I find Lisa Taddeo a visceral author. I feel as if she writes what comes to mind and doesn't go back to edit; you get the raw form of her thoughts and that is all. I love that about her writing. Too often I find that some books are super polished where it's clear the author and editor has gone back a million times to make the book read like a glossy piece of literature.

I read Three Women and felt it was a breath of fresh air. I feel exactly the same about Animal. Lisa Taddeo has a way of writing about ordinary people doing things that "heroines" don't usually do - her characters are flawed and written so well that every character she writes about conjures in my mind someone that I either know, or have passing knowledge of in my personal life.

I was deep, deep into this book and found myself thinking about it all the time. It took over every spare moment of time I had, I would read it during my lunchbreaks, after work, when I was having a bath, when I was travelling in a car and I flew through it.

4/5

Well that was dark, shocking and at times upsetting but I couldn’t stop reading! I had to find out why Joan, our main character, was acting and thinking the way she was. What had happened in her life and what was she going to do next?!

It’s quite a hard book to review because I wouldn’t say I ‘enjoyed’ it in the typical sense as it was so sad and horrifying at times. It doesn’t fall into a specific genre and I’m also finding it difficult to review without giving away any spoilers. I will say that has many triggers for people so would not recommend to readers who would be sensitive to bad language, rape, sexual abuse, drug abuse and graphic detail.

Thank you to #NetGalley for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review. #Animal #LisaTaddeo

This is not a book for the faint hearted. Savagely dark and despairing there is nothing bright or escapist about this story. But it is brilliant. Our protagonist Joan isn't afraid to confront her innermost demons, and confront the most uncomfortable of truths that others would shy away from.

Alluding throughout to horror from her childhood, Joan is complex - without a doubt, extremely damaged - and in her own words, depraved. And yet, she is engaging and brave in her honesty.

Escaping New York when she witnesses her lover shoot himself, she is trying to connect with Alice, who we suspect is someone close to her. In telling Alice her story, Joan is forced 'to look at myself, at the way I craved the love of men who would never love me'. Filled with these snippets of startling self awareness, I am in awe of the brilliance of the writing in Animal.

This is a book that deserves no spoilers to be revealed so I can't speak too much of the plot. But I will say, if you enjoy a thought provoking book with a very definite dark edge, you will not be disappointed.

NB: there are potential triggers in this book so most certainly one to read with caution for those who may have experienced sexual abuse/assault/miscarriage.

This book is dark, disturbing, messed up..... my kind of read!! It's a book that will shock and horrify and just when you think things can't get any darker, you'll be proved wrong!!

Joan is the woman at the centre of this story and she is no normal young woman! She isn't a girls girl, and knows exactly how to use men -she prefers the married kind! - and her sociopathic personality allows her to distance herself from any kind of empathy. And you wonder just how she got to be like this - the more we hear of her story, the more it all begins to make sense, but doesn't excuse how she has turned out. Even she acknowledges her 'depraved' attitude to life. But she knows no different....

When she sees a lover kill himself in front of her in a restaurant, it begins a new journey in her life as she looks to leave that life behind, in search of the next chapter/victim! But she keeps looking back over her life - her childhood, the relationships, sexual experiences - mainly to explain herself and justify her actions.

She has an extremely cynical outlook on life, and is always making assumptions. The one thing that keeps her focus is 'Alice', a name she has been tracking for many years and you soon learn the relevance of this character in her life. For someone who shies away from female friendships, you wonder just how she will approach this woman when she tracks her down.

The language is brutal, as are the sexual exploits of Joan, but that just goes along with the ferocity of this story. It's dark, it is damaged and to the extremes. For Joan, sex is to be used, not enjoyed, and you fear for her sanity at times with the levels she is willing to sink to. It explores the actions of the 'other woman' and how she deals, or doesn't!, when faced with the consequences and repercussions of decisions she has made.

She is not a character that will endear herself to the reader with many of her actions, but it's an extraordinary book and story so brilliantly portrayed and executed.

I’m not really sure how I feel about this book, which is probably something to be said in its favour.
Joan, the protagonist, is a woman fading towards maturity whose obsession with sex and how to manipulate through desire is entirely generated by a patriarchal society that exposed her to sexual trauma as a child and continues to repeatedly expose her to sexual trauma, sometimes at her own behest as a painful and self-harming attempt to take control.
Joan is on a mission. She is going to find the one person left to whom she fully relates, but this picking up and running to a new life is not something new for her. Slowly, we learn what she seeks and why.
She isn’t a nice character - not that she should be, I hasten to add. She is the kind of woman who feels awkward around other women because she imagines they see her in the way that she sees them, as competition.
The book begins with a description of a man - her ex-lover - blowing his brains out in front of her at a restaurant where is having dinner with ‘another married man’. As she herself writes ‘Do you see how this is going?’. But who is this ‘you’ to whom she addresses her story?
This isn’t an easy book, or a ‘nice’ book, but it is interesting and compelling in a rather gruesome way. It is a graphic account of some of the worst sides of our society’s greed and desire. It is one character’s attempt at finding a way out and it certainly won’t appeal to everyone. It’s like one of those indie films filled with misogynist, graphic and objectifying violence that divides the critics. I remain unsure about the book because it feels like it questions and perpetuates the problem all at the same time… You’ll have to read it and tell me what I ought to have noticed!
I haven’t read Three Women, Lisa Taddeo’s non-fiction but this, her debut novel, has made me want to read it.

