Nightbitch cover art

Nightbitch

Stylist’s summer cult breakout

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Nightbitch

By: Rachel Yoder
Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

NOW A MAJOR FILM STARRING AMY ADAMS

Are you looking for a book with bite?

One day, the mother was a mother but then, one night, she was quite suddenly something else...

At home full-time with her two-year-old son, an artist finds she is struggling. She is lonely and exhausted. Her husband, always travelling for his work, calls her from faraway hotel rooms. One more toddler bedtime, and she fears she might lose her mind.

Instead, she starts gaining things, surprising things that happen one night when her child will not sleep. New appetites, new instincts. And from deep within herself, a new voice...

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.

'OUTRAGEOUS, SMART, FUN' Bonnie Garmus, Sunday Times bestselling author of Lessons in Chemistry

'FUNNY AND UNNERVING AS HELL' Jenny Offill

'The spiritual successor to Angela Carter' Evening Standard

©2021 Rachel Yoder (P)2021 Penguin Audio Dark Humour Family Life Fantasy Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Women's Fiction

Critic Reviews

Yoder's voice is precise and funny, pitch-perfect... This is a terrifically alive and imaginative tale... an important contribution to the engagement with motherhood that rightly dominates contemporary feminism. (Lara Feigel)
A deliciously untamed satire on mothering and collapsed ambition... Yoder's descriptions of wild self-release are thrilling. (Catherine Taylor)
Yoder's commentary on the assorted neuroses of modern womanhood is graceful and coolly incisive... She infuses new life into the cold, furry flesh of the monstrous femme. (AK Blakemore)
All stars
Most relevant
Not in a bad way, necessarily, but I didn't like it while I was reading it. I was like "man, this is fascinating... too bad it's not what I wanted".
I figure I'm gonna read it again next year and absolutely love it, but that cover just sold me something different. Luckily the movie is coming out and I'm absolutely enthralled to see what they do there. I'm still gonna give it a second go after the movie, but I reckon I'm gonna love the movie.

An objectively amazing novel but not what I wanted

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I don't usually wrote reviews, but I had to as Rachel connected with me, my own mother monster, in a way I struggled to describe to everyone around me since my son's arrival. Thank you so much for everyone who were behind the scenes to get this story to me. It is life changing.

Your Mother Monster Guide

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This book is excellent. Totally off the wall concept presented as a matter of fact suburban transformation. Try know as little as possible about it before starting it. So good.

Amazingly weird in all the right ways

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I loved the concept and story, but overall did not find it was engaging and I found myself wanting the book to end

Loved the concept

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I think anyone mothering a young family could find aspects of themselves in this book. cathartic

mother rage

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This book speaks to me on so many levels. As a new mother, a woman and and artist. Never have I questioned myself more than when I became a mother, but never had I trusted my instincts more either. This book resonates with my own story of my emerging new identity, my fears, my questions about patriarchy and position in the world. Left me feeling empowered. Thank you

100%

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This book gets a lot of hate, and I guess it’s not for everyone. It’s a very raw discussion of motherhood, the plot a a a suburban woman’s transformation through early motherhood into a literal dog. It has yellow wallpaper vibes and it’s in the same vein of books that discuss a descent, but I feel its ..less of a downer. Anyway, if you like different, this is for you

Unique and insightful

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This book resonates what it can be like to be a new mother. Though those years are far behind me and I am now a grandmother to an active 2 year old I see a lot of this character in his mother. Cleverly written with so much emotion in the telling and actions of both the mother and the child. I would listen to it again which I don't often do.

Sharp

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great idea and well executed but after the midway point, page by page it moves toward a disapointing finale. full disclosure i wanted a dark gothic metamorphic experience full of metaphors about motherhood.

it did start dark and the author gives a great desciption of how hard motherhood is. though the absent father character was a bit much.

its a great ride but stephen king could've given it a better ending. think it will make a great film though, looking forward to seeing what amy adams does with it

great build up and middle, weak ending

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This would have been a punchy short story. Instead it’s one idea is dragged out too long and stretched thin. The main character is completely unlikeable. She’s insufferable and, ‘not like other mothers’ even before she turns into Nightbitch. There’s also sickening violence against a pet that made it difficult to go on.

Should have been a short story

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