Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder review – very wild at heart

A stay-at-home mother gives in to her animal instincts in this skilful and imaginative debut novel

Lara Feigel
Sunday 4 July 2021

Giving birth is the closest many of us come to being an outright animal. We crouch on all fours, dripping and howling, and, if it goes well, we are aided by instincts we didn’t know we had to push a snuffling, bloody creature into the world. Yet immediately, we are expected to give up on this new animality and return to society, whether it comes in the guise of work and childcare or maternity leave and baby massage classes. What if we refuse to do so?