A mother's journey is one that gives up parts of herself to raise her child only to someday let them grow and fly on their own. Chouette tells of this journey to an extreme, with an atypical owl-baby, which requires suspending a bit of reality. I'd suggest readers just let themselves be taken into Tiny's mind and immersed in her metaphors.
This book was reminiscent of 'The Harpy' and some shades of 'The Push.' The writing was masterful in pulling the reader into this alternate reality and Oshetsky did a brilliant job of allowing the reader to visualize how this situation might play out in "real life." A very unique and well done novel.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Chouette.

Tiny was once a promising cellist, she has given up her talent and career to be a wife and mother. And motherhood is not easy, nor is being a woman.

Chouette is no ordinary infant. Her owl baby is not like other babies. She is strong and predatory; eager and brash. Her husband is dismayed that his daughter is not like other 'norma' babies.

But, who wants to be like everyone else?

I really enjoyed Chouette for a number of reasons.

First, the narrative is unique and the themes are prevalent; it's about motherhood and relationships; conformity and not conforming, it's about the fear mothers have for their children and learning to let go and discover who they are as individuals; not just women, mothers and artists, but more. More what? It's up to you to find out.

Second, the cover is striking; it's beautiful yet disjointed, the parts of the owl look like they fit yet not quite, which is the main theme of the novel.

The writing is beautiful; lyrical and sensuous, dark and sinister. The author weaves poignant metaphors and creates incredible visuals with her words.

It sometimes feel like you're in a dream with Tiny, especially when she has flashbacks to her tumultuous childhood.

The writing is surreal; the author uses 'gendarmes' and 'paddy wagon,' regional terms to describe the authorities and a police car/van.

For the reader, this distortion adds onto the odd and uncomfortable feelings I'm already experiencing that something is not right with the world Tiny lives in.

There's nothing wrong with Chouette. It's everyone else that doesn't fit.

The ending was satisfying, optimistic and one I had hoped for.

Chouette isn't for everyone but I'd recommend it for anyone looking for something different to read.

Chouette is definitely an interesting read! At first you think... okay she is crazy.. and as you keep reading you realize exactly what an owl baby is. I’m sure any parent out there can fully grasp the gravity of meaning behind having an owl baby’ after reading Chouette.

Clair Oshetsky writes this story so elegantly and carefully. She left no stone unturned while describing how far mom, a.k.a Tiny, would go to take special care of her owl baby. You get a special look into just how much it affects her whole life up until the moment they are separate.

The fact that the author includes the music Tiny hears while the story goes on is such a special bonus! I would recommend this book to someone looking for a read that gets you thinking. Or if you like books that have slight mystery in them. Especially if you are a parent.

I received an ARC through net galley from the publisher Ecco in exchange for an honest review.
To be honest I found this story to be more bizarre than enjoyable. The author is creative as is her writing. It struck me as being a one of a kind book. Not science fiction more speculative. Basic story line is that Tiny gives birth to an owl baby. She tries to raise her in a way that does not interfere with it’s “owlness” and the struggles involved. Well done structure and beautiful prose but definitely not for everyone.

3.5

Thank you to Ecco, Claire Oshetsky, and NetGalley for this ebook in exchange for my honest review.

GoodReads synopsis- “Tiny is pregnant. Her husband is delighted. “You think this baby is going to be like you, but it’s not like you at all,” she warns him. “This baby is an owl-baby.”

When Chouette is born small and broken-winged, Tiny works around the clock to meet her daughter’s needs. Left on her own to care for a child who seems more predatory bird than baby, Tiny vows to raise Chouette to be her authentic self. Even in those times when Chouette’s behaviors grow violent and strange, Tiny’s loving commitment to her daughter is unwavering. When she discovers that her husband is on an obsessive and increasingly dangerous quest to find a “cure” for their daughter, Tiny must decide whether Chouette should be raised to fit in or to be herself—and learn what it truly means to be a mother.”
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This book was dark, funny, and introspective. It tackled the unsettling and uncomfortable emotions that motherhood brings about, but did it in a fun and eccentric way! I enjoyed this book and Oshetsky’s writing very much! I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys character driven novels that tickle the imagination.

“But here’s the crux of it, owl-baby. Your father wants to fix you, and I want us to love you as you are.”

🦉 Chouette by Claire Oshetsky is the story of Tiny who is pregnant and believes that she will give birth to an owl-baby. To the shock of Tiny’s husband and family their baby girl is born small and broken winged. As her daughter grows Tiny works round the clock to meet her unique needs, but she finds herself at odds with her husband about what is best for her daughter.

I’ve got to admit, I wasn’t a huge fan of this book. The writing was good and pretty visceral at times but I’m not a huge fan of the “is this woman crazy or not?” theme. If you’re into supernatural leaning thrillers you’ll probably enjoy this one. Chouette gets 2.5 stars from me! 🦉

I'm the kind of person who never sets a book aside without finishing it...until now. I always give a book a chance since occasionally one doesn't take off until halfway through. I end up being glad I finished it. But with Chouette, I just couldn't. I was so tired of the protagonist by 18% through the novel, but I thought I'd continue. By 35% she had feces overflowing out of a stockpot.

