Cover of Nightbitch

Nightbitch

A Novel

Rachel Yoder

Book Info

Publisher
Anchor (2022)
ISBN/EAN Product Code
9780593312148
Publisher Description

In this blazingly smart and voracious debut novel, an artist turned stay-at-home mom becomes convinced she's turning into a dog. • "A must-read for anyone who can’t get enough of the ever-blurring line between the psychological and supernatural that Yellowjackets exemplifies." —Vulture One day, the mother was a mother, but then one night, she was quite suddenly something else... An ambitious mother puts her art career on hold to stay at home with her newborn son, but the experience does not match her imagination. Two years later, she steps into the bathroom for a break from her toddler's demands, only to discover a dense patch of hair on the back of her neck. In the mirror, her canines suddenly look sharper than she remembers. Her husband, who travels for work five days a week, casually dismisses her fears from faraway hotel rooms. As the mother's symptoms intensify, and her temptation to give in to her new dog impulses peak, she struggles to keep her alter-canine-identity secret. Seeking a cure at the library, she discovers the mysterious academic tome which becomes her bible, A Field Guide to Magical Women: A Mythical Ethnography, and meets a group of mommies involved in a multilevel-marketing scheme who may also be more than what they seem. An outrageously original novel of ideas about art, power, and womanhood wrapped in a satirical fairy tale, Nightbitch will make you want to howl in laughter and recognition. And you should. You should howl as much as you want. (Publisher's Description)

Links
Barcode
On this shelf:
Books Read in 2023

Thoughts on Nightbitch

Nightbitch is a gleeful and raw fable about bodily and societal disassociation experienced by a new mother (identified only as "the mother"), who finds herself turning into a dog, whom she dubs "Nightbitch." The mother loves her 2-year-old son, but her decision to give up her own career while her husband's itinerant work-life keeps him out of the perilously monotonous trenches of child-rearing. And so, it takes becoming an animal for her to feel herself again, and her transformation is drawn out cleverly. Exceedingly relatable to a new parent, the gritty magical realist fable examines the role of mothers in capitalist society and pulls no punches exploring the contours of the sacrifices, double-standards and pitfalls of contemporary motherhood. Its funny, insightful and somehow corrective to a lot of parenting/motherhood discourse we're swimming in right now.