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17 books to read if you watched ‘Nightbitch’
Want to sink your teeth into stories that unsettle and transform? Local booksellers share their recommendations for fans of the book-to-screen adaptation, starring Amy Adams.
If you watched “Nightbitch,” the darkly comedic and unsettling film starring Amy Adams as a young mother who begins to suspect she is turning into a dog, you might have found yourself gripped by its remarkable mixture of body horror, psychological unraveling, and unashamed female rage.
The movie, based on the magical realism-style novel of the same name by Rachel Yoder, chronicles the increasingly bizarre transformation of a suburban stay-at-home mother whose life takes a surreal turn when her maternal instincts begin to manifest in canine form.
The adaptation packs an emotional punch while subtly critiquing the pressures placed on women – and particularly, on mothers. It’s both deeply unsettling and darkly funny, balancing its moments of grotesque absurdity with poignant reflections on the complexities of motherhood and selfhood.
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If the film left you craving more narratives that blend the strange with the deeply personal – stories that explore the intersection of self-identity, bodily transformation, and psychological exploration – there’s a whole world of literature that captures that same eerie, enthralling energy.
To help guide your next literary adventure, Boston.com reached out to two booksellers for their recommendations: Caroline Sheridan, owner of Side Quest Books and Games, a fantasy-inspired shop for books and indie role-playing games centering underrepresented creators; and Ryan Clark, the horror bookseller and marketing manager at Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, New Hampshire.
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Whether it’s through surreal stories of women facing the unknown in their own bodies, or narratives that unearth the hidden darkness in everyday lives, these books are sure to keep you on your toes – er, paws?
Ready to sink your teeth into stories that unsettle and transform, just like “Nightbitch”? Explore Sheridan and Clark’s recommendations below.
Use the dropdown menu at the upper left to filter the books by genre. Hover or click on the covers to see the book’s genre and themes, as well as a short review from the booksellers themselves.
| Book | Genre | Themes | Review |
|---|---|---|---|
| “Animal” by Lisa Taddeo | Literary Fiction | Feminine Rage | “If you’re looking for something in the literary fiction vein that still explores feminine rage, ‘Animal’ by Lisa Taddeo might be the one for you. ‘Animal’ is a wild ride of unspeakable horrors, feminine rage, and one woman’s cathartic transformation. The writing is brilliant, and the story is savage.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
| “Apartment Women” by Gu Byeong-mo | Literary Fiction | Women, Friendship | “When Yojin and her family move into an experimental commune outside Seoul, she commits to having two more children in the next ten years. But the more she learns about her community, the more uneasy she becomes about the place she now calls home. Apartment Women takes an unblinking look at community dynamics around parenting in general, and the expected labor of motherhood in particular.” – Caroline Sheridan, Side Quest Books and Games |
| “Baby Teeth” by Zoje Stage | Horror | Motherhood, Evil Child | “Want to explore the difficulties of parenting through a more prominent horror lens? Check out ‘Baby Teeth’ by Zoje Stage! Motherhood is already hard, but what if your kid was actually evil? ‘Baby Teeth’ takes all of your motherhood anxieties and cranks them to eleven in this novel that is told in dual point-of-view between Suzette, who loves – and fears – her daughter, and Hanna, the seven year old who might just do whatever it takes to get her mother out of her way.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
| “Motherhood” by Sheila Heti | Literary Fiction | Feminism, Motherhood, Women | “An incisive and expansive look into the life of a woman who goes on a journey of enlightenment to answer the question of if, not when, will she become a mother? For those who watched ‘Nightbitch’ and wondered if this whole motherhood thing is really a thing they want to do at all.” – Caroline Sheridan, Side Quest Books and Games |
