I've seen a lot of people complain about the content, but that didn't bother me.
I normally love insane characters and sketchy subject matter.
I just couldn't get into it.
I hated the writing style and the MC which made it difficult to keep picking this up.
Finally a little over 60% I just gave up trying.
I'm in the minority on my reasoning, so by all means, give it a go.
Thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for my DRC.

Just wow! This is not light reading - I think if you liked My Dark Vanessa you’d appreciate this one as well.

This book follows Joan who is an adult and seeking out a woman who she’s been told is her half sister after she experiences a really traumatic event. You start to learn about all of her relationships, abuse and what she realizes looking back was not a healthy relationship between her parents. This book is one that will stick with me for a long time. The writing is amazing and you get lost in the story between present day and flashbacks even with the difficult subjects. I know this will be one of my top reads of the year.

Thank you to Netgalley, Lisa Taddeo and Simon and Schuster Canada for the eARC. This book published June 8th.

Lisa Taddeo has written a compelling novel about female rage, grief and trauma. I was and still am trying to gather my thoughts a week later! It was an uncomfortable, disturbing and dark story but despite the content I was compelled to read on and find out more about Joan. It definitely will not be a book for everyone and some of the content will be upsetting to some.

If you’ve read any of my reviews you know I like a complicated, messy, villainous woman. I really think female rage is an underserved market. We have so many books that already focus on females as the mother, the friend, the daughter or the victim. I want a woman who’s not afraid to take some names!

Animal opens with 30 something Joan, having dinner in NYC with “Big Sky,” a married hottie who she’s having an affair with. In walks her married boss who she’s also having an affair with. Once he sees them together, he shoots himself tableside.

Joan decides to go to California to escape. She moves into a bizarre artist commune in the Canyon and works at a health food store, could she be anymore LA, BUT she has an ulterior motive. She begins to stalk Alice, a hard body yoga instructor. Joan’s tragic (like seriously tragic) childhood slowly gets revealed throughout the book and you find out why she’s stalking Alice, and a self-descriped “depraved” woman with male murder on her mind.

Taddeo can say so much with so few words, which is why I adore this book. Here’s an example: Joan's flirting with a customer at the store and makes a joke, “He laughed but not not enough.” From that one statement you know that Joan is insecure and seeking validation from strangers. Then I started to think, how much should you laugh after a casual encounter? Do people analyze that?? Ugh, her writing is sooooo good. I could stop and dissect so much of this book.

This book has a lot of graphic sex and violence so if that’s not for you than avoid this title. BUT if you crave a dark, twisty ride then you need to add this to the top of your TBR pile!

Animal is a deep and vivid story about a woman with a troubled past. Lisa Taddeo has created characters so alive, so three-dimensional, I expected them to walk out of the book. Although not a beach read, Animal would be best enjoyed during a hot and sticky summer; allowing the reader to be fully immersed in the steamy L.A. atmosphere.

Animal is the perfect title for this raw and eye opening novel. It’s hard to put into words exactly how this novel made me feel. My jaw dropped multiple times and I felt absolutely every emotion possible. Unfortunately women face so many of these terrible things in this book. Rape and sexual assault is something unfortunately is quite common, the feelings portrayed in this novel were real. This is one that will stick with me for a long time & I think it’s important for women to read. Thank you netgalley for this copy.

This book is a harsh, raw, literary exploration of one woman’s life that goes from bad to worse at every turn. What I loved most about this book was how Taddeo sets up the reader with some extremely compelling questions at the beginning (why did a man take his own life in front of her and who is Alice?). I hungrily turned the pages because I needed answers to my questions, and I was very satisfied when the answers were revealed. The plot is a little jarring in its nonlinear approach, but the reader gets the hang of it quickly.

I love Taddeo’s prose. She knows how to make a reader feel a scene in their gut - and this book delivered on this repeatedly. This is a heavy book filled with triggers and dark scenes, so enter with caution.

