Animal is a searingly dark book. Lisa Taddeo takes you into the dark heart of what trauma does to a woman. All of those ‘tiny little rapes’ and things that happen that build up to the pure rage of a woman. It is so refreshing to have a writer who writes about women to unapologetically, and who writes about their anger and rage. Even if the character is one who makes bad life decisions. Yet Taddeo writes the story so perfectly that she unwraps the psychology of her character and how she came to be who she is with precision. You don’t need to like female characters.
Taddeo is so brave and writes with no filter. It is how all writing should be done, of course. That makes the writer no less brave for putting a story out there. There was never any doubt that Animal was going to be one of the books of 2021. But beware, before you read it: brace yourself. You will not be able to forget it.
This is the first novel from the author of Three Women which was a global phenomenon.
I drove myself out of New York City where a man shot himself in front of me. He was a gluttonous man and when his blood came out it looked like the blood of a pig.
That’s a cruel thing to think, I know. He did it in a restaurant where I was having dinner with another man, another married man.
Do you see how this is going? But I wasn’t always that way.
I am depraved. I hope you like me.
MEET JOAN: 24th June 2021.