Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Nightbitch

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder

13 reviews

virgcole398's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense

Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book further justifies my decision to never have children.

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gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.5

Hard book to rate for me.

If I were to give this a rating on interesting premise alone, this would be a five star weird romp. A new mother is alone a lot of the time, turning into a dog at night? Weird, provocative!

But, my actual enjoyment of this book was severely diminished because of the rampant animal cruelty. I also think that the actual messages and themes of the book were not sticking the landing with me because of how flippantly it treated some of the main characters actions as redeemable.

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ashleygreene03's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

0.75

When I read that this wasn’t meant to be a full sized novel, it made perfect sense and sums up my issues with this book. She went on and on about her issues with motherhood and I kept thinking “yes this is why no one is having kids anymore” and it was frustrating how she never accepted help. I don’t understand how her husband showed her his weird porn stash and she said to herself “this is a man to marry and procreate with.” Then again, I didn’t get too far before I DNFd, so maybe I don’t know what I’m talking about 🥸

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crybaby_chloe's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I feel there are a lot of great moments in this book but I was left wanting more development. I felt confused by the relationship between the main character and her husband. This is the point, I think, but I just felt that the lack of fleshing out the husband's character made me confused about some of the main character's motivations or decisions relating to him. I also felt that I needed more of a conclusion for the plotline

about Wanda White. I didn't need an explicit answer about who she was but I felt that this thread got tied up too quickly and I was left wanting more.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, but felt more interested in certain parts / themes than others.

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msradiosilence's review against another edition

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2.5

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fedelikeslego's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-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
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I don’t know how to feel honestly. I had very highly expectations because the premise is amazing. What I found is an extremely boring collage of ideas. There’s so many things that are just randomly put in the plot and then never explained/finished? It’s just frustrating honestly. It feels like Yoder’s publisher just forced her to make the novel longer.

- Who where those strawberry dogs? Was she just loosing her mind? I didn’t get it.

- What was even the point of the Wanda plot? I have no idea.

- The relationship with Nightbitch husband was just so useless, also he changed in a second? Like, so unexpectedly? I got the point of him just being good, but “typically male” the whole time, but it could have been deepen it better? It just sounds so stupid

- Honestly, just the whole dog thing that she randomly set aside.

- her son just disappear? Like, I get the point of her finally being a free human being (again, difficult after motherhood), but like, he just suddenly disappear?

What was I expecting from this book before reading it?
Literally a mother who turned in to a dog, but like, fisically, not only mentally.

What would i have preferred, after reading it?
A short book would have been much better, not a short story, but like a 100-120 pages book, so less then the half of it.

As a artist myself I loved every single time she talked about art, making art and being an artist. I also loved the performance at the end, made perfect sense with her feelings (Not feeling sure about his husband reactions? You’re eating a rotten cadaver from the ground? Sounds great! I’ll shower you, i’ll love your performance!)

The domestic cat violence was a blow to the heart, I didn’t want to read it.

So… I’m just disappointed, I expected much more in terms of both plot and general message? Let’s objectively look at it, no emotions, how could you not found obvious what she said? The “perfect mother era” finished like decades ago? A lot of people think that and admit that right now, there’s communities, support groups. Literally nothing was revolutionary about it.

Don’t get me wrong, the 1 star is not because “it’s too weird”, I read weirder books, it’s just not good, extremely poor execution.

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katey_'s review against another edition

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adventurous funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

A Kafkaesque fever dream of a novel -- stressful, heartbreaking and hilarious.

I had no idea what was going on at *any* point of this book, and I enjoyed every second of it. It's either satirical, or it's playing a trick on the reader, or it's a metaphor, or it's magical realism, or it's somehow all of the above, but most especially it's -- as Kate Baer said it better than I can -- a "primal scream" of a book.

Readers are best off going into this book with as little knowledge about it as possible, which is good considering I wouldn't even know how to describe it. But any woman, mother or not, will see themselves in this story, bizarre as it is. I can't wait to see the Hulu adaptation (with Amy Adams, of course).

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