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Nightbitch
One day, the mother was a mother but then, one night, she was quite suddenly something else...
At home full-time with her two-year-old son, an artist finds she is struggling. She is lonely and exhausted. She had imagined - what was it she had imagined? Her husband, always travelling for his work, calls her from faraway hotel rooms. One more toddler bedtime, and she fears she might lose her mind.
Instead, quite suddenly, she starts gaining things, surprising things that happen one night when her child will not sleep. Sharper canines. Strange new patches of hair. New appetites, new instincts. And from deep within herself, a new voice...
With its clear eyes on contemporary womanhood and sharp take on structures of power, Nightbitch is an outrageously original, joyfully subversive read that will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. Addictive enough to be devoured in one sitting, this is an unforgettable novel from a blazing new talent.
At home full-time with her two-year-old son, an artist finds she is struggling. She is lonely and exhausted. She had imagined - what was it she had imagined? Her husband, always travelling for his work, calls her from faraway hotel rooms. One more toddler bedtime, and she fears she might lose her mind.
Instead, quite suddenly, she starts gaining things, surprising things that happen one night when her child will not sleep. Sharper canines. Strange new patches of hair. New appetites, new instincts. And from deep within herself, a new voice...
With its clear eyes on contemporary womanhood and sharp take on structures of power, Nightbitch is an outrageously original, joyfully subversive read that will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. Addictive enough to be devoured in one sitting, this is an unforgettable novel from a blazing new talent.
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 20, 2021
About the author
Rachel Yoder
13 books1,108 followersRachel Yoder is the author of Nightbitch (Doubleday), her debut novel. Selected as an Indie Next Pick in August 2021, Nightbitch has gone on to be named a best book of the year by Esquire and Vulture and recognized as a finalist for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Fiction, finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, and shortlist for the McKitterick Prize. To date, Nightbitch has been translated into 13 languages.
A film adaptation produced by Annapurna, directed by Marielle Heller, and starring Amy Adams will be released in 2023.
Rachel is a graduate of the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and also holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona. With Mark Polanzak, she is a founding editor of draft: the journal of process.
A film adaptation produced by Annapurna, directed by Marielle Heller, and starring Amy Adams will be released in 2023.
Rachel is a graduate of the Iowa Nonfiction Writing Program and also holds an MFA in fiction from the University of Arizona. With Mark Polanzak, she is a founding editor of draft: the journal of process.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 11,016 reviews
June 7, 2024
sooooo important to see yourself represented in fiction.
and just like myself, this book is annoying.
nightbitch, which at not even 300 pages is somehow clocking in at "significantly overlong," follows a wife and mom who is so exhausted / depleted / unappreciated / unfulfilled she eventually turns into a dog at night, in a really obvious metaphor that comes across fairly obviously throughout the book, and then is outright explained in its last pages.
i have seen the theme of the violence of women's lives - the violence of birth, sex, giving birth, and death - done in ways i liked better! without descriptions of wagging tails and rotting flesh! i could rewatch the fleabag women live in pain monologue, for example, and then also just rewatch fleabag, and have a roughly 200% better time.
also, in my opinion, this would have been better with even less page time spent on other characters. almost no one shows up besides our dear nightbitch and her very boring son (i don't like children in fiction, this is not the book's fault), but i wish they were hardly there at all! don't do them if they feel like detractions. there are barely-there characters i find charming or necessary or both regularly, but that wasn't the case here.
generally i like experimental fiction, but at the same time i don't think weird = smart.
bottom line: not for me!
and just like myself, this book is annoying.
nightbitch, which at not even 300 pages is somehow clocking in at "significantly overlong," follows a wife and mom who is so exhausted / depleted / unappreciated / unfulfilled she eventually turns into a dog at night, in a really obvious metaphor that comes across fairly obviously throughout the book, and then is outright explained in its last pages.
i have seen the theme of the violence of women's lives - the violence of birth, sex, giving birth, and death - done in ways i liked better! without descriptions of wagging tails and rotting flesh! i could rewatch the fleabag women live in pain monologue, for example, and then also just rewatch fleabag, and have a roughly 200% better time.
also, in my opinion, this would have been better with even less page time spent on other characters. almost no one shows up besides our dear nightbitch and her very boring son (i don't like children in fiction, this is not the book's fault), but i wish they were hardly there at all! don't do them if they feel like detractions. there are barely-there characters i find charming or necessary or both regularly, but that wasn't the case here.
generally i like experimental fiction, but at the same time i don't think weird = smart.
bottom line: not for me!
March 25, 2021
This book was weird as hell, even for me. But I couldn't put it down.
Like Bunny mixed with Metamorphosis.
Like Bunny mixed with Metamorphosis.
February 3, 2024
The MFAification of Bitch (2017)
November 27, 2021
This should have been a short story. I can’t sit here and say that Nightbitch is an entirely unsuccessful project, because I think it does in fact accomplish exactly what it sets out to do — I just found my patience for it wearing thin the longer I spent with it.
I’ve expressed my personal disinterest in books about motherhood before, so I always knew this book was going to be a bit of a gamble for me, but I had hopes that it would be a bit more “disaster woman who happens to be a mother,” rather than “mother who happens to be a disaster.” That wasn’t a problem, in and of itself — when it became clear to me how little my own vision for this novel overlapped with Rachel Yoder’s, I course-corrected my expectations as best I could. And I actually came to appreciate the relentless, brutally honest depiction of a young woman’s inability to cope with the demands of motherhood. This book is visceral and furious, and Yoder gets her claws into the reader.
But the longer it goes on, and the more the magical realism slant starts to take over, the more its impact starts to wane. For something so graphic and carnal, this book ironically has very little meat on its bones; it never justifies its length, its metaphors all wear themselves out — it says absolutely everything it has to say, and then it keeps going. And going. And going. It’s not even a very long book, only around 250 pages, but it isn’t able to sustain even that. Any appreciation I had for this book’s themes became eclipsed by my frustration at Yoder’s insistence at presenting this to the world as a novel, instead of what I think could have been a punchy and memorable piece of short fiction. Instead, I haven’t thought about this book once since I finished it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve expressed my personal disinterest in books about motherhood before, so I always knew this book was going to be a bit of a gamble for me, but I had hopes that it would be a bit more “disaster woman who happens to be a mother,” rather than “mother who happens to be a disaster.” That wasn’t a problem, in and of itself — when it became clear to me how little my own vision for this novel overlapped with Rachel Yoder’s, I course-corrected my expectations as best I could. And I actually came to appreciate the relentless, brutally honest depiction of a young woman’s inability to cope with the demands of motherhood. This book is visceral and furious, and Yoder gets her claws into the reader.
But the longer it goes on, and the more the magical realism slant starts to take over, the more its impact starts to wane. For something so graphic and carnal, this book ironically has very little meat on its bones; it never justifies its length, its metaphors all wear themselves out — it says absolutely everything it has to say, and then it keeps going. And going. And going. It’s not even a very long book, only around 250 pages, but it isn’t able to sustain even that. Any appreciation I had for this book’s themes became eclipsed by my frustration at Yoder’s insistence at presenting this to the world as a novel, instead of what I think could have been a punchy and memorable piece of short fiction. Instead, I haven’t thought about this book once since I finished it.
Thank you to Netgalley and Doubleday for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.
June 26, 2022
Her life is literally my worst nightmare... and I'm not referring to her slowly transforming into a dog.
If I had read it before, it would have been in this video:
https://youtu.be/H_ES-eqbKQs
If I had read it before, it would have been in this video:
https://youtu.be/H_ES-eqbKQs
July 27, 2021
A Kafka-esque dish of raw meat feminism, served so rare it drips with blood! This is the wildest ride I've been on outside of Six Flags. The premise of a stay-at-home mom transforming into a dog takes some time to accept, but the sooner you just go with it the sooner you can embrace your own inner animal.