| “Nightbitch” by Rachel Yoder | Literary Fiction | Motherhood, Feminine Rage, Unreliable Narrator | “I always recommend reading the source material if you have the chance! This novel swung for the fences, playing in the horror and fairy tale spaces while still appealing widely to readers of literary fiction, and it was wildly successful in that. Tapping into parental anxieties, the physical transformation of childbirth, and feminine rage, this book is darkly funny, surreal, and perhaps a bit cathartic.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
| “Sister Snake” by Amanda Lee Koe | Literary Fiction | Magical Realism, Feminism, AAPI | “A contemporary retelling of Chinese folktale ‘The Legend of the White Snake’ about two estranged immortal sisters reunited and reckoning with their shared past. This has dark humor, family dynamics, and women transforming into animals — what more could you want?” – Caroline Sheridan, Side Quest Books and Games |
| “Soldier, Sailor” by Claire Kilroy | Literary Fiction | Motherhood, Family | “A lyrical unfolding of a new mother Soldier’s early years with her son, Sailor. When she reconnects with a former colleague, she must grapple with just how much she has changed from the person she was before. For those wanting a stark, emotional, raw exploration of the realities of new motherhood.” – Caroline Sheridan, Side Quest Books and Games |
| “Someone You Can Build a Nest In” by John Wiswell | Fantasy | Humor, Body Horror, LGBTQ+ | “Shesheshen is a monster. And she is in love. Homily, her girlfriend, is hunting the monster she believes cursed her family, which is, coincidentally, Shesheshen. If she wants her happily ever after, Shesheshen has many challenges to face, like stabby in-laws, motherhood, and the desire to lay eggs inside the love of her life so their children devour her from the inside out. More on the cozy side of fantastical horror, this explores what happens when people in a relationship have different ideas of what love means, and what one should do when one’s idea of love is all-consuming. Literally. (Cozy! We promise!)” – Caroline Sheridan, Side Quest Books and Games |
| “Such Sharp Teeth” by Rachel Harrison | Horror | Werewolves, Pregnancy, Feminine Rage | “If you want to take the motherhood-canine metaphor of ‘Nightbitch’ a step further, pick up ‘Such Sharp Teeth’ by one of my favorite Horror authors, Rachel Harrison. Who doesn’t love a werewolf book, especially one that compares pregnancy to lycanthropy and finds them terrifyingly similar?! Two sisters: one, a recently turned werewolf. The other, a single pregnant woman. Both experiencing a loss of control, a lack of bodily autonomy, massive life changes, physical and mental transformations, and a whole lot of feminine rage. Such Sharp Teeth is a gruesome and cathartic novel that grasped me in its claws and had me craving the next full moon.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
| “The Eyes Are the Best Part” by Monika Kim | Horror | AAPI, Cannibalism, Psychological Horror | “College freshman Ji-won’s father has walked out, her grades are tanking, her friends aren’t talking to her, and her mom has a new – and very unwelcome – boyfriend. When she begins to have increasingly vivid dreams about unsettling and appetizing eyeballs, reality begins to slip away from her. This grapples with family, race, patriarchy, and the insatiable desire to eat your mom’s new boyfriend’s eyeballs.” – Caroline Sheridan, Side Quest Books and Games |
| “The Lamb” by Lucy Rose | Literary Fiction | Fairytales and Folklore, LGBTQ+, Cannibalism | “Margot and Mama live by the forest. When stray people come across their home, Mama welcomes them, soothes them, and then consumes them. When Eden appears in a snowstorm, Mama’s hunger becomes something different, and everything changes between Margot and Mama. A creeping folk tale about coming-of-age, female desire, and learning what love truly looks like.” – Caroline Sheridan, Side Quest Books and Games |
| “The Night Guest” by Hildur Knutsdottir | Horror | Possession, Feminine Rage | “If you want a story about a woman going through something unexplainable, ‘The Night Guest’ by Hildur Knútsdóttir should be added to your list immediately. Iðunn finds herself increasingly fatigued and weak, but her doctor dismisses her symptoms and her bloodwork doesn’t show anything physically wrong with her. She knows something is wrong, though, especially when she wakes up in the morning having apparently walked 40,000 steps overnight according to her fitness watch. This book has all of the feminine rage and physical transformations that you loved in ‘Nightbitch,’ with an added layer of horror.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
