I Am House Cat

💛 The brilliance of this is in its uniqueness. And that it has in spades, maybe shovels. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I love this for its weirdness and for being thought provoking. The length of this review says it all really. This made me think. I saw it as The Mother finding liberation in embracing her real self. I enjoyed that aspect of the book. As someone who also struggled with early motherhood, I liked the idea of letting go and discarding the boundaries of normalcy. Just not to this extreme.

💚 I am not nightbitch. I am house cat. Hear me sleep. I could not relate to nightbitch. This should have been fine. I don’t have to relate to a character to enjoy a book. But I also felt judged - and at one point literally torn apart - by her. There’s an adversarial slant to the book whereby if you do not wholeheartedly approve of what she does then you are a closed-minded Jennifer (the Karen of this world).

❤️️ I wasn’t convinced by the author’s characterisation of people’s behaviour. It was extreme in some ways and not enough in others. Part of this is due to the unreliability of the narrator (there’s a lot of: is this the real life, is this just fantasy?). But it does detract from any point the author is trying to make. Again, this is not a devastating criticism. The same odd view of humanity was adopted in American Beauty and, more recently in the TV series, Physical. But the extreme of The Mother should have been more keenly contrasted by those around her to give the story its grounding. If you’re going to feature excreting in gardens and decapitation as frequently as this did, Im’ma need some mundane stuff to remind me what planet I’m on.

💜 Did not like the animal cruelty even though I accept it as part of what this is. I did not like the fetishisation of motherhood as part of the message and I’m not even sure I understood how she felt about it. The idea of children and birth as, on the one hand something miraculous and on the other giving the fetus such agency of ripping the mother apart doesn’t ring true. It’s science. It’s biology. Like animals hunting other animals. But there again I am house cat. Not wild. Not feral. Just mildly disgruntled and hard to please.

PS. I can't help but wonder if The Mother was suffering from an iron deficiency?...
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SOUNDBITE

🎧 The casting of Cassandra Campbell was exactly right. Anyone who has listened to The Help, Everything I Never Told You, The Heart Goes Last or any of the other books read by this prolific narrator will recognise her dreamy, ethereal purr.

🎧 The production is pure and simple, which was a great choice for something as outlandish as this. Campbell keeps a very level tone throughout, creating a brilliant contrast of nonchalance and matter-of-factness in the face of extraordinary events.
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SHALL I COMPARE THEE TO...

This is a literary art installation. Think Damien Hirst meets American Beauty.

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Interesting read for a new mother

Not my usual genre, as a new mother I was worried to read it. A thought provoking book about the wild untamed nature of motherhood and its pressures. Worth the listen.

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Often feels slow, but an interesting story

Some very interesting themes and a more unusual story, which was enjoyable. I found however that it took quite some time for the story to advance and I wanted to get past the more mundane sections to discover more about Nightbitch.

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Weirdly relatable

I enjoyed this book immensely. It presented wanting to raise a child in the best possible way to the pulls of creativity and a career in an original manner. It echoed my personal realisation after giving birth that however civilised we fool ourselves that we are, we are basically animals. It very much reminded me of my time with young children and my need to be creative and run my creative business, the animal instincts that kicked in with motherhood and the realisation that we have to trust our own judgements and act on those instincts rather than follow societies norms. A great book and a must read for creative new mums

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Lights out, b*tch

So many parts of this were so exquisite in their delivery. But this book dragged with fatigue and made us readers feel exhausted and numb at the end.

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Good but not amazing

Fairly well read, I liked it but I didn’t love it. I wanted to be way more shocked that I was. For a book about an anthropomorphic housewife I felt the delivery was a little tame.

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A Mediative and fantastical journey into the essence of motherhood

This book was sold to me as part of the femgore genre, but it’s far more like an American Angela Carter novel, which is high praise! The performance was excellent and the journey taken by the central character as she rediscovers her identity after having a child gave me a lot to think about. I do wish there had been a bit more plot, which why 4 stars

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Magic realism and dogs - what’s not to like?

A new stay at home mother deals with her loneliness when her husband frequently travels for work and seems to be turning into a dog. Great story telling narrated professionally. Very engaging and highly recommended .

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Astounding

Best book I’ve read in a long time - it will make you so angry you have to put it down, but it will be so brilliant you have to pick it back up

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transformative

I feel recognised as a fellow feral woman - howl, growl and sink your hands into mud and eat raw meat and tear into everything. we are of course, all animals

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