Go in expecting to be taken aback, to have impossible thoughts, to have the rug swept out from under you, to question your beliefs and then question your own questioning. Though there is a plot, character progression and something like a hero's quest, this is a philosophical novel more than a summer beach read. Yet the story does fly by with remarkable speed, even as it feels "meatier" than a mere 256 pages. Certainly there are books three times as long with far less to ponder.
The closest thing I can possibly compare it too is indeed Franz Kafka's 1915 masterpiece, The Metamorphosis, which also utilizes a human-to-creature transformation to much symbolic delight. By the end, Nightbitch—the character—becomes a complicated hero, the face of incredible possibility and deserving of our admiration, even as she evokes horror in everyone who's been brainwashed by what the patriarchy says a woman should be.
The less details you know going in the better, so I'll stop here. But if you're interested in a sizzling read that also makes you think, don't miss this novel. Also, let it linger. The more you think about it, the better it gets. I already know it'll be among my top reads this year, but as time goes on I may revise that to one of my favorite books from the last decade.
Enough already! Stop reading this review and start reading Nightbitch!!
Go in expecting to be taken aback, to have impossible thoughts, to have the rug swept out from under you, to question your beliefs and then question your own questioning. Though there is a plot, character progression and something like a hero's quest, this is a philosophical novel more than a summer beach read. Yet the story does fly by with remarkable speed, even as it feels "meatier" than a mere 256 pages. Certainly there are books three times as long with far less to ponder.
The closest thing I can possibly compare it too is indeed Franz Kafka's 1915 masterpiece, The Metamorphosis, which also utilizes a human-to-creature transformation to much symbolic delight. By the end, Nightbitch—the character—becomes a complicated hero, the face of incredible possibility and deserving of our admiration, even as she evokes horror in everyone who's been brainwashed by what the patriarchy says a woman should be.
The less details you know going in the better, so I'll stop here. But if you're interested in a sizzling read that also makes you think, don't miss this novel. Also, let it linger. The more you think about it, the better it gets. I already know it'll be among my top reads this year, but as time goes on I may revise that to one of my favorite books from the last decade.
Enough already! Stop reading this review and start reading Nightbitch!!
September 12, 2021
flop! ottessa collect your imitators.
March 27, 2023
“Nightbitch” by Rachel Yoder will definitely go down as one of the weirdest novels I’ve ever read in my life. Now, before I jump into my review, I wanted to share a very important trigger warning for everyone so they fully know before reading this novel.
There is major violence against cats, birds, and rabbits throughout this novel. I’m talking about extremely graphic, detailed violence against cats so if this is something that triggers you, please don’t read this. This didn’t bother me as a pet owner since it’s just words but I wanted to make that known for those that it might trigger.
Besides that, I very much enjoyed “Nightbitch” and Yoder’s unique style of writing. It’s weird yet addictive. Gory yet intriguing. It’s a very psychological novel that deals with motherhood and all the ups and downs that come with it. I thought it was a brilliant look into all that when you’re stuck in situations “The Mother” was in.
Speaking of which, I love how the majority of characters have no names at all. Again, it’s just a really unique and interesting way to write a novel that I’ve never seen before. It added a nice touch of reality and just made things very relatable for a reader. Especially all those weird social situations we find ourselves in from time to time.
As I kept reading, I ended up having a lot of empathy for the mother as, my goodness, you just really feel for her at times. I loved how authentic everything was and how I felt bad for everything she was going through. It’s very rare for me to feel like that for characters as I’ve only had very few authors have the writing magic to do that for me (Stephen King, Freida McFadden, Grady Hendrix, just to name a few).
There was a ton of dark humor in this novel as I thought those parts were fantastic and well, hilarious. It helped break things up nicely from this crazy, innovative, fun read. There even was one creepy and gruesome moment that was absolutely insane. Don’t worry, I won’t ruin anything for you but my goodness, that scene was wild and you’ll know exactly what I mean when you get to it.
The only knock I have on “Nightbitch” is that there are some repetitive parts and instances that dragged on a bit. I felt some of that could have been trimmed to make this an even tighter read but it wasn’t anything too boring. The formatting of this novel is also a bit weird but I think that adds to the overall style of this unique novel. It’s not bad, just different.
I also thought the ending was okay but was expecting a lot more, perhaps another wild and gory scene to wrap everything together nicely. It was a bit weird and something I somewhat got but I was hoping for a lot more, especially on the horror side of things. It was alright but not a drop-the-mic kind of ending I was excited to potentially get.
I give “Nightbitch” by Rachel Yoder a 4/5 for being a genuinely unique, exciting, and wild kind of read. I’ve never read anything like this and it was a refreshing weird horror novel. I thought Yoder’s writing was excellent and for her debut novel, it’s quite impressive. If she keeps writing like this, she will undoubtedly continue making a name for herself in the horror genre. I’d highly recommend this novel if you’re looking for weird horror but only if violence against animals doesn’t bother or trigger you. This is one of those novels that I’ll remember for all the weird situations, events, and characters for a very long time. Woof.
There is major violence against cats, birds, and rabbits throughout this novel. I’m talking about extremely graphic, detailed violence against cats so if this is something that triggers you, please don’t read this. This didn’t bother me as a pet owner since it’s just words but I wanted to make that known for those that it might trigger.
Besides that, I very much enjoyed “Nightbitch” and Yoder’s unique style of writing. It’s weird yet addictive. Gory yet intriguing. It’s a very psychological novel that deals with motherhood and all the ups and downs that come with it. I thought it was a brilliant look into all that when you’re stuck in situations “The Mother” was in.
Speaking of which, I love how the majority of characters have no names at all. Again, it’s just a really unique and interesting way to write a novel that I’ve never seen before. It added a nice touch of reality and just made things very relatable for a reader. Especially all those weird social situations we find ourselves in from time to time.
As I kept reading, I ended up having a lot of empathy for the mother as, my goodness, you just really feel for her at times. I loved how authentic everything was and how I felt bad for everything she was going through. It’s very rare for me to feel like that for characters as I’ve only had very few authors have the writing magic to do that for me (Stephen King, Freida McFadden, Grady Hendrix, just to name a few).
There was a ton of dark humor in this novel as I thought those parts were fantastic and well, hilarious. It helped break things up nicely from this crazy, innovative, fun read. There even was one creepy and gruesome moment that was absolutely insane. Don’t worry, I won’t ruin anything for you but my goodness, that scene was wild and you’ll know exactly what I mean when you get to it.
The only knock I have on “Nightbitch” is that there are some repetitive parts and instances that dragged on a bit. I felt some of that could have been trimmed to make this an even tighter read but it wasn’t anything too boring. The formatting of this novel is also a bit weird but I think that adds to the overall style of this unique novel. It’s not bad, just different.
I also thought the ending was okay but was expecting a lot more, perhaps another wild and gory scene to wrap everything together nicely. It was a bit weird and something I somewhat got but I was hoping for a lot more, especially on the horror side of things. It was alright but not a drop-the-mic kind of ending I was excited to potentially get.
I give “Nightbitch” by Rachel Yoder a 4/5 for being a genuinely unique, exciting, and wild kind of read. I’ve never read anything like this and it was a refreshing weird horror novel. I thought Yoder’s writing was excellent and for her debut novel, it’s quite impressive. If she keeps writing like this, she will undoubtedly continue making a name for herself in the horror genre. I’d highly recommend this novel if you’re looking for weird horror but only if violence against animals doesn’t bother or trigger you. This is one of those novels that I’ll remember for all the weird situations, events, and characters for a very long time. Woof.
July 22, 2021
This sounded utterly absurd in a way that I just had to see for myself.
Nightbitch is one of the most wholly original stories I’ve read in a while, and now that I’m finished I’m even pretty sure I liked it!