For those who enjoyed Three Women, this one is sure to deliver!

Where do I begin? I took several days to mull this novel over after finishing. My immediate reaction was that I despised it, despite having read all the way to it's conclusion. I am not sure I feel any different now. The other reviews on this book seem to be either 1 or 5 stars, definitely the most polarizing book I have encountered.

Animal is a disturbing glimpse at female rage and misery. It is vivid and violently descriptive. The main character Joan is extremely unlikeable. Frankly, she is a bad person with disturbing thought patterns and a growing urgency and desire to inflict her own trauma and pain on to others. As the story unfolds, Joan's history is peeled back layer by layer and I am not sure if the author's intention is for the reader to sympathize with Joan or excuse some of her behaviour - but I just didn't buy it, nor did I buy the attempt or her desire for some kind of redemption at the end.

Honestly, I would not recommend this book to anyone. I can't imagine saying to a single person, this is a book you must read or will even want to read. If you feel however compelled to pick it up, proceed with caution. This entire book is a trigger warning and hits a variety of topics like a checklist, some with little or no sensitivity at all.

I was left at the end with these questions: WHY? What was the purpose of this novel? What message were you attempting to impart sandwiched between all this disturbing subject matter?

Points for the writing - undoubtedly there is talent there and I will certainly consider reading something else by Taddeo.

It pains me to say this, but Animal unequivocally did not work for me. Lisa Taddeo is undoubtedly talented, her prose traffics in big ideas parred down to snappy one liners or short paragraphs that read like mini rage-fuelled manifestos. I found myself highlighting a lot of quotes to circle back to, and there is plenty of buzzy capital C content for Emma Roberts and other celebrities with book clubs looking for the latest in edgy and hip to latch onto.

So why the two star review? Because despite being such a loud, in your face, self-identified angry novel, there’s very little substance or purpose to any of it. Gratuitous violence against women or aggressive trauma porn doesn’t get a free pass just because it’s written by a woman. The piling on of graphic depictions of murder, suicide and even a murder-suicide, don’t ultimately serve any discernible purpose other than to shock, and I suppose underscore how damaged and raw our narrator Joan, is. But let me assure you, there is never any doubt that Joan is ill, the book shouts from the rooftops early and often how depraved and morally debased she is. The central ideas and themes Animal seeks to unpack aren’t in any way furthered by the violent content.

The stylistic choice to narrate the novel as a tell-all or cautionary tale to an unnamed daughter is also an odd choice, that I never fully bought. Half the time Joan is boasting about how fuckable and unbothered she is, and the rest of the time it’s just pain, pain and more pain. Then, to cap it all off, an attempt at redemption at the end? Yeah, talk about tonal whiplash.

To end on a lighter note, I am happy to see that this book worked for so many women, and I hope in future more stories about difficult, even hateful women continue to be made and marketed as mainstream. If one positive come from the spectacle of Animal in the long run, I hope that publishers acknowledge that female rage and critiques of rape culture told through the lens of messy, complicated characters is much more than just trendy fodder, but a critical imperative to dismantling patriarchal oppressive systems in the literary world and beyond.

This novel writing style was so disjointed and chaotic but lent a real emotion to the main character. It felt like I’d gotten straight into her head and experience the crazed thoughts and depravity alongside her. Unstable and just trying to stumble through life. I weirdly enjoyed the journey.

I didn't read Lisa Taddeo's "Three Women", though reading about it, it sounds like I should. "Animal" is Taddeo's debut novel, and it hooked me with this blurb: "Honestly, sometimes I think it’s the only recourse. Killing men in times like these."

I mean... come on. Sometimes books have really sharp hooks like this and then the writing itself falls flat. But not this. From the very first page, there were multiple turns of phrase that cut. Words that made me stop abruptly and re-read, because there's no way something like that actually made it into print.

