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The Facts

• Published: 2021
• Original language: English
• Genre: Psychological thriller, fiction
• Number of pages: 321

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‍The Gist

“I drove myself out of New York City where a man shot himself in front of me.”

So begins Joan’s rage-filled story, a 34 year-old woman with a deeply disturbed, hyper sexualized, primitive, and extremely crude outlook on life. She’s the kind of woman who perceives women as enemies and, depending on the day, perceives men as either pieces of meat or the key to her salvation. She has led an interesting life, to say the least, and in the very first page of the book she reveals that a man has just killed himself in front of her and her date. This traumatizing experience sends her fleeing to Topanga Canyon, California in the hopes of finding Alice, a yoga instructor who seems to hold some answers about her traumatizing childhood. SPOILER ALERT: we later realize she’s Joan’s sister, a product of her father’s extra-marital affair and the reason why Joan’s parents die. 

Animal is a difficult novel to describe without giving it all away, as it takes a couple of chapters into the novel to understand where the whole plot is going. But Joan’s raw, funny, unflinchingly-honest voice is the perfect ship for this heavy load, because even though the reader isn’t sure where the story’s going, listening to Joan is nothing short of hypnotizing. She’s an irresistibly fascinating woman. What’s also interesting is Taddeo’s portrayal of the “other woman” trope, one we don’t find frequently and is often stereotypified into the seducer/temptress. 

“A dark death thing happened to me when I was a child. I will tell you all about it, but first I want to tell what followed the evening that changed the course of my life. I’ll do it this way so that you may withhold your sympathy. Or maybe you won’t have any sympathy at all. That’s fine with me. What’s more important is dispelling several misconceptions— about women, mostly.”

Animal is narrated in first person by Joan, and the story travels back and forth in time through sporadic flashbacks in order to present various mysteries: who’s Alice? What happened to Joan? Who’s the man who killed himself in front of Joan and her date, and why did he do it? Who is Joan addressing while she tells her story? While none of the answers come in a shocking manner, Tadeo’s delivery of each piece of information paints the perfect portrait of what rage and perversion truly look like. Moreover, what truly makes Joan’s story so irresistible is that, despite the fact that she’s not a good person, the constant back-and-forth between being the victim or the perpetrator is what makes her an entirely too relatable character. She’s a horrible person, yes, but why? Is it justified? Who hurt her first?

“He was picking a pimple on his chin and staring at me. There are a hundred such small rapes a day.” 

This book can be many things, but it’s definitely never boring. Taddeo teaches the reader how to find beauty in the most terrible things through Joan’s outlandish tale of madness, where heartwarming memories are always intermingled with the sour taste of a heartbreak. There are many reasons why I raced through this book: the writing, Joan’s voice, the plot itself. But I think one of my favorite things about this beautiful/horrendous story is how there’s always hope in the bleakest of moments. SPOILER ALERT: At the end of the book, we find out she has been narrating the story to her newborn daughter, which completely changed my perspective about the book. While her relationship with women and womanhood itself was torn apart by her mother’s representation of the feminine/wife/mother-figure, it seems Joan is beginning to make amends with womanhood through the birth of her own daughter. While Joan’s story is hard to swallow, there is always a light at the end of the tunnel. 

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‍The Themes

• Sexuality
• Trauma
• Motherhood/Fatherhood
• Control
• Abuse
• Beauty
• Microaggresions
• Femininity 
• Rivalry
• The cycle of hate
• Repressed desire vs un-inhibited desire

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The Motifs

• Coyotes
• Food (fine dining vs. fast food)
• Blood
• Childbirth

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The Author

Lisa Taddeo made her debut with Three Women in 2019, a non-fiction book about the sexual/emotional lives of three women of different backgrounds. The book won the British Book Award for narrative non-fiction book of the year, and ver since then Taddeo has been breaking uncharted territories concerning the female experience.

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If you like this, read this:

• My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh
• The Rules Do Not Apply by Ariel Levy
• Adele by Leila Sliming
• The Little Virtues by Natalia Ginzburg
• Dry Heart by Natalia Ginzburg
• Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
• Eileen by Ottessa Moshfegh

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If you like this, listen to these:

• Fiona Apple
• Halsey
• Alanis Morissette
• K. Flay
• Joan Jett & the Blackhearts
• Wolf Alice
• The Runaways

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If you like this, watch this:

• Gone Girl 
• Paris, Texas
• A Simple Favor
• Nocturnal Animals
• Fight Club
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• To Die For
• Girl, Interrupted

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