The mother, unnamed except for the moniker she eventually claims for herself, “Nightbitch”, is an artist with a young son and a mostly absent husband. While he travels during the week for work, the mother is left alone with both her son and her own racing thoughts. Like many new mothers, she feels isolated and unappreciated, veering into unfulfilled, and has nobody in her life to share these feelings with.
Then she starts to grow a tail. Her body is sprouting hair in places it never has before, and her teeth feel longer, sharper. She’s experiencing new urges and can’t determine if they’re all in her head or not. Is she a mother, wife, woman—or is she Nightbitch? Are they mutually exclusive? And why are women still expected to transform and sacrifice their former selves in order to inhabit the role of somebody’s mom?
This was such an interesting take on modern motherhood, the conflicting feelings and guilt and pressure put on women to be everything they were and an entirely different person all at the same time. Set against one woman’s either evolution or complete collapse made the stakes feel all the higher, and her character’s anonymity offers readers more of an opportunity to imprint themselves onto Nightbitch. No matter what side you fall on, that her persona is a cry for help or a literal manifestation, it’s hard to ignore the implications of what would have driven a new mother to that point in the first place.
As for the ending, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Without any spoilers, there is a level of self-actualization for the mother, which I’m sure will be cathartic for anyone reading who relates to the character. But as someone who prefers messier endings, I have to say it was probably not the direction I would have taken the story. But I understand why Rachel Yoder made these choices and can appreciate her point of view here.
I’m still really impressed this was a debut. This book has a lot to say and does so in one of the most insane ways possible. I really like that the message, whether or not you enjoy the delivery in this novel, is one that’s affirming to any mother feeling gaslit in a personal and/or societal sense. That, no, you’re not crazy, but all the bullshit you have to deal with daily definitely is. I’m going to be looking out for more from Yoder in the future.
(And just a bit of a warning to everyone—this book has no chapters. There’s a handful of ‘parts’ and good amount of line breaks to act as stopping points, but for anyone who appreciates dialogue in quotations or easily consumable chapters, this book will not have that.)
**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
Nightbitch is one of the most wholly original stories I’ve read in a while, and now that I’m finished I’m even pretty sure I liked it!
The mother, unnamed except for the moniker she eventually claims for herself, “Nightbitch”, is an artist with a young son and a mostly absent husband. While he travels during the week for work, the mother is left alone with both her son and her own racing thoughts. Like many new mothers, she feels isolated and unappreciated, veering into unfulfilled, and has nobody in her life to share these feelings with.
Then she starts to grow a tail. Her body is sprouting hair in places it never has before, and her teeth feel longer, sharper. She’s experiencing new urges and can’t determine if they’re all in her head or not. Is she a mother, wife, woman—or is she Nightbitch? Are they mutually exclusive? And why are women still expected to transform and sacrifice their former selves in order to inhabit the role of somebody’s mom?
This was such an interesting take on modern motherhood, the conflicting feelings and guilt and pressure put on women to be everything they were and an entirely different person all at the same time. Set against one woman’s either evolution or complete collapse made the stakes feel all the higher, and her character’s anonymity offers readers more of an opportunity to imprint themselves onto Nightbitch. No matter what side you fall on, that her persona is a cry for help or a literal manifestation, it’s hard to ignore the implications of what would have driven a new mother to that point in the first place.
As for the ending, I’m not sure how I feel about it. Without any spoilers, there is a level of self-actualization for the mother, which I’m sure will be cathartic for anyone reading who relates to the character. But as someone who prefers messier endings, I have to say it was probably not the direction I would have taken the story. But I understand why Rachel Yoder made these choices and can appreciate her point of view here.
I’m still really impressed this was a debut. This book has a lot to say and does so in one of the most insane ways possible. I really like that the message, whether or not you enjoy the delivery in this novel, is one that’s affirming to any mother feeling gaslit in a personal and/or societal sense. That, no, you’re not crazy, but all the bullshit you have to deal with daily definitely is. I’m going to be looking out for more from Yoder in the future.
(And just a bit of a warning to everyone—this book has no chapters. There’s a handful of ‘parts’ and good amount of line breaks to act as stopping points, but for anyone who appreciates dialogue in quotations or easily consumable chapters, this book will not have that.)
**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
January 4, 2022
i hate everyone in this book including the baby
July 26, 2021
One of the most boring books I’ve read this year. Pointless plot, repetitive and oh, so annoying to hear “the mother”, “the son”, “the husband” over and over again like they’re all some soulless mantle figurines. The idea was good but in my opinion it was completely ruined by the writing.
November 12, 2021
A fascinating, kaleidoscopically rich take on early motherhood. However fantastic the happenings in the novel I never doubted for a moment the underlying truth of the protagonist's experience. Sure, this new mother at the heart of the story starts turning into a dog, literally, on the novel's first pages, but even so, as I read along, I kept thinking: 'yes, that's exactly the way it is.'
Yoder taps into a feeling deeper than metaphor in describing the helplessness, ennui, stress, erasure, and overwhelming fatigue of caring for a young child. She paints the mother's reactions to her clueless-helpful husband perfectly--the way he's always eager to step in with advice, and yet always wrong in his advice. I loved the veracity of the child, too, who behaves as children that age do: as small dictators.
The unnamed Everymother at the heart of the story is simultaneously helpless to change her fate, and completely empowered to do just that--if only she reaches out and claims her power. The story is told from a point of view very deep inside the mother's head: her reactions, her experiences, her moods, her decisions. It felt intimate and true for the way it describes motherhood as a disruptive metamorphosis.
A good companion novel to this read would be the wonderful CARMEN DOG by Carol Emshwiller (1990) a book in which all women begin to transmogrify in beastly ways. And who would blame them.
Yoder taps into a feeling deeper than metaphor in describing the helplessness, ennui, stress, erasure, and overwhelming fatigue of caring for a young child. She paints the mother's reactions to her clueless-helpful husband perfectly--the way he's always eager to step in with advice, and yet always wrong in his advice. I loved the veracity of the child, too, who behaves as children that age do: as small dictators.
The unnamed Everymother at the heart of the story is simultaneously helpless to change her fate, and completely empowered to do just that--if only she reaches out and claims her power. The story is told from a point of view very deep inside the mother's head: her reactions, her experiences, her moods, her decisions. It felt intimate and true for the way it describes motherhood as a disruptive metamorphosis.
A good companion novel to this read would be the wonderful CARMEN DOG by Carol Emshwiller (1990) a book in which all women begin to transmogrify in beastly ways. And who would blame them.
September 6, 2021
What did I just read?? I should have known, simply from the book cover: bizarre.
Why I read it: Well, it was advertised as a story of a mother of a toddler who wants to be the best mother, but by nighttime is a big crab…well…a “bitch”. I could relate to that. What I didn’t do, is read the full description: a mother who is convinced she’s turning into a dog. Well, I never thought I was turning canine.
So basically this is a story of a mother who turns feral. It’s disturbing. And woodland creatures are killed for the sake of the story. But when the family cat is in peril, I got beyond grossed out. Unfortunately for me, that was 2/3 into the story. I’m invested. Where the heck is this going?
Well, for those who enjoy strange art, contemporary art….you know, when a banana is stapled to a wall in the name of art, (boundary pushing art) well, perhaps you will find an artistic value to this story.
This is one of the strangest stories I have read. I cannot recommend it to friends….perhaps not even foes. I’m sure there are those more artistically inclined with open minds who will enjoy this. There are gruesome portions. Animal lovers beware. Three reading days I’ll never get back 😫
Why I read it: Well, it was advertised as a story of a mother of a toddler who wants to be the best mother, but by nighttime is a big crab…well…a “bitch”. I could relate to that. What I didn’t do, is read the full description: a mother who is convinced she’s turning into a dog. Well, I never thought I was turning canine.