| “The Redemption of Morgan Bright” by Chris Panatier | Horror | Unreliable Narrator, Loss of Control, Mental Institution | “If what you love about ‘Nightbitch’ is trying to decide if the events are really happening or if they’re all in Mother’s head, allow me to share with you one of my recent favorite novels with an unreliable narrator: ‘The Redemption of Morgan Bright’ by Chris Panatier. ‘The Redemption of Morgan Bright’ is a writhing psychological thriller with layers upon layers of horror. Welcome to the insidious Hollyhock House, a modern-day asylum where men can have their wives institutionalized for basically any reason. From the disturbing ideas about motherhood and death to the cultish ritualistic behavior, the staff of Hollyhock are a bunch of walking red flags from the jump. Morgan Bright creates a false identity and has herself committed so she can try to solve the mystery surrounding her sister’s death. What she discovers within the walls of Hollyhock is so much worse, and so much weirder than she could ever have imagined. We, the readers, watch helplessly as her false identity, Charlotte, takes control, forcing Morgan down into a horrifying spiral of madness. Chris Panatier tackles extremely relevant themes with a practiced hand and a supernatural bend. The pages are drenched in paranoia, grief, regret, and terror. ‘The Redemption of Morgan Bright’ is a sharp, twisting, bloody nightmare, of which I almost didn’t want to wake.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
| “The September House” by Carissa Orlando | Horror | Haunted House, Missing Person, Domestic Abuse | “Do you want a book with some comedic horror? A book about women normalizing things that shouldn’t be normalized? A book about hiding things from loved ones? Look no further than ‘The September House’ by Carissa Orlando! Margaret has found her dream home, and it’s absolutely perfect. Okay, sure, every September the walls start bleeding and the ghost children return, but it’s her dream home, and it’s not so bad, really. You see, Margaret has learned the rules, and so long as you follow the rules, everything will be fine… (Reader, everything will not be fine). ‘The September House’ was a blistering journey of emotion that I was wholly unprepared for, and of which I loved every second. Carissa Orlando has taken the haunted house trope, flipped it on its head and given us a brilliantly clever novel about so much more than ghosts.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
| “The Woods All Black” by Lee Mandelo | Fantasy | Historical, LGBTQ+, Horror | “When Leslie Bruin is sent by the Frontier Nursing Service to a small Appalachian town, he knows its inhabitants are likely to see him as nothing but a failed woman. However, the religious fervor and hostility brewing in Spar Creek, the nightmarish beast lurking in its woods, and the feral tomboy living in the town’s margins are far more than he bargained for. This historical horror’s exploration of self via monstrous transformation makes it a compelling follow-up read to Nightbitch.” – Caroline Sheridan, Side Quest Books and Games |
| “What Kind of Mother” by Clay McLeod Chapman | Horror | Parenthood, Lost Child, Grief | “Enjoying the twisted looks at parenthood? Want something way, way darker than ‘Nightbitch?’ Look no further than ‘What Kind of Mother’ by Clay McLeod Chapman. No one writes parental horror like Clay McLeod Chapman. ‘What Kind of Mother’ is what happens when you drown a Nicholas Sparks novel in a river. It’s drenched with love, with loss, with the screaming ache of a parent’s worst nightmare, and then…can it be? A wish granted. But reader, be careful what you wish for. This book lures you in with false hopes and a gentle tide, and then flips your boat and drags you to the bottom of the river where the crabs are waiting to feast. This book is incredibly dark, incredibly weird, and incredibly gorgeous.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
| “Witchcraft for Wayward Girls” by Grady Hendrix | Horror | Pregnancy, Chosen Family, Witchcraft | “When I think of comedic horror, the first name that comes to mind is Grady Hendrix. He’s the master of scaring the daylights out of you, while making you chuckle at his absurd scenarios and asides. His next novel, ‘Witchcraft for Wayward Girls,’ comes out on Jan. 14, 2025 and is set in a house for unwed mothers in the 1950s, where a group of the girls discover an actual book of witchcraft. Naturally, everything goes swimmingly.” – Ryan Clark, Gibson’s Bookstore |
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