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.

totally unexpected! this odd premise made for a funny, engaging story that i enjoyed. i would absolutely read more from this author.

This almost feels like an unrateable book, but I have to say that I loved the process of reading it so much. There's something very special about experiencing a woman pared down to her most untethered state. This book reminded me of the same surreal magic that shows up in Milk Fed and A Touch of Jen, vicious and commonplace and entirely alien all at the same time. It's an unpredictable ride with a beautiful view of art and womanhood!

I stopped reading about 20% into the story. I expected more ferocity and less mommy diaries with a side of "hey, I'm growing fur and maybe a tail."

So not only did I receive a NetGalley copy of this book, but I also borrowed the audio book from the library. I was so excited for this title. I knew it would be satirical, emotional, hilarious, biting—what I didn’t expect was how generic it would be, how very little it would add to the canon of “women & motherhood.” Listening to the main character dialogue about growing hair and turning into a dog was a gimmick that grew tiresome very, very quickly. The gaslighting, unhelpful husband, the overburdened overworked mother turned stay-at-home mommy feeling suffocated by her existence to the point of fury. Hasn’t the concept of women’s rage been dealt with in other literature in a much more articulate and interesting way? I know I’ll be the outlier review, but I was so bored listening to our main character describe the freedoms of frolicking with the dogs that I had to bail and didn’t finish the novel.

Hands down one of the most important books I've read all year. Rachel Yoder so clearly captures the conflicting emotions and struggles of motherhood. Set against the backdrop of our nameless protagonist (Nightbitch) believing that she's becoming a dog, we watch as she feels as if she's losing every bit of her sense of self as she works as a stay at home mom and steps away from her career as an artist.

I must've underlined a line on every single page, Yoder is poignant, hilarious and razor sharp and Nightbitch is must-read for men and women alike.

I was lucky enough to get an eARC of Nightbitch, though hearing the hype over this book, I did buy my own copy too. This book might be one of the more bizarre reads I’ve had this year. In part in a good way, and in part a bad. My feelings toward this book is mixed, because I was utterly addicted to finding out what happened next and I was unable to put it down for any other book.
We follow an unnamed family, known first as the Mother and later, Nightbitch. That opening line is enough to catch your attention and want to know more. We mostly follow Nightbitch and her son, the Boy. And in this, we learn she is a stay at home mom who is struggling with the fact she was made to give up her career in favor of her husband, who’s work took him out of state every week. In this sense of being trapped and unable to get out. She has no friends, no connections to the outside world except for the few run ins with the bookie babies, a group of perfect seeming women with their own children that seem to be raising effortless. Nightbitch however, either due to this sense of her feeling trapped suddenly becomes convinced she’s turning into a dog. She starts reading books about such things. When dogs start showing up on her lawn and leaving dead things, Nightbitch dreams she becomes a wolf, that the strange changes in her body is her changing forms instead of the result of her having given birth.
It’s all really interesting, but I felt like this book was trying to be too many things tied together. From wanting to be a commentary on motherhood, of being a stay at home mother, of the secret underbelly of things that are uneasy. And then, it morphs from being about this werewolf like state she goes into and the slight insanity of it all, it decides it wants to talk about pyramid schemes and the cult like experience that they can be, only to resolve that within a few pages. And then, over all of this, it becomes an art piece that Nightbitch puts on and converts others into thinking the same bizarre things she does. Also, it talks about old German magic that her grandmother practiced very briefly before just dropping the subject completely. It’s also extremely gruesome and violent, with an insane amount of animal killings on page. The ideas were great, but it felt like there was too much going on for it to really develop these subjects. And the end was extremely lack luster. I was honestly disappointed that it was building up to this only for it be some art show. Yes, she had mentioned being an artist and wanting to go back to that, but the ending just didn’t fit into the rest of the story.
All in all, it was an interesting read and I’m happy I stuck with it, but this book isn’t for everyone. There’s a lot of violence and animal death and abuse. So be careful and take care of yourself while reading and take breaks.

4/5 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and Doubleday Books for giving me a copy of this book for my honest review.

Nightbitch is a look at what happens when you lose your identity to motherhood.

Nightbitch follows the mother or the narrator as she deals with her two-year-old as a stay at home mom and her barely there husband while trying to find enjoyment in her life now that her art career is on hold. As she goes through the motions of her everyday life, she notices she has hair growing in odd places on her body and her teeth feel sharper and she is feeling a little animalistic each day.

What I liked:
- I enjoyed the pacing of the book. It keeps a steady pace and easily moves on in time instead of cataloguing every single day.
- I liked the choice about not including a lot of details about the mother and her own family, as I feel it just further reinforces her identity being subsumed by her family
- I loved the ending. I did not expect any of that to happen when the book first started and the development of the mother was fantastic.