So basically this is a story of a mother who turns feral. It’s disturbing. And woodland creatures are killed for the sake of the story. But when the family cat is in peril, I got beyond grossed out. Unfortunately for me, that was 2/3 into the story. I’m invested. Where the heck is this going?
Well, for those who enjoy strange art, contemporary art….you know, when a banana is stapled to a wall in the name of art, (boundary pushing art) well, perhaps you will find an artistic value to this story.
This is one of the strangest stories I have read. I cannot recommend it to friends….perhaps not even foes. I’m sure there are those more artistically inclined with open minds who will enjoy this. There are gruesome portions. Animal lovers beware. Three reading days I’ll never get back 😫
August 13, 2021
Audiobook… read by Cassandra Campbell….
….a professional pro who is phenomenal reading audiobooks once again!!!
….8 hours and 52 minutes
If you can get past the raw meat book cover and ‘Nightbitch’ title…you just might surprise yourself and LOVE THIS BOOK AS MUCH AS ME!!!
I thought it was CRAZY GOOD!! BRILLIANT…
Loved loved loved it!!!!
… It’s sure not lacking in Protein!!
It’s nutritionally well-balanced!!!
It’s funny, and weird, surreal, and inventive….
It’s also a gut-wrenching examination of early motherhood, womanhood, and the absurdity of life challenges….
Add our emotions - anger, sadness, fear, guilt, loneliness, hopelessness, forgiveness, happiness, and love.
“Mama, up, Up UP”
“Milky or juice honey?”
“Don’t throw the rocks, honey”.
A look at a normal day of motherhood…..
….There is the boredom of waking up each morning knowing the day ahead needs to be created with a child’s schedule…..
what to eat, what to wear, what to play, take a walk, have a nap, take a poop, eat dinner.
“She spoke in toddler talk so often — ‘poop in the potty’”…
“No, poop in a diaper”, he says
“Sure…..okay, she stuck a diaper on him and he went and stood in the corner to do his thing”
“Wipe my butt”…. he yells!
Exhaustion, greasy hair, the bloated feeling, pain in the lower back, too many sodium sugar salty cookies and/or crackers, dirty dishes, play dates, mommy adrenaline,
doghood, resentment, rage,
cartoon, eating, drinking, forgetting, other mommy’s, essential oils, bonkers, denial. secrets, boredom, silliness, meditation, excitement of the art she ‘use’ to make, laughter, and love.
A shower? 3 days ago?
hm???
She really just wanted to sit on the couch and stare out the window even for just 10 minutes.
But her husband liked it when she was upbeat, talkative,… and taking care of their son. (so he didn’t have to)
Her husband reported that it had been a challenge to be in a hotel all the time… (during business trips) > cry me a river!!
During his business trips, she wondered if he even consider the challenge it was for his wife home with a baby by herself day in and day out for a week?
Her husband was stressed out if he came home from work and the house was a mess, dinner wasn’t cooked, and his wife wasn’t looking all cute and sexy, and if there were dishes in the sink, and his son was crying.
After all he needed time to decompress after driving home from work.
The mother had to continue to remind herself that her husband was not a bad man but she had to consciously work at that thought.
The husband had his own things to do. He needed to catch up on some mail, email, and he needed a few minutes to relax.
Really? she would’ve liked to walked out of the house and gone to the local coffee shop the second he got home.
I haven’t even mentioned the satire-irresistible-dogs yet….or the craving of meat….
But…..
I thought this book succeeded in being brutally honest — hilarious, heartbreaking with prose I wanted to re-read and re-read.
I liked it so much —I’ve already listened to most the chapters twice.
I’m a HUGE NEW FAN of Rachel Yoder!
5 strong stars
….a professional pro who is phenomenal reading audiobooks once again!!!
….8 hours and 52 minutes
If you can get past the raw meat book cover and ‘Nightbitch’ title…you just might surprise yourself and LOVE THIS BOOK AS MUCH AS ME!!!
I thought it was CRAZY GOOD!! BRILLIANT…
Loved loved loved it!!!!
… It’s sure not lacking in Protein!!
It’s nutritionally well-balanced!!!
It’s funny, and weird, surreal, and inventive….
It’s also a gut-wrenching examination of early motherhood, womanhood, and the absurdity of life challenges….
Add our emotions - anger, sadness, fear, guilt, loneliness, hopelessness, forgiveness, happiness, and love.
“Mama, up, Up UP”
“Milky or juice honey?”
“Don’t throw the rocks, honey”.
A look at a normal day of motherhood…..
….There is the boredom of waking up each morning knowing the day ahead needs to be created with a child’s schedule…..
what to eat, what to wear, what to play, take a walk, have a nap, take a poop, eat dinner.
“She spoke in toddler talk so often — ‘poop in the potty’”…
“No, poop in a diaper”, he says
“Sure…..okay, she stuck a diaper on him and he went and stood in the corner to do his thing”
“Wipe my butt”…. he yells!
Exhaustion, greasy hair, the bloated feeling, pain in the lower back, too many sodium sugar salty cookies and/or crackers, dirty dishes, play dates, mommy adrenaline,
doghood, resentment, rage,
cartoon, eating, drinking, forgetting, other mommy’s, essential oils, bonkers, denial. secrets, boredom, silliness, meditation, excitement of the art she ‘use’ to make, laughter, and love.
A shower? 3 days ago?
hm???
She really just wanted to sit on the couch and stare out the window even for just 10 minutes.
But her husband liked it when she was upbeat, talkative,… and taking care of their son. (so he didn’t have to)
Her husband reported that it had been a challenge to be in a hotel all the time… (during business trips) > cry me a river!!
During his business trips, she wondered if he even consider the challenge it was for his wife home with a baby by herself day in and day out for a week?
Her husband was stressed out if he came home from work and the house was a mess, dinner wasn’t cooked, and his wife wasn’t looking all cute and sexy, and if there were dishes in the sink, and his son was crying.
After all he needed time to decompress after driving home from work.
The mother had to continue to remind herself that her husband was not a bad man but she had to consciously work at that thought.
The husband had his own things to do. He needed to catch up on some mail, email, and he needed a few minutes to relax.
Really? she would’ve liked to walked out of the house and gone to the local coffee shop the second he got home.
I haven’t even mentioned the satire-irresistible-dogs yet….or the craving of meat….
But…..
I thought this book succeeded in being brutally honest — hilarious, heartbreaking with prose I wanted to re-read and re-read.
I liked it so much —I’ve already listened to most the chapters twice.
I’m a HUGE NEW FAN of Rachel Yoder!
5 strong stars
July 25, 2021
“How many generations of women had delayed their greatness only to have time extinguish it completely? How many women had run out of time while the men didn’t know what to do with theirs? And what a mean trick to call such things holy or selfless. How evil to praise women for giving up each and every dream.”I absolutely loved this book. You're going to see all kinds of genres linked to this book, but just know it's a love note to all the women who have lost themselves. The women who have been squeezed dry by their roles because of how this world works and where it places its value. Rachel Yoder sees you.
In regards to the overall story, our main character, known only as "mother", has to expand her identity in order to have one. She is feral, primitive and acts on her most primal impulses. She becomes "nightbitch" and as the author repeatedly notes, she's fucking amazing.
This book entertains, validates, and inspires. It reminds readers that sometimes you just need to sink your teeth into something carnal and bloody, and consume. After all, we've been consumed enough. Check it out.
My favorite quote:
"She was creator and then also the dark force that roamed the night. She was part high-minded intention and part instinct, raw flight. Hello, she wanted to say to him. I am your wife. I am a woman. I am this animal. I have become everything. I am new and also ancient. I have been ashamed but will be no more."
July 9, 2023
4.5 stars
Nightbitch is the book I would write about motherhood, if I were to ever write one.
Minus the furry animal violence. I love cats and bunnies and even mice too much to ever do what Rachel Yoder does to them on the page.
