It’s not every day you come across a novel like Nightbitch. Out this past summer from contributor Rachel Yoder, Nightbitch cleverly uses the fantasy genre to challenge long-held societal norms. The story centers on a new mother who has sidelined her career to raise her newborn. In the child’s second year, she begins to feel that she is actually a dog: dark hair grows on the back of her neck and her canine teeth appear sharper. When she mentions this to her husband, who travels for business often, he doesn’t think anything of it. As her canine feelings intensify, the mother heads to the library in search of cure. There, she discovers A Field Guide to Magical Women: A Mythical Ethnography and a curious group of mothers who have secrets of their own. Both lead her down an unexpected path…
Nightbitch bravely trailblazes a new path – the confluence of an alter-canine-identity and questions about motherhood. Dark, humorous, and creative, Nightbitch was one of July’s most anticipated books.
“Rather than childbirth twisted into hideous shapes by the male artistic eye, in this book art crawls out of motherhood with an exhausted, sweating, blood-strewn, but joyous howl. . . Creativity and motherhood don’t need to be at each other’s throats, like vampires or zombies. In Nightbitch they feed in the same night on the same wild prey.”
The Boston Globe
Nightbitch is available from Doubleday and you can find purchase information here. The novel has been optioned for film by Annapurna Pictures with Amy Adams set to star.
Rachel’s essay “I Was the Mennonite Kid” was featured in Issue 4. Check out her website and Twitter to learn more about her work and find her upcoming events. Congratulations, Rachel!
