Nightbitch

Stylist’s summer cult breakout

By: Rachel Yoder

Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell

Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

At home full-time with her two-year-old son while his father travels for work, a woman finds herself struggling with solitude, monotony and exhaustion. If she has to manage one more bedtime alone, she fears she will lose her mind. So far, so familiar, you might say? But one night, a strange metamorphosis occurs....

Written as a howl against biology, history and the patriarchy, Nightbitch uproariously explores how traditional structures of power and gender continue to shape our experiences of mothering. Outrageously enjoyable, deeply clever and joyfully subversive, it is a book about finding the freedom to love and live as we want and need, whatever form this takes.

©2021 Rachel Yoder (P)2021 Penguin Audio

Disappointing

I can tell the author of this novel really, desperately wanted to be interesting and shocking with this book, but I am sad to say it was neither of those things. I ended up listening on 2 times speed because I was so bored, which from this premise you'd hope wouldn't happen. It actually wasn't weird enough for me. The reader doing the kids' voice made my stomach turn every time, it made me truly hate him, which I know was also the authors fault. Overall I was left with the impression that this would have made a much, much better short story/novella.

deliciously bizarre

Suspend belief and delve into this tale of magic, mysticism and the hidden monster inside all women.

Often feels slow, but an interesting story

Some very interesting themes and a more unusual story, which was enjoyable. I found however that it took quite some time for the story to advance and I wanted to get past the more mundane sections to discover more about Nightbitch.

Weirdly relatable

I enjoyed this book immensely. It presented wanting to raise a child in the best possible way to the pulls of creativity and a career in an original manner. It echoed my personal realisation after giving birth that however civilised we fool ourselves that we are, we are basically animals. It very much reminded me of my time with young children and my need to be creative and run my creative business, the animal instincts that kicked in with motherhood and the realisation that we have to trust our own judgements and act on those instincts rather than follow societies norms. A great book and a must read for creative new mums

Unpleasant

Finished it, but barely. We get into the head of a mother,  frustrated because she's chosen to stay home to look after son. A large part of the book is devoted to how she feels and how her feelings of frustration manifest themselves. (By turning into a semi-dog) . It's quite repetitive and I found the protagonist entitled and unsympathetic. Most objectionable for me however, was the theme of  hatred and  cruelty  against small creatures and the family cat. It was predictable but vile none the less. The cold and  casual attitude of the whole family to the cat's murder was game over for me.  A few interesting ideas and building storylines but they didn't really justify going to the end for.

Magic realism and dogs - what’s not to like?

A new stay at home mother deals with her loneliness when her husband frequently travels for work and seems to be turning into a dog. Great story telling narrated professionally. Very engaging and highly recommended .

Terrible

This could have been such a great story similar or in the line as the film Black Swan from Darren Aranovsky, but it wasn’t. It start okay but then the writer gets fond of naming this boring character Nightbitch and repeats that name every page that you get bored by it.

Good but not amazing

Fairly well read, I liked it but I didn’t love it. I wanted to be way more shocked that I was. For a book about an anthropomorphic housewife I felt the delivery was a little tame.

I Am House Cat

💛 The brilliance of this is in its uniqueness. And that it has in spades, maybe shovels. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I love this for its weirdness and for being thought provoking. The length of this review says it all really. This made me think. I saw it as The Mother finding liberation in embracing her real self. I enjoyed that aspect of the book. As someone who also struggled with early motherhood, I liked the idea of letting go and discarding the boundaries of normalcy. Just not to this extreme.

💚 I am not nightbitch. I am house cat. Hear me sleep. I could not relate to nightbitch. This should have been fine. I don’t have to relate to a character to enjoy a book. But I also felt judged - and at one point literally torn apart - by her. There’s an adversarial slant to the book whereby if you do not wholeheartedly approve of what she does then you are a closed-minded Jennifer (the Karen of this world).

❤️️ I wasn’t convinced by the author’s characterisation of people’s behaviour. It was extreme in some ways and not enough in others. Part of this is due to the unreliability of the narrator (there’s a lot of: is this the real life, is this just fantasy?). But it does detract from any point the author is trying to make. Again, this is not a devastating criticism. The same odd view of humanity was adopted in American Beauty and, more recently in the TV series, Physical. But the extreme of The Mother should have been more keenly contrasted by those around her to give the story its grounding. If you’re going to feature excreting in gardens and decapitation as frequently as this did, Im’ma need some mundane stuff to remind me what planet I’m on.

💜 Did not like the animal cruelty even though I accept it as part of what this is. I did not like the fetishisation of motherhood as part of the message and I’m not even sure I understood how she felt about it. The idea of children and birth as, on the one hand something miraculous and on the other giving the fetus such agency of ripping the mother apart doesn’t ring true. It’s science. It’s biology. Like animals hunting other animals. But there again I am house cat. Not wild. Not feral. Just mildly disgruntled and hard to please.

PS. I can't help but wonder if The Mother was suffering from an iron deficiency?...
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SOUNDBITE

🎧 The casting of Cassandra Campbell was exactly right. Anyone who has listened to The Help, Everything I Never Told You, The Heart Goes Last or any of the other books read by this prolific narrator will recognise her dreamy, ethereal purr.

🎧 The production is pure and simple, which was a great choice for something as outlandish as this. Campbell keeps a very level tone throughout, creating a brilliant contrast of nonchalance and matter-of-factness in the face of extraordinary events.
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SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO...

This is a literary art installation. Think Damien Hirst meets American Beauty.