Name: Animal Wife
ISBN: 9781597098847

Lara Ehrlich

A short story collection about women's transformations from girls into wives, mothers, and monsters.

Animal Wife

Brittany Levely-Connolly

'My mother said girls have to take care of themselves. That’s how we avoid turning into sea foam and falling down wells. That’s how we escape hunters and kings who chop and carve and snip and steal. That’s why I practice punching every afternoon."

I really enjoyed reading Lara Ehrlich's collection of feminist fantasy/speculative fiction short stories in Animal Wife and found the collection to be a quick and captivating read that I finished in one day. The fifteen stories examine the ways in which patriarchal western society pigeon hole women and confine them to lives of unhappiness and the effects that the captivity of nuclear family and domesticity have on women's mental and physical well-being. I deeply enjoyed the first and last stories; 'Animal Wife' and 'Animal Wife revisited' which where feminist retellings of fairytales from a daughter's and then later mother's perspective which ask the question: Did her mother abandon her, or did her mother choose to live?
I found that the message that women should strive to make themselves happy and to look outside proscribed box of societal norms if need be to be inspiring and uplifting. Great message for all girls and young women. 
I got this book as an ARC galley copy from Edelweiss and I honestly have to say I'm so grateful Ren Head Press for sending me this copy. I definitely would re-read this book in the future and I highly recommend it to any woman who has suffered due to the confines of her gender or physical body in society or looking to escaped the idealized expectations imposed on her.

Animal Wife

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