But the rawness of the tale, the realness of it. That’s all me.
Written almost as a fable, the book is about a mother who believes she’s turning into a dog, into Nightbitch. She sprouts hair in abnormal places, her teeth are pointier, she craves raw meat, and she has a newfound affinity for howling and hunting small animals.
And she’s so very angry. She’s angry that she gave up her job at an art gallery for motherhood. She’s angry that her husband travels five days a week for work while she’s at home with her two-year-old son. She’s angry that even when her husband is home she still doesn’t get the help she needs.
Yoder has so much to say about motherhood, and she says it so well. Everything that the mother feels and experiences while raising her son, I felt when my boys were small. The monotony of the days spent at home, the isolation, the bedtime battles, feeling as if you’ve misplaced whatever it is that makes you you, that you’ve lost your mind – Yoder’s insight into all of it is so sharp. She doesn’t romanticize it or write through rose-colored glasses.
And no, I don’t think Yoder’s mother character is crazy. I took the story at face value and believed that Nightbitch was really Nightbitch, that she had ascended to an altogether different plane of motherhood. The book works so much better this way, if you believe.
The novel is brutal and bloody. It’s absurd and darkly funny. But it’s also a love story between a mother and child, of a mother who will do anything for her son because she loves him alongside her anger, because she sees him for the miracle that he is.
If it hadn’t been for a repetitive and plodding beginning, it would’ve been another five-star read for me. The perfect ending almost makes up for the slow start, but not quite.
Can I get a woof woof? A howl? Come on, moms. Let’s Nightbitch it out.
Nightbitch is the book I would write about motherhood, if I were to ever write one.
Minus the furry animal violence. I love cats and bunnies and even mice too much to ever do what Rachel Yoder does to them on the page.
But the rawness of the tale, the realness of it. That’s all me.
Written almost as a fable, the book is about a mother who believes she’s turning into a dog, into Nightbitch. She sprouts hair in abnormal places, her teeth are pointier, she craves raw meat, and she has a newfound affinity for howling and hunting small animals.
And she’s so very angry. She’s angry that she gave up her job at an art gallery for motherhood. She’s angry that her husband travels five days a week for work while she’s at home with her two-year-old son. She’s angry that even when her husband is home she still doesn’t get the help she needs.
Yoder has so much to say about motherhood, and she says it so well. Everything that the mother feels and experiences while raising her son, I felt when my boys were small. The monotony of the days spent at home, the isolation, the bedtime battles, feeling as if you’ve misplaced whatever it is that makes you you, that you’ve lost your mind – Yoder’s insight into all of it is so sharp. She doesn’t romanticize it or write through rose-colored glasses.
And no, I don’t think Yoder’s mother character is crazy. I took the story at face value and believed that Nightbitch was really Nightbitch, that she had ascended to an altogether different plane of motherhood. The book works so much better this way, if you believe.
The novel is brutal and bloody. It’s absurd and darkly funny. But it’s also a love story between a mother and child, of a mother who will do anything for her son because she loves him alongside her anger, because she sees him for the miracle that he is.
If it hadn’t been for a repetitive and plodding beginning, it would’ve been another five-star read for me. The perfect ending almost makes up for the slow start, but not quite.
Can I get a woof woof? A howl? Come on, moms. Let’s Nightbitch it out.
May 14, 2021
4.5 stars. I have approximately one million questions I would like to ask Rachel Yoder, so it's safe to say this book got in my head in the best way. We are in the midst of a real golden age of fiction about motherhood, especially mothering young children and babies, which is much needed after we had so little of it (and much of what we did have was very romanticized). But I suspect NIGHTBITCH will stay with me for a long time.
Being a stay-at-home mother to a baby or toddler can feel like something separate from being human. It can feel like you are descending into a kind of animal state, where your brain no longer concerns itself with higher thought, you are simply living. Many of the books I've enjoyed about the days of early motherhood are about how difficult this can be. What NIGHTBITCH does that I found so fascinating is that it does see this as a difficult slog but it also allows our protagonist (known only as "the mother" or later "Nightbitch") to find some higher--or maybe lower?--state of being in it.
For much of the book, she is stuck and frustrated. Her 2-year-old son won't go to sleep and usually ends up in her bed. Her husband leaves on weekly business trips leaving her to do everything by herself. Her friends from her previous days as an artist have left her behind. And she knows she did it all to herself by choosing to stay home, by choosing to mother her child in the way she thought was best but that now leaves her tired and stagnant and unfulfilled. It isn't a new story (though it keeps repeating because everyone, like Nightbitch, thinks it won't happen to them) but then it becomes an entirely new story. Her body and her mind begin to change, she starts to take on canine traits. Her husband is confused. Her son is delighted. At first she is scared, but soon she begins to find freedom when she gives herself over to these urges.
This is where things get very strange but also very interesting. Is being a dog making her a better mother or a worse one? Is it making her more herself or less? (This is a book that has a strong surrealist bent, this is not about mental illness, promise.) Yoder spends much of the time on this tightrope, making us wonder if this is what we want for Nightbitch and where it will take her. It is often joyful, with howling and running and rolling in mud. As much as I loved the way she was changing, I never knew what would happen next and I wasn't sure how it would all come together. (If you know me, you know this is basically my favorite. Please surprise me.) Then Yoder clinched it with a fantastic ending that leans in even farther. While there's some question early on about how much of this is real, I never doubted it and it and I don't think Yoder does either.
Even if you are not sold by this hook, the writing is so smart and hilarious I wanted to highlight so many pages, wanted to take dozens of pictures to share of it on social. The marketing copy calls this satire but I'm not sure if it is. It felt totally accurate to me, just right on the money in every single way. I cackled. Often.
While some of what happens here will likely be unsettling for some readers, this is at heart a book about a mother who desperately loves her kid, but where that love isn't enough to sustain her through the drudgery of parenting. But if you're delicate around this topic maybe take a pass. Content warnings are really just around the killing (and sometimes eating) of small animals, both wild and domestic, because, you know, dogs. Nightbitch is not tame.
For some other dark and fascinating books about motherhood, try WITH TEETH or THE DAYS OF ABANDONMENT. (I actually found NIGHTBITCH much more optimistic than either of these two, one of the things that makes it so interesting.)
Being a stay-at-home mother to a baby or toddler can feel like something separate from being human. It can feel like you are descending into a kind of animal state, where your brain no longer concerns itself with higher thought, you are simply living. Many of the books I've enjoyed about the days of early motherhood are about how difficult this can be. What NIGHTBITCH does that I found so fascinating is that it does see this as a difficult slog but it also allows our protagonist (known only as "the mother" or later "Nightbitch") to find some higher--or maybe lower?--state of being in it.
For much of the book, she is stuck and frustrated. Her 2-year-old son won't go to sleep and usually ends up in her bed. Her husband leaves on weekly business trips leaving her to do everything by herself. Her friends from her previous days as an artist have left her behind. And she knows she did it all to herself by choosing to stay home, by choosing to mother her child in the way she thought was best but that now leaves her tired and stagnant and unfulfilled. It isn't a new story (though it keeps repeating because everyone, like Nightbitch, thinks it won't happen to them) but then it becomes an entirely new story. Her body and her mind begin to change, she starts to take on canine traits. Her husband is confused. Her son is delighted. At first she is scared, but soon she begins to find freedom when she gives herself over to these urges.
This is where things get very strange but also very interesting. Is being a dog making her a better mother or a worse one? Is it making her more herself or less? (This is a book that has a strong surrealist bent, this is not about mental illness, promise.) Yoder spends much of the time on this tightrope, making us wonder if this is what we want for Nightbitch and where it will take her. It is often joyful, with howling and running and rolling in mud. As much as I loved the way she was changing, I never knew what would happen next and I wasn't sure how it would all come together. (If you know me, you know this is basically my favorite. Please surprise me.) Then Yoder clinched it with a fantastic ending that leans in even farther. While there's some question early on about how much of this is real, I never doubted it and it and I don't think Yoder does either.
