A young woman with no name embarks on a fraught three-way relationship with Matt, a tattoo artist, and his girlfriend Frances, a new mum. She begins to recognise the dark undertow of obsession and jealousy that her presence has created between Matt and Frances, and finds herself balancing on a knife’s edge between pain and pleasure, the promise of the future and the crushing isolation of the present. With stripped-down prose and unflinching clarity, Nash examines madness in the wreckage of love, and the loss of self that accompanies it.
I saw that Animals Eat Each Other by Elle Nash was reccomended to another book blogger who was looking for books about the dark side of sex – Well I was really intrigued by the blurb and concept so I virtually ran over to Amazon to purchase a copy and inhaled it as soon as it arrived. This debut can be bought here, it’s different, unusual and quite possibly one of the great reads of this year!
Animals Eat Each Other is written from the protagonists point of view, she has no name but the name that is given to her by Frances and Matt – this opens up immediately to the thought that the character is lost in a way of she isn’t at all aware of who she is. She doesn’t know her place in the world, but what she does know is that she’s this sexual being, one who is in this stage of self-discovery and experimentation. We’ve all been there. I identified with our protagonist who we come to know as ‘Lilith’ because through the sexual hue, she is a emotionally venerable in a journey searching for direction. Within the pages of this novel, we become to understand the dynamics of this trio, especially the bubbling of obsession that begins to surface and ‘Lilith’s’ human addiction to sex begins to unfold in an all consuming, unflinching way. Animals Eat Each Other is a hard-hitting novella that delves into identity and the facelessness of sexual surrender, a gem that I may not have come across if it wasn’t for the wonders of book Twitter! I loved ‘Lilith’ as a character, her wanting to please, yet at points wriggled with jealousy makes you sympathise with her at times, while also questioning ‘why?’. I haven’t read anything quite like Elle’s debut but I am looking forward to her next book, it’s everything I needed with its darkness, obsession and animalistic themes.
In the words of Lidia Yuknavitch; ‘A desire map, a cartography of Eros. A heartbomb.’
If you’re looking for something different, that will push you to at times uncomfortable limits but have you coming back for more, with a first person narrative that will keep you on your toes, then Animals Eat Each Other is a book for you.
Until next time,
Happy reading!
The Reading Closet 