Animal

Animal

Lisa Taddeo

Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

2 ratings • 2 reviews

Honestly, sometimes I think it’s the only recourse. Killing men in times like these.Joan has spent a lifetime enduring the cruel acts of men. But when one of them commits a shocking act of violence in front of her, she flees New York City in search of Alice, the only person alive who can help her make sense of her past. In the sweltering hills above Los Angeles, Joan unravels the horrific event she witnessed as a child—that has haunted her every waking moment—while forging the power to finally strike back. Here is the electrifying debut novel from Lisa Taddeo, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Three Women, which was named to more than thirty best-of-the-year lists and hailed as “a dazzling achievement” (Los Angeles Times) and “a heartbreaking, gripping, astonishing masterpiece” (Esquire). Animal is a depiction of female rage at its rawest, and a visceral exploration of the fallout from a male-dominated society. With writing that scorches and mesmerizes, Taddeo illustrates one woman’s exhilarating transformation from prey into predator.


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  • Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    “I am depraved”. Yes, yes you are Joan. Yuck.

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  • Enjoyment: Quality: Characters: Plot:

    okay okay so I definitely "get it" - the common horrors women endure, the feminist rage that builds up and bursts from a lifetime of both subtle and overt cruelties of men, the ensuing complex female relationships and mother/daughter dynamics where we simultaneously hate and cant live without one another.
    This was definitely well written, with some amazing one-liners, and there were blips where I felt totally pulled into the story. Other times I was like "wait where are we, what are we doing, why is this important" - punctuated by r@pe (!?) every 10 pages. I don't shy away from a good trigger warning but my god it was a welch's jelly factory with the amount of grape in this shit.
    Many parts felt like they were added for the shock factor which cheapened the overall experience and message. And for as literary and highbrow-unhinged as this was, we never got a satisfying explanation for Joan's hyper-sexuality. And the ending!? Left field.

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