Even if you are not sold by this hook, the writing is so smart and hilarious I wanted to highlight so many pages, wanted to take dozens of pictures to share of it on social. The marketing copy calls this satire but I'm not sure if it is. It felt totally accurate to me, just right on the money in every single way. I cackled. Often.
While some of what happens here will likely be unsettling for some readers, this is at heart a book about a mother who desperately loves her kid, but where that love isn't enough to sustain her through the drudgery of parenting. But if you're delicate around this topic maybe take a pass. Content warnings are really just around the killing (and sometimes eating) of small animals, both wild and domestic, because, you know, dogs. Nightbitch is not tame.
For some other dark and fascinating books about motherhood, try WITH TEETH or THE DAYS OF ABANDONMENT. (I actually found NIGHTBITCH much more optimistic than either of these two, one of the things that makes it so interesting.)
October 12, 2023
Unfortunately this just didn’t meet my expectations. I loved the idea behind it but to be honest I felt a little bored when reading it.
It also confirmed many my fears about motherhood, mainly the isolation of it.
It also confirmed many my fears about motherhood, mainly the isolation of it.
July 29, 2021
The rave reviews, intriguing title, and even the bizarre subject matter caught my eye and I was sure that I would love Nightbitch. Since I thought that it would check a lot of boxes for me, I was really disappointed overall -- I started reading it with a completely open mind and yet it fell entirely flat. The protagonist's husband accuses her of acting like a bitch so she literally adopts this moniker and becomes one. It toes the line of magical realism more than I thought, sprinkled with some tongue-in-cheek moments about girl boss and mommy culture. These tropes are so familiar (mothers live in sweatpants, are duped into joining pyramid schemes, become "mombies," have names like "Jen") that they ought only to be invoked with purpose, yet that doesn't happen here -- it's a lampoon without deeper meaning. Although most of the book was heavy-handed (perhaps it is my fault for assuming there might be some subtlety in a book titled Nightbitch), I also felt that I didn't quite understand what was real and what wasn't. I do think this was the author's intention, but in my opinion, it wasn't well-executed and only amounted to an array of flat characters (or rather, caricatures) and very little substance. We are in a golden age of writing about motherhood and I am immediately drawn to all thoughtful narratives about it, but for me, this is not one of them.
January 16, 2022
Well, son of a shit ball!! This was going to be a 5 star, buy the hardback book. Then they had to bring the animal stuff. All that aside, the book was brilliant and you have to read it yourself to understand! Why, did they have to put that stuff in it 🤨
Well here’s some cool gifs I had for it until….
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
Well here’s some cool gifs I had for it until….
Mel 🖤🐶🐺🐾
October 12, 2022
woof woof
July 22, 2021
Published today in the UK 22-7-21 I found this excellent interview added new depth to my appreciation of the novel including: Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation as inspiration for the novel; how she walks the tightrope between whether the narrator's experiences are real, metaphor or fantasy; the use of archetypes leading to the lack of names in the novel; the use of folklore and mythological books.
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment...
This debut novel is an intense, visceral, searingly honest and literarily distinctive exploration of motherhood.
The main character (known by the detached and wryly observant narrator as either as the mother or the nightbitch) is a conceptual/studio artist who had something of a dream job in the art world running a community gallery. When she had a baby she first carried on with her job, juggling it with expressing milk, dropping her child at a nursery where she is convinced he is left to cry and with little support from process engineer husband who is typically away Monday-Friday and who does not even take a fair share of parenting at the weekends. Eventually they decide it is not working and practically her low paying job has to be the one to go.
The incident that underlies the book starts one night – her young son’s screams fan “a flame of rage that flickered in her chest” and her anguished please for him to return to sleep come out as dog-like grunts and squeals.
The next morning she jokes to her husband that she was a “Night Bitch” only for her observations to seemingly manifest themselves physically as she starts to grow sharper canine teeth, hair at the back of her neck, a cyst which seems to be the makings of a tail and a heightened sense of smell and craving for meat.
Over time she starts to roam the local area at night and is befriended by three dogs who bear an odd resemblance to three mothers (of what in the UK we might call the Yummy Mummy type) she normally tries to avoid at the local library.
She also becomes increasingly obsessed with an odd book she finds “A Field Guide to Magical Women” a guide to the “ways in which womanhood manifests on a mythical level” – but with rather than being allegorical or mythological actually claims to be based on anthropological research around the world and ways in which women – particularly mothers - “turn to the natural world to express their deepest longings and most primal fantasies”.
And of course this guide also encapsulates the aims of the novel.
Her behaviour becomes more extreme – going on nighttime hunting trips with both hear appearance and actions becoming more like those of some type of wolfhound.
Her son eagerly embraces what he initially sees as a new game – and ends up wearing a collar, only sleeping in a kennel and eating raw meat - as it becomes part of his identity.
A family feline fatality causes something of a crisis point which both causes her to examine the sacrifices made by her own mother (the narrator sharing the authors Mennonite upbringing) and how she can explore her own animal identity (and introduce it to others) by using her artistic tendencies.
There is no date that this is a unusual book and I think will not appeal to all readers.
Anthropocentric (particularly pet-indifferent) readers will I think be struggle with some of the dog pack scenes; while some animal lovers will I think find the fate of both pet cats and bunnies triggering.
I fall neatly between the two and found this instead a memorable and effective novel.
Highly recommended.
PS I rather enjoyed (given my Goodreads avatar) the concept of the three yummy mummy’s and their own dog avatars – particularly that of their bubbly, blond leader
My thanks to Penguin Random House, Harvill Secker for an ARC via NetGalley
https://www.esquire.com/entertainment...
And this performance is meant to underscore the brutality and power and darkness of motherhood, for modern motherhood has been neutered and sanitized. We are at base animals, and to deny us either our animal nature or our dignity as humans is a crime against existence. Womanhood and motherhood are perhaps the most potent forces in human society, which of course men have been hasty to quash, for they are right to fear these forces.
This debut novel is an intense, visceral, searingly honest and literarily distinctive exploration of motherhood.
The main character (known by the detached and wryly observant narrator as either as the mother or the nightbitch) is a conceptual/studio artist who had something of a dream job in the art world running a community gallery. When she had a baby she first carried on with her job, juggling it with expressing milk, dropping her child at a nursery where she is convinced he is left to cry and with little support from process engineer husband who is typically away Monday-Friday and who does not even take a fair share of parenting at the weekends. Eventually they decide it is not working and practically her low paying job has to be the one to go.
Her undergraduate degree was from a prestigious university, better than the one he had attended. She held two master’s degrees, whereas he held none. (She also held a baby.)
It shouldn’t have been a contest, and it wasn’t, was it? No, definitely not. She would never think of her husband in such competitive terms, but she did fault herself for choosing such an impractical field as studio art.
How many generations of women had delayed their greatness only to have time extinguish it completely? How many women had run out of time while the men didn’t know what to do with theirs? And what a mean trick to call such things holy or selfless. How evil to praise women for giving up each and every dream.
The incident that underlies the book starts one night – her young son’s screams fan “a flame of rage that flickered in her chest” and her anguished please for him to return to sleep come out as dog-like grunts and squeals.
The next morning she jokes to her husband that she was a “Night Bitch” only for her observations to seemingly manifest themselves physically as she starts to grow sharper canine teeth, hair at the back of her neck, a cyst which seems to be the makings of a tail and a heightened sense of smell and craving for meat.
Over time she starts to roam the local area at night and is befriended by three dogs who bear an odd resemblance to three mothers (of what in the UK we might call the Yummy Mummy type) she normally tries to avoid at the local library.
