5 or 5 stars due to the ending. It got a bit too out there with the art exhibit and the bigger leap away from some sort of reality. But I had enjoyed the book so much that I went for 5 stars. Plus, I knew some sort of art project was going to happen at the end, so it made sense. Overall, a fun adventure of a book that made me feel a lot.

A feminist Metamorphosis, triumphant.

I enjoyed it at first, but then it became irritating and dragged on and on. I probably would’ve liked it a lot more had it been shorter. I also disliked literally every single human being in this book. This one just wasn’t for me.

This was a completely novel premise and also surprised me to see how much I enjoyed it. Yoder uses just common nouns for the main characters, (mother, boy, husband) until Nightbitch appears. I have no idea whether that is capitalized [audiobook], but aside from the plethora of Jens, is there only other commonly used name. This seems to make the characters more relatable. And although obviously speculative fiction, since this mother sprouts hair and started turning into a dog, it is remarkably relatable. It even closes with an important message. I think anyone who has had a child (especially one that interrupted a career) or loved a dog would enjoy this.