Nightbitch

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A woman becomes a stay-at-home mother to take care of her child. She soon starts to transform into a dog at night.

Yoder had not written for two years when she began writing Nightbitch.{{cite news |last1=Tyler |first1=J.A. |title=Ferocious and Violent: The Millions Interviews Rachel Yoder |url=https://themillions.com/2021/07/ferocious-and-violent-the-millions-interviews-rachel-yoder.html |access-date=30 August 2021 |work=The Millions |date=22 July 2021}} She wrote it in part due to the anger she felt after becoming a mother and the resultant changes to her personal and professional life.{{cite news |last1=Cornish |first1=Audie |title=The Rage And Wonder Of A Mother Unleashed (Literally) |url=https://www.npr.org/2021/07/26/1020866511/the-rage-and-wonder-of-a-mother-unleashed-literally |access-date=30 August 2021 |work=NPR.org |date=26 July 2021 |language=en}} She was further inspired by a passage in Jenny Offill's novel Dept. of Speculation. Yoder wrote the novel free of concerns about its strangeness, as she wrote it "for herself", though she did have concerns that the book's premise would not provide enough substance for a book of the length she wanted to write.{{cite news |last1=Brennan |first1=Kailey |title=Interview with Rachel Yoder |url=https://www.writeordietribe.com/author-interviews/interview-with-rachel-yoder |access-date=30 August 2021 |work=Write or Die Tribe |date=26 July 2021}}

The novel received positive reviews.{{cite news |title=Book Marks reviews of Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder |url=https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/nightbitch/ |access-date=30 August 2021 |work=Book Marks}} In a review for The Seattle Times, Jordan Snowden praised the novel as "[...] a stunning modern feminist fable that shouldn’t be missed".{{cite news |last1=Snowden |first1=Jordan |title='Nightbitch,' in which a mother slowly turns into a dog, is a dark, howling good fable |url=https://www.seattletimes.com/entertainment/books/nightbitch-in-which-a-mother-slowly-turns-into-a-dog-is-a-dark-howling-good-fable/ |access-date=30 August 2021 |work=The Seattle Times |date=14 July 2021}} In her review of the book for The Guardian, Lara Feigel referred it as "an important contribution to the engagement with motherhood that rightly dominates contemporary feminism".{{cite news |last1=Feigel |first1=Lara |title=Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder review – very wild at heart |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/04/nightbitch-by-rachel-yoder-review-very-wild-at-heart |access-date=31 August 2021 |work=the Guardian |date=4 July 2021 |language=en}} Writing for The Washington Post, Bethanne Patrick describes how "Rachel Yoder’s debut novel, 'Nightbitch,' may feel as if the author stuck her hand into your brain and rummaged around. Yoder has a powerful understanding of the alienation that can set in for stay-at-home mothers and others."{{Cite news|last=Patrick|first=Bethanne|date=July 26, 2021|title=In 'Nightbitch,' a listless mother turns feral|newspaper=The Washington Post|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/nightbitch-rachel-yoder-review/2021/07/26/cfda96ce-ee1e-11eb-81d2-ffae0f931b8f_story.html|access-date=November 8, 2021}} In her review for The New Yorker, Hillary Kelly wrote, "The two predominant strains of maternal commentary in the twenty-first century can be summarized as 'Mothers cannot possibly do all that is asked of them' and 'Mothers are capable of anything.' Each affirms the other: mothers simultaneously cannot live up to both maxims, and they have little choice but to try...Yoder believes both, and neither, and her novel happily occupies a floating realm between them."{{Cite magazine|last=Kelly|first=Hillary|date=July 26, 2021|title=A Novel That Imagines Motherhood as an Animal State|magazine=The New Yorker|url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-novel-that-imagines-motherhood-as-an-animal-state|access-date=November 8, 2021}} Slate's Rebecca Onion had mixed feelings about the novel, noting "There are parts of the book that seem to be trying too hard—I could do without the subplot where the narrator reads a mysterious book about magical women and sends long letters to its author. But as a meditation on the radical evolution parenthood demands, it’s perfect."{{Cite news|last=Onion|first=Rebecca|date=August 4, 2021|title=Mom's Gone Wild|work=Slate|url=https://slate.com/culture/2021/08/nightbitch-rachel-yoder-review-mom-dog-motherhood.html|access-date=November 8, 2021}}

{{Main|Nightbitch (film)}}

A film adaptation starring Amy Adams premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.{{Cite web |last=Debruge |first=Peter |date=2024-09-08 |title='Nightbitch' Review: Amy Adams Ferociously Resists the Changes That Parenthood Imposes in Didactic but Welcome Ode to Moms |url=https://variety.com/2024/film/reviews/nightbitch-review-amy-adams-1236136809/ |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=Variety |language=en-US}} Annapurna Pictures and Searchlight Pictures produced with Marielle Heller as writer-director.{{cite news |last=Lattanzio |first=Ryan |title=Amy Adams to Star as Woman Who Thinks She's Turning into a Dog in Annapurna's 'Nightbitch' |url=https://www.indiewire.com/2020/07/amy-adams-nightbitch-novel-annapurna-1234577220/ |access-date=30 August 2021 |work=IndieWire |date=30 July 2020 |language=en}}

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Category:2021 American novels

Category:American novels adapted into films

Category:Doubleday (publisher) books

Category:Fiction about shapeshifting

Category:Novels about dogs

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