The Young of Other Animals: A Novel

by Chris Cander

Shocking family secrets have the power to destroy―or unite―an estranged mother and daughter in an emotional and gripping novel by the author of A Gracious Neighbor . Mayree and Paula are a mother and daughter drifting apart, separated by grief and more, after the death of Mayree’s husband. Mayree faces a future with no income, career, or social life. Even ties with her best friend have been severed. Paula, feeling abandoned by the father she loved, is left with only a bitter mother. When Paula reveals that she narrowly escaped a violent assault, Mayree’s initial reaction is dismissal and disbelief. But as details unfold, it’s clear that it was real and not just one random night gone horribly wrong―someone is out to destroy their lives. With each new threat from Paula’s assailant, harrowing family secrets reemerge that force the mother and daughter to confront the shared traumas of their pasts. Drawing on courage and hope, they must save the relationship they never realized they’d lost. Reflective, suspenseful, and moving, The Young of Other Animals explores the psychic intergenerational damages that can alter relationships with loved ones forever.

Genres: Fiction, Thriller, Mystery, Mystery Thriller, Contemporary, Audiobook, Crime

319 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2024

About the author

Chris Cander is the author of the novels THE YOUNG OF OTHER ANIMALS, A GRACIOUS NEIGHBOR, THE WEIGHT OF A PIANO, WHISPER HOLLOW, and 11 STORIES, and the grade K-5 picture book THE WORD BURGLAR. Visit www.chriscander.com for more info.

Reviews

[Casey Reads 🌸 · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 31%. The synopsis of this book sounded so exciting, but I found this book extremely boring. The first few pages-exciting. Then the next 30% of the book literally nothing happens. It’s so much filler & back story and NONE of it is exciting or building suspense.

I am sure it would eventually get better but my goodness if the book has no excitement 30% of the way in- that is a major fail. And it was repeating itself often.

And don’t get me started on the main character and all her whining about her ex boyfriend and she even starts stalking him at one point sitting out of his house forever. And they weren’t even dating that long- get a grip. It is very hard to get into a book when you are annoyed by the main character’s personality.

I will not suffer through the rest, hope y’all enjoy it if you read it.

Read for free from Amazon First Reads.

[Jordyn Rider · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow read. Story line was good! Only reason I finished it was because my New Year’s resolution is to not be a quitter.

[Jenny Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

**A January 2024 Kindle First Read Selection**

This was a middle of the road read for me, but I'm happy that I finally got around to reading one of my Kindle First Read selections. I love picking them out at the beginning of every month, but I rarely get around to reading them. I promised myself that I would read more Kindle books this year.

I didn't connect with the story as much as I would have liked. It has an easy writing style, but I wish it had been more engaging.

[Ashley Winstead · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Young of Other Animals is unlike any book I’ve read before—an intense, distinctive novel about mothers and daughters, generational trauma, and redemption. Part family drama, part mystery, and part dark comedy, this book is gutting in the way only the best literature, written by an author with immense skill, wisdom, and compassion, can be. What a knockout.

[Greta Boyd · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slow paced and repetitive. Room for more depth to the characters and development of the actual storyline outside of just the mother/daughter relationships.

[Danielle · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved A Gracious Neighbor so when this author dropped another book, I had to have it immediately. The problem is that I tried several times to start it and just couldn't really get into it.

This isn't an easy read, a fast read, or anything like what I expected, based off Cander's previous domestic drama. It's only 307 pages but it's very wordy and descriptive and feels a lot longer. I resented that at first, and the longer chapters, but these characters slowly evolved into real people to me. They're flawed and no one I want as my own bestie but I became very invested in their lives and wanted justice and peace for them. I wanted them to open up to each other. I know a mother and daughter(and dead father) like this and I highlighted some of it to show them. I'd never seen this particular scenario in a book, so it was thought-provoking and clarifying.