She also becomes increasingly obsessed with an odd book she finds “A Field Guide to Magical Women” a guide to the “ways in which womanhood manifests on a mythical level” – but with rather than being allegorical or mythological actually claims to be based on anthropological research around the world and ways in which women – particularly mothers - “turn to the natural world to express their deepest longings and most primal fantasies”.
And of course this guide also encapsulates the aims of the novel.
Her behaviour becomes more extreme – going on nighttime hunting trips with both hear appearance and actions becoming more like those of some type of wolfhound.
Her son eagerly embraces what he initially sees as a new game – and ends up wearing a collar, only sleeping in a kennel and eating raw meat - as it becomes part of his identity.
A family feline fatality causes something of a crisis point which both causes her to examine the sacrifices made by her own mother (the narrator sharing the authors Mennonite upbringing) and how she can explore her own animal identity (and introduce it to others) by using her artistic tendencies.
There is no date that this is a unusual book and I think will not appeal to all readers.
Anthropocentric (particularly pet-indifferent) readers will I think be struggle with some of the dog pack scenes; while some animal lovers will I think find the fate of both pet cats and bunnies triggering.
I fall neatly between the two and found this instead a memorable and effective novel.
Here was a woman who now knew that life unfolded through mystery and metaphor, without explanation, who looked upon her perfect son in front of her, a person she had made with her strongest magic, standing right there in a blinding spotlight as if he weren’t a miracle, as if he weren’t the most impossible thing in the entire world.
Highly recommended.
PS I rather enjoyed (given my Goodreads avatar) the concept of the three yummy mummy’s and their own dog avatars – particularly that of their bubbly, blond leader
The retriever outplayed the others, a beautiful sight to behold as she leapt in the air, ears alert and eyes bright, to snag a ball midair with her teeth. …. After the boy had tired of fetch, the retriever came to where the mother sat on the porch steps and placed her head gently on the mother’s leg. The mother …the retriever’s long silky blond hair, softer than any she’d ever felt, as if it had been shampooed and conditioned, then blowdried and brushed lovingly. ……… What a good, pretty, perfect dog.
My thanks to Penguin Random House, Harvill Secker for an ARC via NetGalley
August 2, 2021
Nightbitch
by Rachel Yoder
Very disappointing! I was so looking forward to this book! The blurb and reviews were promising but it was so boring! Wasted my time!
by Rachel Yoder
Very disappointing! I was so looking forward to this book! The blurb and reviews were promising but it was so boring! Wasted my time!
September 18, 2022
i enjoyed the first 70 pages but the rest felt flat
August 12, 2021
What the actual heck?! I should stop falling for new books with loud titles and cool cover designs, and go back to real literature that doesn’t need marketing to be sold. More than a half of modern so called writers that I get to read are pure disappointment. This was one of the biggest ones so far. Seriously, though… what the…. ?
August 13, 2021
I really wanted to like this, but unfortunately it didn't quite land for me. At the end of the day, it just felt like a book with a very strong premise that didn't live up to its full potential. (Also, I know this book was very important to a lot of people who are important to me so hnnnngggggh, just as a disclaimer, art is subjective and my tastes aren't everyone's etc. etc.)
My first problem with this book was that it felt too long for the project that it was. Nightbitch has been compared many times to Kafka's "Metamorphosis," and that is an apt comparison. These two works have similar premises, after all, but one of the reasons "Metamorphosis" worked so well was that it said what it needed to say and no more. Nightbitch didn't do that. I would say Nightbitch said what needed to be said in the first two hours of the book or so. The Mother was turning into a dog, going feral in her isolation, and her husband didn't believe her. This was good, but then it lingered. The story meandered. Numerous plot threads were opened that never felt fully resolved, and nothing was as interesting as those first two hours or so of the book, during which I honestly thought this could be a five-star read. Alas, while this could have been a great short story, novelette, or maybe even a novella, it didn't work as a novel.
I also didn't like how forcefully and frequently the author would outright tell the reader what the themes of the book were. This book explored many things, including how men don't believe women about their medical issues, the ways in which housewives are often ignored by the feminist movement at large, the boredom and unfulfillment of being at home all the time, and how the work of stay-at-home moms is often written off as easy when that is far from the case. (It may be too many themes for a focused project, but nonetheless they were all there at points.) These themes would be shown in subtle ways throughout the text, but after many of these instances, the author would then explicitly state that the patriarchy's bad and that many men, in fact, do not listen to women (for instance). In a way, it felt like the author either doubted her own ability to convey a message or doubted the reader's ability to understand a message without being smacked over the head with it. It was kind of demeaning.
I also found this book's portrayal of women, particularly stay-at-home mothers to be...odd, especially considering how often this book is revered as a great feminist novel, exploring how hard it is to be a stay-at-home mom. At the end of the day, the only woman in the novel who is portrayed in a positive light is The Mother, our main character. She was the only stay-at-home mom (aside from her own mother, I suppose) who wasn't portrayed as a vapid idiot for most of the book's run. We sort of saw The Mother overcome this internalized sexism when she befriended Jen and some of the other moms toward the end of the novel, but like many other points in the story, this resolution felt rushed and largely unexplored.
A lot of people, too, have criticized this book for the oft-featured animal cruelty, and...yeah. Obviously, given that the plot explores a woman turning into a dog, some woodland animals were going to be sacrificed. However, the murder of the family cat, as well as the murders of the rabbits on stage in The Mother's art show, felt gratuitous and like they were simply there for shock value. For what it's worth, I wasn't shocked by these scenes. In fact, they felt quite predictable long before they unfolded. If I felt any emotion toward them, it was annoyance. These felt like scenes written by an edgy fourteen year-old just exploring horror writing for the first time, not like something written by a published novelist.
I could go on, but these were my big issues, so I'm just going to end things here. I actually thought about dnf-ing this book multiple times while I was reading it, and I'm not sure if I'm glad I decided to give it a chance and stick with it or not. Woof.
My first problem with this book was that it felt too long for the project that it was. Nightbitch has been compared many times to Kafka's "Metamorphosis," and that is an apt comparison. These two works have similar premises, after all, but one of the reasons "Metamorphosis" worked so well was that it said what it needed to say and no more. Nightbitch didn't do that. I would say Nightbitch said what needed to be said in the first two hours of the book or so. The Mother was turning into a dog, going feral in her isolation, and her husband didn't believe her. This was good, but then it lingered. The story meandered. Numerous plot threads were opened that never felt fully resolved, and nothing was as interesting as those first two hours or so of the book, during which I honestly thought this could be a five-star read. Alas, while this could have been a great short story, novelette, or maybe even a novella, it didn't work as a novel.
I also didn't like how forcefully and frequently the author would outright tell the reader what the themes of the book were. This book explored many things, including how men don't believe women about their medical issues, the ways in which housewives are often ignored by the feminist movement at large, the boredom and unfulfillment of being at home all the time, and how the work of stay-at-home moms is often written off as easy when that is far from the case. (It may be too many themes for a focused project, but nonetheless they were all there at points.) These themes would be shown in subtle ways throughout the text, but after many of these instances, the author would then explicitly state that the patriarchy's bad and that many men, in fact, do not listen to women (for instance). In a way, it felt like the author either doubted her own ability to convey a message or doubted the reader's ability to understand a message without being smacked over the head with it. It was kind of demeaning.
I also found this book's portrayal of women, particularly stay-at-home mothers to be...odd, especially considering how often this book is revered as a great feminist novel, exploring how hard it is to be a stay-at-home mom. At the end of the day, the only woman in the novel who is portrayed in a positive light is The Mother, our main character. She was the only stay-at-home mom (aside from her own mother, I suppose) who wasn't portrayed as a vapid idiot for most of the book's run. We sort of saw The Mother overcome this internalized sexism when she befriended Jen and some of the other moms toward the end of the novel, but like many other points in the story, this resolution felt rushed and largely unexplored.
