Reviews with content warning for Miscarriage - Animal

I loved this but holy hell was it tough to hear. I listened on audiobook and the narration was amazing. The prose was beautiful and incredibly well written but so difficult and heart wrenching. This gave me every emotion and thought I wanted Nightbitch to give me. The content warnings are as long as the book.

Content Warnings

hannahblikestoread's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

For fans of: unlikeable FMCs, uncomfortable truths, women vs. the void, female rage, Otessa Moshfegh, Melissa Broder

CHECK CW for this one friends. ⚠️

My thoughts: This story was a gut punch. It was a very emotionally challenging read that I’m definitely going to need a palette cleansing (and maybe a brain bleaching) after but man, was it well done. The audio is great (hail queen Emma Roberts) but some of the things described in the story are very hard to listen to. I may have bawled in the car in my gym parking lot… CHECK TW friends. This gets HEAVY. This litfic borders on horror in parts. Some of the quotes in this were absolutely brilliant. I took off a star because I felt it was about 100 pages too long and took too long to get to the *meat* of the story but after it picked up, I could NOT put it down. This story addresses so many themes, namely how we are shaped by trauma and how prey can transform into predator in order to survive. The author also highlights animal instincts and how those live inside us. Overall, very insightful, evocative, and well written.

CW: miscarriage, rape, suicide, murder, violence, animal harm, every possible trigger

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bratatouille's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

I adore the way that Taddeo sinks her claws into a reader and drags them along for the ride. Her storytelling is raw and violent in a way that is grotesquely, uncomfortably, human. The topics touched in this range from mildly uncomfortable debauchery to nausea-inducing evils. I can’t say that she handles them with grace, but there is a surprising air of dignity latched into ever sentence in this novel. Joan, our protagonist, goes on a journey that flashes between past and present. This back and forth is occasionally confusing, but is paced in a way that is infuriatingly good. When you become attached to the outcome of one timeline, Taddeo throws you back into the other. Although a large part of the story, sex is never depicted in a titillating fashion. Instead, it reads more like a means to an end or a necessary evil. This is immensely a feminine rage book. It’s not quite on the Gone Girl level, but maybe more unhinged instead of calculated. I can’t deny the surprising moments of clarity where I would see myself reflected in Joan despite how little I cared for her. I would rate it higher for prose alone, but often times I felt that the story would drag or that some sections were strictly unnecessary. After loving Three Women as much as I did, I am in no way disappointed by this follow up work of hers.

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katecuthbert's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

emmamarsland's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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grunbean's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I have never read female rage like this before. If you have ever experienced what it is like to present as female in this world, you will relate to. It’s womanhood’s revenge fantasy.

Content Warnings

zellaw8s's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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