Nightbitch

 
Nobody was more thrilled that I was reading this book than my two sons, who seemed to giggle every time they read the cover.

They would have been even more titillated if they had read the book itself.

Nightbitch was novel du jour this summer, showing up on every booklist I could find. I know we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but how could you not? And when you hear the plot - a stressed-out mother who's slowly turning into a dog at night - well, how could you resist?

I fell victim to all of those things. I loved the first half. Then, I found myself thinking this would have been a better short story.

There's so much to relate to here for anyone who has ever been the mother of a newborn. Your body is no longer your own, your brain is fried, you find yourself dreaming of running away in the middle of the night. Your hair is messy, you smell like someone else's barf... It's a life-altering, character-changing experience.

In this book, the woman - referenced only as "the mother" - truly believes she's transforming into a dog. Hair is growing in strange patches around her body, she begins craving raw meat. She even goes as far as to assume other mothers she knows are, in fact, dogs she sees around the neighborhood. Add to all of this, she has an absentee husband who works out of town and only comes home on the weekends to "rest" and gently pat her on the head.

Hell of a plot, right?

Somewhere around halfway through, though, the metaphor started to go a little far. Maybe I'm too dense, but I couldn't tell what was metaphor anymore and what actually might have been happening. I don't know if the author intended for that confusion, but it made me more frustrated than intrigued.

If you've ever been the mother of a newborn, I do think it's worth a read. There are observations here that will feel somehow comforting, even has this bitch goes a little too far off leash.