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mozbolt's review against another edition
5.0
This is a book that is certainly not for everyone, but was perfectly written for me. It defies logic, is violent, nurturing, alien, primitive, familiar, tragic, and exhilarating. The premise is an entirely magical and surreal take on motherhood and it’s abyss of isolation, with Tiny and her owl-baby as the only beings of value. All of Tiny’s strength and care is funneled into a creature that contains all of the love, vulnerability, contempt, and wildness that hides beneath the surface of “regular” people. I’ve never read a book like this before and I doubt I will ever find one again.
emco_0's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
ebooklover's review against another edition
5.0
What a beautiful, thoughtful experience reading this book was.
I have to admit I got emotional towards the end knowing I was about to finish the story. I had gone on a similar journey as the lead character, Tiny. I struggled to love her strange daughter but once I did I fell head-over-hells. There was a protectiveness I couldn't help but feel. By the half-way mark I was in lock-step with Tiny in wanting Chouette to be loved for who she is. It pained me to read about the way those around her wanted her to change, or couldn't accept her for who she was.
The book was enjoyable as a "straight-forward" story about a woman who gives birth to an owl. I mean, the writing alone is so compelling and intriguing. The prose is some of my favorite I have ever read.
But, the metaphor at the center of this story is one that I think anyone can relate to. Especially mothers of "different" children or those of us who were "different" ourselves. I use the word "different" because there are really so many ways the book can be applied to real life experiences. I found Chouette's plight to be similar to children with autism, developmental/physical disabilities and sensitive personalities; or, more loosely, children that are LGBTQ.
I have to admit I got emotional towards the end knowing I was about to finish the story. I had gone on a similar journey as the lead character, Tiny. I struggled to love her strange daughter but once I did I fell head-over-hells. There was a protectiveness I couldn't help but feel. By the half-way mark I was in lock-step with Tiny in wanting Chouette to be loved for who she is. It pained me to read about the way those around her wanted her to change, or couldn't accept her for who she was.
The book was enjoyable as a "straight-forward" story about a woman who gives birth to an owl. I mean, the writing alone is so compelling and intriguing. The prose is some of my favorite I have ever read.
But, the metaphor at the center of this story is one that I think anyone can relate to. Especially mothers of "different" children or those of us who were "different" ourselves. I use the word "different" because there are really so many ways the book can be applied to real life experiences. I found Chouette's plight to be similar to children with autism, developmental/physical disabilities and sensitive personalities; or, more loosely, children that are LGBTQ.
adaezen's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Claire Oshetsky's Chouette remains my most compelling read of 2024. This earnest and vulnerable portrayal of motherhood from conception through mothering is engaging and upsetting in the best of ways! A thorough and inciteful allegory on raising a child in a cruel and inflexible world.
Tiny lays with her owl lover, and she knows she will birth an owl baby. The pregnancy derails her life, her career, and her sanity. No one but her believes she will have an owl baby, and she is isolated in this knowledge throughout the pregnancy.
Yet, birth and the confirmation of her fears isolates her even more. Bringing an owl baby into a dog baby world is a challenging and infuriating experience. A world that is committed to turning an owl into a dog. A Chouette into a Charlotte.
While her husband tries to "cure" chouette, Tiny does her best to create a comfortable world for her owl baby within the confines of their home, because the outside world will never be that for Chouette.
In caring for the Owl baby, Tiny's ultimate act of mothering is seeing herself in Chouette.
This novel in a glimpse into the harrowing experience of pregnancy, and the isolating potential of motherhood.
Tiny lays with her owl lover, and she knows she will birth an owl baby. The pregnancy derails her life, her career, and her sanity. No one but her believes she will have an owl baby, and she is isolated in this knowledge throughout the pregnancy.
Yet, birth and the confirmation of her fears isolates her even more. Bringing an owl baby into a dog baby world is a challenging and infuriating experience. A world that is committed to turning an owl into a dog. A Chouette into a Charlotte.
While her husband tries to "cure" chouette, Tiny does her best to create a comfortable world for her owl baby within the confines of their home, because the outside world will never be that for Chouette.
In caring for the Owl baby, Tiny's ultimate act of mothering is seeing herself in Chouette.
This novel in a glimpse into the harrowing experience of pregnancy, and the isolating potential of motherhood.
violetturtledove's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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? It's complicated
5.0
I mistakenly thought from the description of this story as a 'fairytale' it might be a bit too cute and saccharine. It is not. The best fairytales are actually a mix of magic and horror, and so is this book. And although I have no personal experience I believe the same could be said for motherhood!
You've got to suspend your disbelief for this one and not ask too many questions. Is the narrator reliable? How much of this is literal and how much is metaphor? Is this our world seen through a different lens, or do different rules apply here? How do we reconcile Tiny's experiences with the reactions of those around her (are they overreacting at something slightly out of the ordinary, or being shockingly calm in the face of a medical marvel?). The morals of the story, and the balance of magic and horror, changes quite a bit depending on how literally you take it.
Does the owl-baby represent a trans child, a disabled child, an autistic child? All of these fit in some ways but not others. Some of the details of the book may recall some of these experiences, but it's not a straightforward allegory of anything more specific than 'letting your child be themself'. Or maybe just 'this is what being a parent is like'. In the words of the author 'the child in the novel is an owl'.
