Motherhood is crazy. It is a wonderful, magical time in a woman’s life. But when a woman is reduced to a machine that just cooks, cleans, and watches after her children without any time for herself or anything to call her own, it can turn her into a real bitch. This happens quite literally in Rachel Yoder’s modern day fairy tale, Nightbitch. A young mother gives up everything to raise her baby, but after a few years she’s feeling lost, lonely, and angry. All of these feelings begin to overwhelm her, and she starts to think she’s turning into a dog. Does the secret to happiness lay in giving in to these feelings, and does that make her a better mother or a monster?
[Warning: My review of Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder contains some spoilers!]
Nightbitch is a weird modern fairy tale
Nightbitch is a dive into the darker side of motherhood with a magical twist. The main character, a mother who is only identified by the name “Nightbitch” is struggling with motherhood. Prior to being a mom she was an artist and curator at a museum. After she had her baby she tried daycare but was disillusioned with the experience. Unable to deal with leaving her baby with strangers, the mother decides to quit her job and stay home with her baby.
Unfortunately being a stay-at-home mom doesn’t live up to her expectations either. The mother basically sleepwalks through her days, doing the bare minimum to take care of her home and her baby. Inside she is resentful and angry. She has no time for herself or to do anything that she used to enjoy.
Stressed, exhausted, and alone, she discovers a small patch of dark hair on her neck one day. And are her teeth getting pointier? She’s sure that she has more hair on her body. And then something resembling a tail appears. But her husband brushes off her fears. In fact, he disregards all of her feelings when she tries to share them. Just choose happiness, he tells her. As if it’s that easy.
One night it all comes to a head. She lets her anger out. Her husband tells her she was a bitch and her new persona is born. From that point on, she is Nightbitch. And then things get weird. Nightbitch falls deeper into her doggie fantasy and drags her son in as well. Will giving into her savage side make Nightbitch’s life better, or is she just sliding into insanity? Nightbitch doesn’t know, but she no longer cares either.
An odd combination of relatable and alien
Nightbitch sounded like a funny, enjoyable story that would take a real look at the unspoken side of motherhood. As a former stay-at-home mom, I was really excited to get another’s perspective on something that I found isolating myself at times. And while it’s true that I did see some emotions and situations that I recognized in Nightbitch, I didn’t really relate to the character.
The author’s choice to only refer to the main character as “the mother” and “Nightbitch” while narrating in the third person kept me from feeling close to the main character. It was also weird how her son was only referred to as “the son” and her husband as “the husband”. There was no personalization to the story. I think that Yoder made this choice to keep the story open. Nightbitch isn’t a particular person, she’s every woman. But it had the opposite effect on me. I couldn’t feel much sympathy for her or get close to her because she was too anonymous and vague.
That said, I did recognize many of her frustrations and feelings. And I can understand some of her desires. But at the same time, I found her whiny. She didn’t like choice A, and she didn’t like choice B. She wanted everything handed to her without sacrifice. Every choice we make in life has tradeoffs.
There are positives and negatives to every path. But once you pick a path, don’t sit and moan about it. Occasionally letting off steam, sure. It’s okay to complain about a specific problem or ask for help and support. But the way she spirals and is dissatisfied with everything is offputting. And the way she eventually deals with things is both disturbing and selfish. Instead of celebrating motherhood and the different choices mothers make, Nightbitch came across as a 200 plus page Karen-esque rant.
Nightbitch is an Exploration of Woman Empowerment
Nightbitch: a ho-hum book, but check out the movie
Nightbitch has an interesting story at its heart and now that story has been turned into a movie. Amy Adams stars as the main character in Nightbitch which released in theaters on December 6th. Now, as you can guess, I wasn’t all that impressed with the novel, but I did think that it had an interesting story hidden within it. Depending on what direction the director took the movie in, it even has the potential to be a hilarious horror/comedy.
I am more excited about the movie than I usually am about book adaptations. Usually, I’m disappointed when great writing is badly translated to the big screen. But this time a good story was hidden by a bad writing style, and I’m hoping that the translation will make the mother a more relatable and compelling character.
As I said above, Nightbitch has a very relatable subject that many mothers can understand. What’s more, we don’t talk about the feelings and situations that this story deals with enough. However, Yoder doesn’t talk about them in a very relatable way. Unfortunately, I don’t really recommend the book. This is one of the very rare times when you’ll hear me say, skip the book and just go see the movie.
My rating for this book: 6/10
Nightbitch starring Amy Adams is now in theaters, and if you want to explore the story that inspired it, Rachel Yoder’s novel is available most places books are sold.
Wicked Part 1: A Triumph of Musical Adaptation
No One Working on Challengers Knew Anything About Tennis
