I just really wanted to read this title directly after 'Animal Farm'. haha. But I'm glad I did! I love a good set of short stories, which is what we have here. All from the female perspective (not so much only wives), but usually tied to animals in some way. Some of these stories are only a page long. Most of these stories are great. My favorite: 'The Vanishing Point'. I have always thought most Sasquatch sightings could simply be a person pretending to be a Sasquatch, in a suit of hair. 'The Vanishing Point' takes this concept but applies it to deer, rather than Bigfoot. The story is about a woman who invents an elaborate, uncomfortable deer suit to wear in the woods around her childhood home, to connect with another deer with a damaged back leg she saw as a child. But all of the stories here are rich with wonderful detail. 'Beware the Undertoad' in which a girl visits her grandmother every summer by the sea. 'Burn Rubber' about a bailing mother living in her car, yet haunting her daughter's elementary school. I love the two stories bookending the collection, which offers a daughter missing her feathery mother and the last story explaining what happened to the mother from her perspective. This collection is full of life, spirit, spunk. And that cover! Perfection! Excited to see Ehrlich's next book!
Set this on the shelf beside:
Sharma Shields
Karen Russell
Chouette - Claire Oshetsky
Nightbitch - Rachel Yoder ( )

Lara Ehrlich's collection Animal Wife is a collection of raw and dangerous, in the best way possible, stories of women. Women on the edge, at the brink, transformed and contending. Contending with everything.

Epic and hilarious and unflinching. Animal Wife is a rewarding collection of strange tales. ( )