Towards the end, things definitely take a turn I did not see coming. It was unsettling, to say the least. And easily not for everyone. But this is the kind of book that I breathe for. Cutting, sarcastic wit. Raw, gritty material. It's not a nice story and it makes you want to shower after, but that kind of impact is rare and I am always in awe anytime it finds me.

First I was confused then thought I was beginning to understand what I was reading then back to confusion. By the time I got to the ending I still had absolutely no idea of the point of this story. It was the most confusing, disjointed, unappealing piece of writing I have ever encountered.

Ok... Wow. Now I know why this book is getting so much advanced praise.
ANIMAL is a VERY dark story about rage, power, control and abuse.

Protagonist Joan is such a complex character. Sometimes she's a victim. Sometimes she's the perpetrator. She seems to crave love and respect but knowingly looks in the wrong places and then her disappointment fuels her anger.
As the story unfolded I did sympathize with her but she still terrifies me!

Clearly Taddeo is a skilled writer and this book really hurt my heart and will stick with me for a long time.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the early copy.
Release date June 8th.

This. Was. All. Sorts. Of. F**ked. Up.
Still trying to scrape my jaw off the floor.

I felt like I could have written parts of this. Even if I didn't necessarily like Joan, I could still relate to a lot of her self-destructiveness. She seemed to instinctively know what men need from her and gave it. She doesn’t have close relationships with women. The story is engrossing from page one. There is so much you’re not told upfront; who is she talking to? Who the f**k is Alice lol?

The only reason my rating dropped from 5 stars to 4 was the ending. I'm still not even sure what happened. If someone wants to message me about this, please do! I'm not sure if any of the ending part even happened or if it was some psychotic hallucination.

Thanks to Netgalley, the author, and the publisher for the ARC of this amazing story in exchange for an honest review.

Probably the most uncomfortable I've ever felt reading a book - but that's the point. Animal is disturbing, yet riveting. Taddeo tells a story about a woman, Joan, who has experienced trauma after trauma often at the hands of a man. This "female" rage manifests itself as Joan tells her story.

The writing style is very straight forward and I got through it fairly quickly as there is something compelling about Taddeo's writing. However, there were several times I debated even finishing it. From start to finish it's filled with triggering content including: rape, sexual assault, murder, suicide, and miscarriage. I was unable to empathize with the narrator as I found her to be unnecessarily cruel. Her cruelty and decisions are examined in the book and I understood a lot of her choices, however, I couldn't get on board with them.

It will definitely be a talked about read, although probably not for everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Canada for an advance copy of this e-book in exchange for a review..

I did not like this book. I just simply could not get into it. The storyline felt disjointed, and it’s written in an unappealing way. It was definitely not my cup of tea.
*Thanks to Simon & Shuster Canada & NetGalley for this Ebook in exchange for my honest review

Fantastically unique. I felt shivers down my spine through parts of this book. Taddeo has a way with words that make my skin crawl, but in a good way.
I know now that if I pick up another of her books (I hope she'll write more), that I'll be up for the next 24 hours indulging in every word she writes.
Animal was another good one, and a genre that I typically wouldn't dip my feet into. I was mostly interested because it was Taddeo.

As well as my full review on my blog, I'll also share on social and bookstore websites.

Gritty, Disturbing, page-turning, thought provoking, and terribly sad.

This novel gives a girl a lot to think about, a fresh perspective from “the other woman” who’s past life effects her very being with every action she takes.

Joan is her own worst enemy. Travelling the country to chase down a sister that she doesn’t know exists. She treats men as sex toys (though they treat her the same) and when she spots a target worth taking down she puts a plan in place to do just that. Unfortunately her past comes to find her and she is under the thumb of her dead ex-lovers daughter....

All in all this is an honest novel written by a broken heart.

This could have been a much better story of it was easier to follow .At times this was hard to follow. Felt like the main character was all over.I did enjoy the read and could understand her pain.

At times this was hard to follow. Felt like the main character was all over of the however I did enjoy the read and could understand her pain