This book blew me away in more ways than one. This book is very dark in nature and includes a very complex main character - Joan. There are just so many plot twists in this novel that I never failed to be shocked by what was happening next. It definitely had a very forceful impact upon me.

One of the best novels I've read this year, and the most heart-breaking; well-written and thought-provoking, Taddeo's "Animal" explores the sex lives of three American women in a both delicate and raw manner.

I thought I would try this book for a change as it is out of my normal choices. It was certainly different and though provoking. I did enjoy it and felt the writer definately made me feel for the main character.

This was okay but I much preferred Three Women which I thought was far more nuanced. The description of Animal promises filth and depravity but all this really amounts to is the MC having sex with lots of different people and doesn’t get any wilder than that. I also felt like Taddeo wrote about women the way men do - lots of descriptions about breasts, most cliche and none very interesting.

These are the opening lines from our narrator, Joan, a thirty-something year-old woman who flees shortly after this scene, to California in search of a yoga instructor named Alice. Throughout the novel we're given insights into Joan's past, from her childhood, youth, and the present, explicitly the relationship she's had with various men. Characters Joan meets in California provoke Joan to think back on these memories where we piece together how she got into the position she's in now.

We're questioning several things throughout the novel; who is Alice? What is the unspeakable childhood event that caused Joan such trauma? Who is Joan addressing in second person? And, what is the secret nurtured by Joan's aging and wealthy landlord? Does he hold something that we don't know about Joan?

Thankfully, all of these questions are answered, and although I wasn't always surprised by the outcome, Taddeo's execution is nothing short of brilliant. Although she doesn't hold back on detail, this is clearly a testament to her power of observation that I loved so much about her non-fiction title Three Women.

Joan is the core of every page, and is one of the most captivating characters I have ever read. Her traumatic past makes her a seemingly-sympathetic victim, but at times she can be entirely unlikeable. She's vulnerable, blunt, and honest. At times you feel like you want to wash your hands of her, whilst simultaneously you're rooting for her too. Taddeo takes a punch to your gut with every revelation we're told of Joan's story, revealing to us all that Joan has endured from the men in her life, and the fierce fight in her.

This novel won't be for everyone and it certainly won't be a novel I will forget. For some it could be triggering. Taddeo has given us a novel about the insidious nature of rape culture and the violence inflicted upon women by men. I was captivated by Joan from the start, her story, so much so she almost felt real. She represents what so many women across the world have endured, and what they may not have spoken about to anyone. Although I thankfully can't relate to Joan on most of what she experiences, I can in terms of how I have been treated by some men in the past, and recognising how problematic it was even if I didn't realise it at the time.

I thoroughly enjoy Taddeo's writing and how brilliantly she can tell a story. Animal is a novel I won't forget, and its certainly one that I will be putting in the hands of everyone I know, both women and men.

I am a HUGE fan of Lisa Taddeo's writing. I devoured Three Women and she became my favourite author. I was flabbergasted when I got the chance to read Animal via NetGalley and I believe that this is a must read for people who enjoy the amazing talent that is Lisa Taddeo.

We meet our main character, Joan. What a person Joan is to read about, I somewhat liked her character and really felt deeply for this lost woman. From the get-go we have Joan who witnesses a suicide right in front of her - this person is her lover who she is currently having an affair with. How devastating for Joan this must be but it does transpire that Joan has had a life that makes for very INTERESTING reading. Joan leaves her life in search of the mysterious Alice who she has known previously.

Writing this review it is quite difficult to explain the premise of the novel but it is dark, grisly and a haunting read. A moving and compelling read that is an amazing and astounding novel to read.

Thanks to NetGalley, Lisa Taddeo and the publishers for allowing me a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My favourite book of 2021. I couldn't put down this blistering, atmospheric novel. With a difficult narrator who has travelled to LA with her parents ashes to try to solve some issues from her past and present. But what she sets out to escape follows her in the form of the daughter of the man she had an affair with.

My favourite thing about Taddeo's writing is brutal, raw, honesty of her depiction of what it is to be a woman now and our experiences of the world and how we handle women who don't "behave".

I wasn't the biggest fan of Taddeo's previous book - I felt it was too voyeuristic and not diverse, but Animal will stay with me for many, many years. It's up there with My Dark Vanessa in that it made me hugely consider what we mean by our experiences as women and how they connect us.