Usually I can tolerate a protagonist who is mentally ill and/or possessed or whatever is going on in their mind, but she has to be compelling and interesting. This protagonist (I can't remember her name or if she had a name) is annoying. I wanted some inkling that the story was going somewhere besides to feces in the stockpot and feeding a baby cube steak. Please, send in child protective services and end this!

The writing itself was often lovely and poetical. If only the subject matter hadn't been irritating and sometimes gross. Chouette does have a lovely cover which is what attracted me. But the subject matter seemed to be someone losing her mind without having a good story to carry it through.

I didn't know what to make of it. Was it horror? Was it a story of mental illness? I'll never know because the main character was the kind of person you hide from. You know the kind--you pretend you're not home when they knock on the door. I wanted her to be compelling and she was just tiring.

Oh, my, what a delightfully, uniquely, alluringly strange book this is! By turns harrowing, deeply amusing, thoughtful, and horrifying, Chouette revolves around a central premise: what would happen if a (mostly) human woman slept with an owl-woman and they conceived a baby? (This is not a spoiler; it's on the first page of the book). None of the biological questions raised by this premise are entertained at all, which is part of what I love about Chouette—the author feels no need to reassure or explain. You are in her world now and simply must accept that this is the way things are.

Chouette's mother at first is resentful of the owl-baby fetus, but grows to love and accept her role as mother and protector. Her husband is also thrilled at the prospect of having a child, though his conception of what the experience will be like is not matched by the reality. He is warned that this is an owl-baby, but he pays no heed and blithely assumes he will have a child he can consider normal, a human infant.

But Chouette is not that. What she is, however, is perfect just the way she is. Owl-babies do not behave like fully human babies, they do not eat like human babies, they do not play like human babies. Human babies do not generally need to hunt their food. Human babies do not have lethal beaks and talons. Human babies have noses.

Dad can never accept Chouette as she is. He is constantly looking for interventions to make his daughter (he calls her Charlotte) into what he conceives a child should be. These meet with only mixed success and are sometimes a bit hazardous to those who intervene. But her mother wants only what is best for Chouette, just the way she came into the world. And when you interfere too far in the natural development of a powerful creature, it is likely you will unleash powerful and unintended forces.

Though one of the themes of this marvelous book is clearly that we must accept those around us on their own terms and not assume that our vision of normality is the only valid one, it would be facile to describe it only in such terms. The ideas that Oshetsky is airing here go much deeper, into what it means to be a parent, in particular a mother. She also plumbs what the nature of intolerance is, how it manifests and how it endangers both the intolerant and those they diminish. But on a deeper level yet, this is the story of what constitutes sanity in a world of fluid boundaries that we insist are solid and defined. When your underlying idea of reality is itself challenged, how will you respond? Can you let wildness be free, even if it unnerves, endangers, and threatens you? Can you let go of everything you thought was true and right for the sake of love?

Because it challenges our reality and sense of propriety, this can be a difficult read and may make some readers uncomfortable, but I would not let that keep you from it. Though "enjoy" may be the wrong term to describe my experience of this book, I was never less than enthralled and often fascinated; occasionally I was deeply moved. Every now and then there is even a belly laugh, though usually because Chouette has done something astonishing and outrageous.

I would highly recommend this clever and delightful book.

Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco for the ebook. Tiny, a cello player in a quartet in Northern California, becomes pregnant with her first baby. Her husband is excited, but Tiny believes that she has gotten pregnant by being visited one night by a (female) owl. Horrified, Tiny gives birth to an owl baby and quits her quartet and fiercely raises her baby. Except no one else seems to acknowledge that the baby is an owl baby. The book can be read several different way: A straight fantasy, but I thought it was an exciting look at a woman trying to defend and normalize a child that everyone else sees as other or lesser than. It’s an exciting book with a wildly imagined ending.

This review is based on an ARC of Chouette, which I received courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher (Ecco/HarperCollins).

Chouette is a novel that falls into the neo-chick-lit sub-genre of neurotic women living grotesque, confused lives outside of the realms of reality. In Chouette, our narrator becomes pregnant with and raises an owl-baby. She tries her damndest to make Chouette's life as carefree and happy as any child's, while simultaneously warding off her husband and in-laws who strive to make her owl-baby "fixed," a dog-baby, what they want her to be.

The prose here is sparking and snappy and lyrical. The wording, the pacing, and the plot fall into perfect alignment. Oshetsky's writing style, paired with the un-reality of the story, had me slipping into a fever-dream-state while reading Chouette.

This book is totally unexpected and fresh! I would gladly read more from Oshetsky's jumbled imagination.