Nightbitch

Nightbitch is a debut novel by American writer Rachel Yoder (2021). In it, a frustrated stay-at home mother of a two-year-old becomes concerned that she is turning into a dog. Finding a mysterious book about mythical women, Nightbitch then encounters three dogs on her lawn who take off her clothes and leave dead animals outside her house. This leads Nightbitch to start identifying as a dog and becoming happier as a mother. Meeting two old art school friends though shatters this joy, as she recalls giving up her own art career because of her child. However, this crisis also causes Nightbitch to see that she can express her frustrations as a mother in performance art. In a performance art piece, described at the end, Nightbitch is a dog on stage, killing rabbits and stalking the audience, showing both the primal power of motherhood and how it can be reconciled with art.

This guide uses the following edition of the text: Nightbitch. London: Vintage. 2022.

Content Warning: Nightbitch depicts a character killing their cat.

Plot Summary

Nightbitch is divided into 54 short and unnumbered chapters, marked by small breaks in the text, and by starting the following chapter in capitals. For the purposes of clarity, this guide has numbered these chapters chronologically.