I wish some parts of the story were elaborated on or explored more, but overall it was a great and fun read.

I loved this book. So imaginative, so raw. Yoder manages to capture the basic human experience as well as the very unique experience of new motherhood in this odd, sad, and sometimes scary narrative.

I'd like to add a disclaimer that I also lived for a time in Iowa City, which is where the author is from and where the book takes place, so I could very vividly imagine all the different locations including the library where I used to work!

This story was intense, horrifying in many ways, and truthful in all ways. Trigger warnings for animal harm and in mothers may awaken some of your own resentments about the absolutely 24/7 ness of mothering.

DNF.

This is definitely a *me* problem.

There are just some books you just might not have enough brain cells for, and y’all, this was it for me.

I was really excited about this one because HELLO!!! and I may come back to it some other time, but the continuous string of thoughts and such just wasn’t helping at all. It was telling me a whole lot, but not showing. There’s only so much I can take at once before I zone out and lose interest.

I’ll just watch the movie/show when it’s out? (I know that’s a sin, oops)

Wow, wow. wow. Nightbitch is a mother who has not so much grown tired with the demands of motherhood, as much as she’s grown tired of the expectation of who she should be now that she’s a mother -- expectations that don’t seem to weigh on her husband. She's bonded with and clearly adores her child -- but she’s so sick of having to reign in those instincts that aim to satisfy her and her alone, that she morphs nightly into a being who only thinks of itself, its child, and certain instinctual animal draws toward fulfillment.⁣
⁣
“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.”⁣
⁣
Yoder somehow manages to weave a story that calls up the darkness of a Grimm’s fairy tale, while addressing the very real suffocation of motherhood and societal expectations on women once they conceive. You will not forget this book.

I was so looking forward to reading this book, but I was sorely disappointed. I know the book was a satire on motherhood, feminism, and that I should've been able to laugh throughout but I found little that resonated with me. "Mother" aka. Nightbitch, "the boy" and "the husband" for some reason created a disconnect with me. I'm a mother of five and while I know there are days that a mother can feel overwhelmed, but I thought the hyperbole was just over the top.

I do believe, however, that this book will be delightful for the right reader. But in this case that reader just wasn't me.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Doubleday Books for an e-ARC of Nightbitch in exchange for my opinion of the book. #Nightbitch #NetGalley

4.5/5 stars.
"Nightbitch" is one sucker punch of a debut - kudos to Rachel Yoder. I am so excited to see what she does next.
At it's most basic, "Nightbitch" follows an unnamed performance artist turned stay-at-home mother whose life revolves around caring for her unnamed son and, on the weekends, her workaholic corporate husband. Over time, our mother becomes convinced she is turning into... a dog. And things only spiral from there, in the best way possible.

I was expecting there to be some magical realism and family drama, sure. But where Nightbitch really stands out is its commentary on third wave feminism and the politics of work. Now, I recognize this book will not be for everyone - but personally, I think this is one of the strongest debuts of year. If it sounds up your alley, definitely give it a chance.

Books about female rage are my theme of the summer apparently and Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder is a perfect wild and weird example.

Yoder takes the concept of a woman who believes that she is literally turning into a dog and somehow creates a literary/horror/mythical tale of modern motherhood and marriage, pinpointing the contrasting emotions related to career, mothering, and overall purpose in life, but on an exaggerated truly primal level.

It’s worth noting that the privileged upper middle class white lady gaze is strong in this book. On the other side, it’s not like anything I’ve ever read and makes me curious about what Yoder will write next.

I would have a hard time recommending this one to someone who hasn't experienced parenthood. Before I became a mom, it would have been so strange to me that a woman can feel this way. But the range of emotions experienced is wild and indescribable, but Yoder comes pretty close!

I ended up skimming through this book. The writing style is good, but I just didn't end up enjoying it as much as I thought I would.

Totally wicked and gross and fun in the best way, I think this stands firmly in the genre I like to call Feminist Weird, as writers tackle motherhood and womanhood by ripping it open and expose the soft underbelly. And Rachel Yoder absolutely crushed it.

“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 is bizarre and perfection wrapped in so many personal thoughts I rarely allow myself to hold onto. This book is about a feminist, a creative, a Mother… Who is trying to find her way through those lonely early childhood days, and who is starting to think that she’s becoming a dog. Roll with this.

The cover is jarring, the idea of this book sounds almost ridiculous… But I seriously ate up so much of what this author had to say. Although I do not question myself becoming a dog… I certainly find myself questioning myself as a mother, my own independence, my role, my voice and finding a balance in the chaos.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this one in exchange for my honest review! I’ll now be going out to get a hard copy, this was fantastic!

This novel reads like feminist Kafka. Extremely weird. Extremely my jam, makes you want to give in to every feral impulse you've ever had and howl with delight.