4 ⭐️. YAS NIGHTBITCH! pop off queen. Just like Nightbitch did with the meat, I DEVOURED this book. This read resonated with me as a woman, as a [hopeful] future mother & as a person. It sparked such great conversations around shared labor, "gendered" roles & the urge to just absolutely go feral.

Nightbitch was an interesting read, very much “wtf am I reading???” but in a good way. It was an animalistic and violent yet poetic look into motherhood and the isolation that can come with it. I was very intrigued while I was reading this book but I will admit that it started to feel repetitive towards the end and the writing style can get a little confusing but I did like it. I personally had some confusion with the magical realism, I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to take the dog transformation moments like the hair, teeth, and dog behavior literally or if it was The Mother having psychosis or something but I still enjoyed and understood what the book was trying to communicate, that motherhood can become extremely isolating and often women lose the time to embrace their passions, and the ability to be themselves vs just being mom and the world just expects you to be okay with it because “well you’re a mom now that’s what you do!” And how that could push a woman to such extreme behavior.

“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.”

This book lined out so many of my own fears towards motherhood, and I praise every woman who embraces it.
I definitely think it’s worth reading if you think the subject matter of mother/womanhood applies to you or could eventually.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

This book discusses the complexity of what it means to be a woman and a mother. I just don't know if it goes about it in the best way. Unfortunately the disjointed way in which this was written made it hard for me to follow. There were parts that seemed repetitive to a fault. And that conclusion should have been so much longer. I'd love to have heard more about the art she made due to her experiences rather than yet another discussion of the ways she was a "dog."
Also I know I added the tag, but be aware there is straight up animal abuse in this book. That was a hard and unnecessary scene for me to read.

Absolutely brilliant. This book kept me up at night, and made me read it over and over again. So excited for the Amy Adams adaptation.

This was Not For Me.

This is a literary fiction look at motherhood. It felt very "MFA, author lives in Brooklyn", just like the mother main character who never gets a name.

The author was good at evoking the horror of the stultifying boredom and isolation that always terrified me when I thought about motherhood. The body horror too. But I ended up not liking that kind of horror any more than I like most horror.

There are violently dead bunnies and kitties if that's a no-go for you as it is for me. Didn't make me like the characters any better either.

A Kafkaesque fever dream of a novel -- stressful, heartbreaking and hilarious.

I had no idea what was going on at *any* point of this book, and I enjoyed every second of it. It's either satirical, or it's playing a trick on the reader, or it's a metaphor, or it's magical realism, or it's somehow all of the above, but most especially it's -- as Kate Baer said it better than I can -- a "primal scream" of a book.

Readers are best off going into this book with as little knowledge about it as possible, which is good considering I wouldn't even know how to describe it. But any woman, mother or not, will see themselves in this story, bizarre as it is. I can't wait to see the Hulu adaptation (with Amy Adams, of course).

“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.”

A feral fever dream of a book about motherhood, equal parts unhinged and insightful. NIGHTBITCH chronicles the transformation of an unnamed white woman - a mother, a wife, an artist - from her trapped beginnings to her liberatory denouement. Her metamorphosis happens on several levels (physical, emotional, philosophical, existential), and I loved how rooted in her actual animal shift into a dog the narrative was; it was delightfully absurd with a realistic edge. The representation of her relationship with her toddler son was so raw and tender, as well as the dynamics shown between the main character and other mothers, including her own. I just love when constrained, suppressed women unleash the full depths of their feelings and desires, both beautiful and terrible. There’s more here too, about the essentiality of art, the power of maternity, and naturally, the uselessness of men. This didn’t fully land for me but goddamn I was entertained. Thanks Doubleday Books for the review copy!

Content warnings: gore, body horror, animal injury/death, sexism, gaslighting

Hilarious has got more than it's due as I believe it's being adapted, something I want to read and watch and splendor in as I enter an era where my body is betraying me and everyone is telling me it's all very normal.

Kate Baer called this book a "primal scream," and honestly, truer words have never been spoken. This spoke to me on a cellular level, peeling back the messy layers of motherhood and postpartum and raising a toddler and patriarchy and emotional labor and rage, rage, rage in a way that somehow felt artful and delicate even as it twisted at its core. Highly, highly recommend.

Unsettling and absolutely worth it. meditative thriller on motherhood and femininity. you can see why this was such an instant hit. incredible

This was a stressful and anxiety inducing story of a mother who believes she is turning into a dog. It honestly put another nail in the coffin on my child free future. I imagine this book would be well appreciated by people who see themselves in the story, but for me, it was just very stressful and experimental.

This was a wild read, and I foresee a polarizing response to this. A mother’s life revolves around her young son as her husband works out of town all week, leaving her alone to care for their child. Her days are filled with toddler-wrangling, story time, and inner turmoil over her choice of motherhood over her art career. And then she starts to transform into a dog at night.

This was the kind of boundary pushing read that people tend to love or hate. It’s at times very uneventful and then swings wildly towards violence and chaos, and back to the daily grind of childrearing. The central concept could have been twisted into a joke, but the transformation is taken seriously, creating a visceral take on motherhood. If you’re intrigued by the concept and appreciate the untraditional and unhinged, you’ll probably love it! If you’re on the fence, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Another warning with spoilers- there is animal violence and the cat dies.

Ohhhhh, I cannot express in words just how much this book fucked me up. In the best ways. As soon as I finished, I handed it off to my own mother, who devoured it in one sitting. Both a very realistic and completely unhinged tale of motherhood and all of its mundane and terrible intricacies — Nightbitch does what so many try to do and fail — put the monstrous wonders and terrors of motherhood into a succinct, fascinating, at times gruesome, and altogether unlike any other novel.

“Nightbitch” perfectly encapsulates the tightrope that women are forced to walk between mother and other.

Uniquely written in a way that will leave you wondering what is real or not. it's an interesting view on new motherhood and the toll it may take on someone.

I want to give this to every mother of a young child. It captures so well the surreal limbo that life is during that time and lends it such a hilarious ferocity. This was a one-of-a-kind reading experience. Beautiful and bizarre.

A stay at home mother finds herself slowly turning into a dog. Instead of promptly seeking medical attention as she so desperately needs, she instead embraces it. She buys copious amounts of meats and treats her young son as a mother would treat her pup.

I found myself many times say “what am I reading!” Honestly, I think my biggest problem with this book is that I am a cat person… and prone to logical thinking. I’m sure many mothers will connect with this mother, Nightbitch. She is losing herself in her marriage and the fact that she gave up her career to stay home with her child. Embracing her transformation strengthens both her bond with her child and her marriage. I think all of us can learn from our narrator, finding something that you are passionate about and use that newfound joy to improve our quality of life. I personally will not be choosing the “turn into a dog” route.

Where the market seems saturated with motherhood narratives, Nightbitch makes it fresh again all the while saying the thing that needs to be said the most; mothers are people too. A work full of anger yet so much hope.

I don’t know what I expected going into this book but it was interesting to say the least. It was a very unique take on motherhood and while it provoked some interesting thoughts it was ultimately not for me. This book was a bumpy ride of dark humor, feminism, and magical realism. Honestly the dark humor is what kept me going throughout this journey. I found myself alternating with really resonating with the main character and feeling completely out of touch with how she felt. But if there is one thing this book has succeeded in doing it is reminding me why I have chosen not to have children. I’ll continue to enjoy my freedom in that aspect and enjoying being the cool aunt instead.

Rachel Yoder does an amazing job of articulating the modern woman’s struggle of motherhood, feminism, and identity. Everything I’ve ever feared about motherhood was put into this book and personified.