Love, hate, loss, sexual assault, toxic masculinity, victim, survivor, revenge, and looking for love in all the wrong places: "You can't unlove someone, you can only hate them"...
Interesting characters, interesting concept

Unusual, addictive and quite unique. Joan is running away from New York. She is full of self-loathing and poor self esteem. Bad luck seems to have followed her whole life, she definitely holds some tragic secrets and she despises some of the things she has done, taking all the responsibility and none of the pity that she deserves. She is in Los Angeles with a purpose - there is someone she needs to find and hopes to confront. But bad luck continues to follow her - and worse, she seems to think she deserves it.

The story was so unusual and unpredictable, it was hard to predict what direction it would take. The format was also novel, with the writing style inviting you in as if this was a diary or a letter. Joan sleeps around, spends money she doesn't have, steals and yet we cant dislike her. We know instinctively she is complicated and layered and that there is also kindness in her. We compulsively need to understand why she hates herself and why she is so self-destructive. A stunningly, unique voice that knows have to draw you in and keep you entranced.

Lisa Taddeo’s breakout book Three Women documented confessional conversations with a trio of real women: similarly this novel, Taddeo’s first, shines most in the therapy-like sections where narrator Joan talks through her past trauma with Alice, the woman she’s come to the desert to find. These sections of story perfectly capture that exhausting tension and freeing release when someone other than you flips accepted truths on their head: like when opticians slide new lenses into test frames and suddenly everything snaps into clear focus. Animal is, as the title suggests, a wild thing: violent, visceral, beautiful and deadly, like a captive wildcat just waiting for you to slip up with the door of their cage. ‘I felt sick with myself and, at the same time, unburdened,” Joan says after one conversation with Alice. ‘I thought I’d been honest with myself. But I hadn’t. I’d been telling myself ghost stories my whole life.” Joan’s obsessions with sex, with herself, with destructive behaviour patterns – all start to make narrative sense as we learn more about her past: the grim resolution looms in the book’s periphery, circling the narrative like the coyotes which haunt the hills outside Joan’s rented desert house. The stories Joan shares are difficult to hear and sometimes deeply upsetting, yet Taddeo’s skilful stylistic flourishes make it impossible to look away: a hard but insight-packed read.

Featured in the July issue of Cambridge Edition Magazine

Animal is raw, uncompromising and at times slightly uncomfortable to read. As you get to know Joan and discover more of her childhood you find out the things that have made her, you feel compassion for her as she has experienced so much at a young age but you also realise that she has made certain decisions and realises the consequences of them. The ending took a couple of reads for it to fall in to place.

Animal is not for everyone, but if you love it you LOVE it.

I was given a copy of Animal by NetGalley and the publishers in return for an unbiased review.

Lisa Taddeo explores the impact of an early exposure to sex (rape) on the narrator and the skewed attitude to self and relationships that developed from it. On one hand Joan is empowered by her sex appeal and the material things that it can bring her, but all her relationships follow an almost father/daughter dynamic of being 'cared for'. When she truly develops an emotional attachment to a man that goes beyond the physical she is ultimately left abandoned and unable to process her emotions. Animal is therefore a hard book to read as you feel both sympathy and loathing for Joan as she journeys through life as both the aggressor and the aggrieved. Perhaps this dichotomy is what makes the novel ring true conveying a modern portrayal of relationships in all their complexities. There are no apologies for behaviour, no judgment and for this Taddeo should be applauded and Joan undoubtedly remembered by the reader.

As a hopeful writer, I hope to one day write a book that will affect my readers as much as Animal did me. Admittedly, it is not everyone's cup of tea and I can understand the mixed opinions. However, the complex characters and dark story is what kept me hooked.

She really is, Joan, is depraved. This is a wickedly nasty book that will leave you stripped bare with a feeling of emptiness. It is very controversial and covers some very dark issues (WARNING: Grief, violence, murder, sexual assault and miscarriage to name a few - it’s not for the faint of heart) so brace yourself for a bumpy and at times disturbing read. It’s certainly a challenging book and pushes the reader up front into some uncomfortable and graphic descriptions about life’s bleaker side. Alice, Lenny, Eleanor are all colourful characters that add to the subtle charm of the book which is as horrifying as it is emotional. It’s the kind of book that somewhere in your mind you don’t think you should read but you can’t tear yourself away from. Hearing Joan’s chaotic life story validates her cold and bleak persona and you can’t help but get drawn into her twisted world.

I set about reading Animal with a definite feeling of trepidation, unsure as I was whether or not it would be my cup of tea, and also about the mixed reviews. Joan has endured a few traumatic relationships. When she witnesses one of the men in her life commit a violent act, she flees from New York City. She goes to Los Angeles, in search of the one person she knows that can help her overcome her past, her half-sister Alice, even though they have never met before.

Lisa Taddeo tells a tale of pain, revenge, and self-empowerment, amongst many other things. As a new life begins for Joan, she decides she will be mistreated no more, and the story's unravelling reveals to the reader how Joan arrived at this juncture in her thirty-odd years. A hard-hitting, incredibly dark, compulsive read that I found fascinating.

I received a complimentary copy of this novel at my request from Bloomsbury Publishing/ Circus via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.