Rachel Yoder's Nightbitch is a speculative delight grounded in the mundane realities of caregiving. Keenly observed in unflinching detail, down to the intricacies of multi-level marketing schemes, the novel rings true to my own experience of modern motherhood, though to my knowledge I have never transformed into a dog (hope not, I'm allergic).

The story is wholly original, and very much in conversation with other recent books that explore similar themes. As I tore through it, I felt echoes of the "art monster" from Jenny Offill's Dept. of Speculation and a touch of the domestic terror of Helen Phillips' The Need, along with contemporary nonfiction books like Darcy Lockman's All the Rage and Lisa Taddeo's Three Women. One could say it's the fun that's missing from All Joy and No Fun.

I suspect this book (or perhaps the movie, having already been optioned as Amy Adams' next star vehicle), will strike a nerve. I'm interested to see how readers, especially those of color, react to the author's choice to leave the protagonist unnamed, which grasps at a universality that I'm not sure every mother could claim. I also had many questions about the romantic/sexual threads of the story and how the conflict with the husband could have been further complicated and/or otherwise resolved. Can't wait to talk about this one.

I'm grateful to Doubleday and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of the book in exchange for my honest opinion.

I may never quite get over this stunner of a novel. I'll be writing more about it for a publication, but here let me just say that the narrative, emotional, and thematic thrusts of this novel work in perfect harmony to create something altogether unsettling, hilarious, and true. I (ha) devoured this novel, and I know it will find its readership.

Add this book to your radar, if it's not already there. I've never read something quite like it.

Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest opinions.

Nightbitch is one of those rare novels that you pick up and you're not quite sure what you're getting yourself into... but you quickly find out and love every second of the ride. It's a strange concept, this magical realism-type text, but I couldn't put it down. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys satire, stories about womanhood, and the notion of power dynamics. I think this will be a book that will be significantly talked about in 2021.

Writing a review of this book feels like writing a sketch for Stefon from SNL. This book has everything. Spot-on observations about the cost of motherhood, and all of the conflicting feelings that accompany it; fantasies of giving in to your most base desires and instincts; and a happy ending.
I cannot wait to share this book with everyone.

I was unable to read more than a quarter of the book. I just couldn’t connect with a woman/dog who didn’t even have a name 25% in. I was given this book for free in exchange for an honest review by NetGalley.

I had to read this right away. I was not disappointed. It made me appreciate again that motherhood is not for me but it was funny and realistic despite its fantastical premise—Midwestern mom or weredog? I thought the liberal arts/art scene parts were very realistic. I’m always interested in stories of women more like ones I know than the soccer mom type that is in so many other books.

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.