It's sweet but also very unsettling, and I felt frustrated on Tiny's behalf as her opinions are constantly ignored, her feelings dismissed and her actions misinterpreted. And fair warning (hopefully not too much of a spoiler in a book about an apex predator), there's a lot of animal death. But if you can handle these aspects it's well worth reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Blood, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Ableism, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
eachz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
5.0
Dark, weird, poetic, really engrossing book I'll be thinking about for a long time.
galley_hag's review against another edition
4.0
I'm utterly in love with this book! Oshetsky expertly crafted the bizarre and magical family dynamics that present themselves when parents disagree on how to raise their different child. Tiny is a heartbreaking and funny narrator, and I finished the book desperately wanting to swaddle Chouette and tell her everything will be okay!
astridrv's review
A poetic exploration of motherhood, what it means to connect, support, depend, love, defend, fight, accept, change, cherish.
How do we talk, how do we see, how do we understand, how do we care for in a world so entangled with norms and in lives so defined by primordial co-dependency? Those were the questions I found within this tale about ableism, queerness and normativity dashed with magical realism and wilderness. Sometimes a bit too didactic, and maybe a bit repetitive when there was so much to explore, but overall successful at repeatedly stabbing me in the heart.
Still want listen to the music at the end of the book, but here are some quotes :
"Is this what it means to be a mother, then? To be in constant, irrational conflict with one's own child? To be constantly challenged by the stubborn will of a creature who doesn't respond to logic or reason, and who always wins?"
"The feeling is something like fear, but it isn't fear. It's more like an acknowledgement that he is going to die one day. (...) He can't stop thinking about how his body is not much more than a bag of water, waiting to be broken."
"I'm not sure I like it, but I listen very carefully because I want to believe in you, and before long I'm falling forward into a sound-world of your making."
"He's all fired up. A week ago, you were a hopeless case to him, and of no interest at all, and he did everything possible to avoid remembering that you existed because he hated the feeling of being powerless to change you. But now your father has hope."
"And as I watch you eat that rat - the fresh offal hanging down from your beak - I truly understood, maybe for the first time, what it means to be a mother. One day you won't need me, Chouette. It's only natural. The day will come when you feast upon my liver and fly away, leaving the rest of me for the scavengers. It's a wonder that any woman ever agrees to be a mother, when the fruits of motherhood are inevitably conflict and remorse, to be followed by death and disembowlement."
"He is convinced that there is a perfect dog-child in you somewhere. He just needs to keep poking holes in you until the holes are so big that a perfect dog-child can crawl right out of your body."
"To your father I am a box that needs to be opened on his way to helping you, and it doesn't really matter to him if he finds the key to me, or if he needs to smash me open with a hammer."
"Is life nothing more than a continuous retreat from our own true selves, as we're hammered into shape (...)?"
"Life is, in fact, a battle, and the pursuit of goodess is a fragile aspriation when survival calls for ruthless cruelty, especially from mothers."
"I come to a startling realization: that the world is populated not only by dog-people, but by all kinds of people, by cow-people and wolf-people, armadillo-people and cat-people, toad-people and nomads, and small town librarians; (...) They're waiting at bus stops, and peering out car windows, and crossing in crosswalks. They're embracing in optimistic, joyful celebration of their love for one another. They're selling melons and cabbage. They're digging ditches."
"And maybe my heart lightens a little, and maybe not."
How do we talk, how do we see, how do we understand, how do we care for in a world so entangled with norms and in lives so defined by primordial co-dependency? Those were the questions I found within this tale about ableism, queerness and normativity dashed with magical realism and wilderness. Sometimes a bit too didactic, and maybe a bit repetitive when there was so much to explore, but overall successful at repeatedly stabbing me in the heart.
Still want listen to the music at the end of the book, but here are some quotes :
"Is this what it means to be a mother, then? To be in constant, irrational conflict with one's own child? To be constantly challenged by the stubborn will of a creature who doesn't respond to logic or reason, and who always wins?"
"The feeling is something like fear, but it isn't fear. It's more like an acknowledgement that he is going to die one day. (...) He can't stop thinking about how his body is not much more than a bag of water, waiting to be broken."
"I'm not sure I like it, but I listen very carefully because I want to believe in you, and before long I'm falling forward into a sound-world of your making."
"He's all fired up. A week ago, you were a hopeless case to him, and of no interest at all, and he did everything possible to avoid remembering that you existed because he hated the feeling of being powerless to change you. But now your father has hope."
"And as I watch you eat that rat - the fresh offal hanging down from your beak - I truly understood, maybe for the first time, what it means to be a mother. One day you won't need me, Chouette. It's only natural. The day will come when you feast upon my liver and fly away, leaving the rest of me for the scavengers. It's a wonder that any woman ever agrees to be a mother, when the fruits of motherhood are inevitably conflict and remorse, to be followed by death and disembowlement."
"He is convinced that there is a perfect dog-child in you somewhere. He just needs to keep poking holes in you until the holes are so big that a perfect dog-child can crawl right out of your body."
"To your father I am a box that needs to be opened on his way to helping you, and it doesn't really matter to him if he finds the key to me, or if he needs to smash me open with a hammer."
"Is life nothing more than a continuous retreat from our own true selves, as we're hammered into shape (...)?"
"Life is, in fact, a battle, and the pursuit of goodess is a fragile aspriation when survival calls for ruthless cruelty, especially from mothers."
"I come to a startling realization: that the world is populated not only by dog-people, but by all kinds of people, by cow-people and wolf-people, armadillo-people and cat-people, toad-people and nomads, and small town librarians; (...) They're waiting at bus stops, and peering out car windows, and crossing in crosswalks. They're embracing in optimistic, joyful celebration of their love for one another. They're selling melons and cabbage. They're digging ditches."
"And maybe my heart lightens a little, and maybe not."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Medical content, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, and Murder