Animal is a very hard book to read. Not only does it have a non-linear narrative and a less than reliable narrator, it's about very difficult topics. When this book was recommended to me, it came with a warning about the graphic scenes of female abuse it contained. Even so, I kind of wasn't ready. Animal reminds me of Lolita and My Dark Vanessa and it's probably supposed to - but there's also a heady dash of Chuck Palanhiuk in the characterisation, as well as the restorative yoga class Joan takes toward the end of the book. Animal is about the wounds women are dealt and which they deal to one another; it is about the many little abuses we suffer daily and in our lifetimes. In that sense, it is the extreme telling of the very mundane and it is difficult to parse. I read this book in a held breath, barreling toward the ending that finally allowed me to exhale.