Animal: A Novel

Truly one of the best books I’ve ever read. It does such a great job of depicting the casual, entitled way men commit quiet and not so quiet acts of emotional and physical violence against women. The author shifts back and forth between different points in Joan’s life where she endured heartbreaking trauma and was treated like collateral damage by men who saw her as a sexual object and not a woman worthy of real love or commitment. It’s a must-read for any woman who has ever felt disposable. Lisa Taddeo’s style of writing is haunting and beautiful. She’s like a more talented Chuck Palahniuk.

Joan is a survivor, and I love the self described “depraved” woman. Lisa Taddeo is a talented writer. I do wonder if the last quarter of the book was a little rushed, but it was still well written and engrossing. Three Women seemed more polished, but Animal does not disappoint. You won’t want to put it down.

This is not an easy book to read, and once read you might question if it was worth it. Lisa Taddeo's first novel tells a disturbing story of Joan, a convoluted character who in a first-person account reveals herself to us in a sardonic toned, cryptic memoir of a lost soul, caught in the prison of her own life. Joan's deep-rooted problems began in her privileged first ten years, until the sudden death of her parents, thrusting her into a cruel and unforgiving world where her traumatic past and unwise choices forces her to live two simultaneous lives: the superficial one she needs to survive in New York’s tumultuous social zoo and the one inside her filled with rage, insecurities, and mistrust. Joan’s provocative narrative is highly emotional and sensual, hence the likely source of the book’s tile, “Animal,” a vengeful diatribe that at first is aggressively and justifiably misandrist; however, a more subtle and passive-aggressive misogynist theme also emerges. Joan is a difficult character to like amid her fleeing from her past in New York to search for answers in the strange world of Los Angeles, specifically in the counter-culture area of Topanga Canyon to seek out the mysterious Alice for answers. Her life is a hodgepodge of seemingly unrelated and unplanned experiences as her darker, horrific motives and manipulate skills begin to emerge, revealing her past and her ultimate and unimaginable intentions. This psychological drama is not for the faint of heart, nor to those easily offended by coarse language and explicit sexual descriptions. Although the story made more sense in the last chapters, the torturous journey to get there seemed too long and arduous, purposely drawn out to inflict the most reader pain. My greatest disappointments with this book were its faux literary promotional promises and the author’s intentional deployment of shocking elements that corrupted the value of a potentially more important storyline. I felt abused rather than enlightened too many storytelling gimmicks. I understand that others might enjoy this dysfunctional reading experience, but I did not! Audible’s reading narration only intensified the story’s shortcomings, while intensifying obsessions of several broken women, lost in the tragedies of their own sad lives. I was hoping for more from a talented author and this missed opportunity.

Honestly this book lived up to the hype for me settling in at a solid 4.5/5. If you go in with the expectation that it will be a very slow burn you’ll enjoy it. Honestly it took me longer to read than I thought, and it is slow moving but the things this book does well is the stream of consciousness in form of a letter/almost manifesto/memoir from the main character. The reveals are slowly peeled back layer by layer and I thought the commentary on victims and love and self-fulfillment were interesting. There were definitely some witty lines that held truth and brought dark levity to the book. Totally different type of story than I’m used to but I thought it was interesting, which is saying a lot considering most of the characters are set up to be inherently dislikable.

This book. Wow. Just... woah. I loved Taddeo's ​"Three Women" and purposely didn't read too much about "Animal" before starting it. I have so many mixed emotions about this book but... I loved it and feel uncomfortable that I loved it. Right off the top I have to say that I'm in awe of how Lisa Taddeo writes. Her descriptions of things that could be simple and mundane are so genius. Her sentences almost feel truncated like a punch landing right at your face without a wasted word or syllable. Reading this to me felt like I was high at an underground fight club but it's like... a poetry slam battle or something. There should be trigger/content warnings for the trigger warnings in this book. I mean, it's literally the book of all triggers. It's an extremely intense read. At first I didn't know if I could stomach it, and then I realized that it was because I didn't know if I could deal with the material that I SHOULD press on. This is not the book for everyone, but for those who walk through the fire, it's absolutely worth it. It's about about trauma and grief and anger and love... I also knew that the feelings I was having as the reader are the exact things that I should be experiencing along with the protagonist. It's not often that I feel almost assaulted by a book and by words, but this book just kept stabbing me in the gut and I kept going back for more. By the end while I didn't agree with Joan (the main character)'s actions throughout the book, I did understand them. I found myself unpacking so much of my own emotions about our experience in the world as women, my life, the patriarchal society that we are all enslaved by to a certain extent, and well... just so much more. This book challenged me in so many ways and even though I wasn’t fully prepared for the experience, I’m very glad that I ventured into its pages.

nice book!!

Un peu répétitif parfois, je me suis ennuyée par moment mais très bien écrit. Belles descriptions, on saisi parfaitement chaque caractéristiques et l'énergie des personnages. Bonne lecture

I loved 'Three Women' by Lisa Taddeo, and deliberately didn't read much about 'Animal' to let it surprise me. The storyline and writing style are definitely chaotic, but that chaos mirrors Joan's emotional and mental state. And somehow in that raw depiction of very human, painful experiences, you get sucked in. You have moments where you whince, or feel disgusted by the storyline and yet, like a voyeur, you just can't bring yourself to stop reading. And in that sense, I think the book is a real success i.e. a read you can't put down, and a storyline that cannot leave you without opinions - regardless whether good or bad. Well done, Lisa Taddeo: a psychological masterpiece.

Perhaps this book could've approached masterpiece status with a few more drafts but as it is it's disjointed and ultimately rather aimless read. Some of the passages are truly stunning and keep me reading for more rewards of insights into relationships, the way women think and interact both with men and their female friends. Worth reading but not recommended.

I think the book I received is a copycat of the book and not an original copy. The paper used is of poor quality as well. I looked at the original book online and it looks different. Very disappointed!

Fair