A lot of people, too, have criticized this book for the oft-featured animal cruelty, and...yeah. Obviously, given that the plot explores a woman turning into a dog, some woodland animals were going to be sacrificed. However, the murder of the family cat, as well as the murders of the rabbits on stage in The Mother's art show, felt gratuitous and like they were simply there for shock value. For what it's worth, I wasn't shocked by these scenes. In fact, they felt quite predictable long before they unfolded. If I felt any emotion toward them, it was annoyance. These felt like scenes written by an edgy fourteen year-old just exploring horror writing for the first time, not like something written by a published novelist.
I could go on, but these were my big issues, so I'm just going to end things here. I actually thought about dnf-ing this book multiple times while I was reading it, and I'm not sure if I'm glad I decided to give it a chance and stick with it or not. Woof.
July 11, 2024
I hear the drums echoing tonight . . . .
For fans of The Pisces - maybe????? I wouldn’t recommend this to any of my friends, but if you liked that weird take on romance you might be a fan of this bizarro take on motherhood as well????
For those of you who don’t know – this is the story about a stay-at-home mom who starts to think maybe she’s becoming a dog. She dubs herself the “Nightbitch” (which I must admit actually made me giggle and I wish that moniker would have been around when I was a sleep deprived new mom living a nocturnal lifestyle because I would have one hundred percent called myself that) and embraces her canininity (I’m trademarking that).
So this gets props for being unusual, but unfortunately being odd isn’t enough when you’re beating the dead horse of mothers being unappreciated and stay-at-home moms being even less appreciated. I’m a mom. I could relate to this (unnamed) leading lady’s struggles at times. But at the end of the day it simply was a case of . . . . .
And I’m no snowflake when it comes to gratuitous violence, but the one thing I didn’t need was a dang cat murder scene. Seriously, if bitch is supposed to be a dog why she use a knife???? Mmmmmmmkay? Shock and awe never works out well when it comes to my ratings. I’ll give this 2 . . . . barely . . . . . because at least the author knew to keep it short. And because I laughed that the secret to happiness for all the neighborhood moms was assumed to be in the form of a pyramid scheme selling herbs. Back when I was on the Faceplace I totally had to block a multitude of gals I went to high school with who all of a sudden wanted to be pals and get me to drink their funky Kool-Aid.
For fans of The Pisces - maybe????? I wouldn’t recommend this to any of my friends, but if you liked that weird take on romance you might be a fan of this bizarro take on motherhood as well????
For those of you who don’t know – this is the story about a stay-at-home mom who starts to think maybe she’s becoming a dog. She dubs herself the “Nightbitch” (which I must admit actually made me giggle and I wish that moniker would have been around when I was a sleep deprived new mom living a nocturnal lifestyle because I would have one hundred percent called myself that) and embraces her canininity (I’m trademarking that).
So this gets props for being unusual, but unfortunately being odd isn’t enough when you’re beating the dead horse of mothers being unappreciated and stay-at-home moms being even less appreciated. I’m a mom. I could relate to this (unnamed) leading lady’s struggles at times. But at the end of the day it simply was a case of . . . . .
And I’m no snowflake when it comes to gratuitous violence, but the one thing I didn’t need was a dang cat murder scene. Seriously, if bitch is supposed to be a dog why she use a knife???? Mmmmmmmkay? Shock and awe never works out well when it comes to my ratings. I’ll give this 2 . . . . barely . . . . . because at least the author knew to keep it short. And because I laughed that the secret to happiness for all the neighborhood moms was assumed to be in the form of a pyramid scheme selling herbs. Back when I was on the Faceplace I totally had to block a multitude of gals I went to high school with who all of a sudden wanted to be pals and get me to drink their funky Kool-Aid.
August 24, 2021
DNF @ page 167.
This book is a headache, and not in a good way. This was a book that some people compared to Bunny, and I’m here to say…it’s nothing like Bunny.
The characters have no names. The Husband. The Child. The Mother/dog.
This book details the difficulties that new mothers face. It does a good job of describing an experience that I would consider to be MY PERSONAL NIGHTMARE. With that said, the main character does absolutely NOTHING to improve her circumstances. The only thing she manages to do is complain incessantly about how much she hates her life, the patriarchy, and how she had to give up her art etc.
The only remotely fascinating part of this book is when she manages to mention the Field Guide that she is carrying around by Wanda White. IF the book included more of the magical women aspects and less of the main character’s droning, catastrophizing rants, it could have been better.
This book is a headache, and not in a good way. This was a book that some people compared to Bunny, and I’m here to say…it’s nothing like Bunny.
The characters have no names. The Husband. The Child. The Mother/dog.
This book details the difficulties that new mothers face. It does a good job of describing an experience that I would consider to be MY PERSONAL NIGHTMARE. With that said, the main character does absolutely NOTHING to improve her circumstances. The only thing she manages to do is complain incessantly about how much she hates her life, the patriarchy, and how she had to give up her art etc.
The only remotely fascinating part of this book is when she manages to mention the Field Guide that she is carrying around by Wanda White. IF the book included more of the magical women aspects and less of the main character’s droning, catastrophizing rants, it could have been better.
November 30, 2021
This must be what it means to be an animal, to look at another and say, I am so much that other thing that we are part of one another. Here is my skin. Here yours. Beneath the moon, we pile inside the warm cave, becoming one creature to save our warmth. We breathe together and dream together. This is how it has always been and how it will continue to be. We keep each other alive through an unbroken lineage of togetherness.
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i loved this novel because i also feel an intense urge to escape my unfulfilling life by going feral.
my favorite goosebumps story is my hairiest adventure, and i was tickled by the parallels between that classic and nightbitch. discovering mounting evidence that you may be turning into a dog, right within your safe suburban home? what an alienating experience!
and this book is a wild ride. it's about an artist/mother who needs a creative outlet that her life will not allow for, so she makes her own by becoming art. it's about the feminine desire to go feral, and i love the way the story contrasts sanitized modern day motherhood with the reality that birth and mothering are dirty, brutal, animalistic acts at their core.
She had once been a girl, then a woman, a bride, expectant, a mother, and now she would be this, whatever this was. A wild, complicated woman with strange yearnings. Stubborn and angry - soft and sweet, though, too. She was creator and then also the dark force that roamed the night. She was part high-minded intention and part instinct, raw flight.
Hello, she wanted to say to him. I am your wife. I am a woman. I am this animal. I have become everything. I am new and also ancient, I have been ashamed but will be no more.
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perhaps it's pretentious in some places, but i enjoyed it so much. the prose is absolutely delicious, and occasionally bitingly humorous. it reminded me of how to be human, which is also about an unhinged and struggling woman who is thrust into a bizarre and darkly poetic magical realism adventure. good stuff.
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I want to run naked through a meadow and catch a rabbit and snap its neck and then rip its throat open and drink the warm blood from the wound and
I want to tell the truth
I want to hump legs
I want to chase horses around a barnyard and make them whinny and kick up dust
I want to be in a church choir and wear a robe but instead of singing I just howl all my hymn notes loud as I can
I want to never brush my hair ever again
I want to wear the same linen dress for a year
I want to stink!
I want to run and run and run into the cornfields all the way to a stream and then follow it to the ocean - I'm sorry, but I'm not coming back - and I want to have very, very passionate sex with a stranger and I want to sit on a fully decorated cake without underwear and I want to perform a large anonymous act of extreme vandalism and I want to be an artist and a woman and a mother I mean a monster I want to be a monster.
September 14, 2021
Unexpectedly delightful in a grotesque way. Feminism and motherhood and feral being and visceral violence and exhaustion and wonder and fun! I want to give a copy of this book to Kayla of booksandlala and my women in the Bible professor and my English teachers
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