In the wake of her father's untimely and embarrassing demise, college student Paula and her mother Mayree are trying their best to move forward. They were never very close and she's an only child so it's a little awkward when she has to move back home due to some repairs in her dorm.

At a party with her best friend, Paula was attacked by a stranger. This book is set in 1989, which is an important tidbit that isn't mentioned enough in summaries, so her case is bungled even worse than it would be today.

The attack leads to a series of events that will change the lives of this mother and daughter forever. Perhaps they can learn to work together and fight for each other. Maybe they can begin to make up for lost time.

I highlighted so much in this book. It had so much sharp and witty dialogue. The author weaves some real history and actual regional events into the story and I thought that was neat. There's also an undertone of the habits and family dynamics of animals which they tied to the story, which is where the title comes from, I'm guessing. it was cool. It didn't always land for me but I understood and could appreciate the concept.

I would recommend this to certain people but definitely not for someone wanting a popcorn thriller.

[William de_Rham · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Young of Other Animals" is a well-written novel about a sexual assault and its effects on the victim, her mother, and their relationship. It explores themes of sexual inequality, family dysfunction, unacknowledged trauma, lost opportunity, generational differences, and the mending of damaged relationships.

The year is 1989. Main characters 49-year-old Mayree and her 20-year-old daughter Paula live in Austin, Texas. The daughter of a tough, unsympathetic rancher, Mayree has spent most of her life married to Frank, a real estate developer who provided a solid middle-to-upper class life but who was also a serial philanderer. Frank died of a heart attack in his secretary’s bed several months ago, leaving Mayree—who has never worked outside the home— with little money and saddled with debts.

Even though Paula knew about her father’s affairs, she has always favored him over her mother. For years, Mayree has been a harsh and bitter woman, someone not adept at providing motherly love. Frank, on the other hand, lavished Paula with praise and affection. With Frank gone, mother and daughter begin the novel resenting each other and barely able to communicate. The story goes on to detail how, as a result of the assault upon Paula at a college gathering, the two women of different generations struggle to bridge the gulf between them.

At the beginning of the story, neither woman seems likable or sympathetic. Resenting her life as a housewife and all the opportunities she either didn’t have, or missed, Mayree seems steeped in self-pity. Paula, a straight-A student with dreams of becoming a lawyer, appears to be cloyingly needy and making lots of unwise choices. Both characters isolate themselves from the world and neither seems able to get out of her own way.

Why are these characters that way? What has occurred in their lives, if anything, to make them this way? That’s the story author Chris Cander tells us in this tightly written novel that has more than one surprise in store.

It’s a good book. Women-centric? Yes. Tough on men? Certainly. But a worthwhile read nonetheless.

[Megan Stewart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting read for me. The story on surface was fine and I felt it was a solid 3 throughout. Once I got to the end though, it really brought the story together and proved to be very introspective.

The full circle realizations of Paula and Mayree really embody how patterns of behavior are almost hereditary in nature. Watching them identified these patterns and finding a way to grow together, while also working change the pattern moving forward was very well done.

(Listened to as audiobook)

[Abbie Mills · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this as one of my choices for Amazon Prime’s First Read, otherwise, I probably would not have picked it up.

It started off really slow in my opinion, and didn’t really pick up until the last 50 pages or so. I wasn’t really enticed by the plot line and could only read a chapter or two at a time before getting bored of it and putting it down.

[Dreenie Beenie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Shout out to Amazon First Reads for a copy of this book. The story started with a bang but then dragged on for quite a while before it reached its conclusion. It highlights the physical and emotional damage women sustain at the hands of men but lacks balance as it fails to include any real positive or redeeming male characters. A bit too trauma porn-like. Didn't hate it, but didn't love it either.

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Young of Other Animals is an intensely suspenseful and profoundly moving novel about the dark secrets and the shared trauma that threaten to destroy the already shaky bond between a mother and a daughter. The story was inspired by a violent attack against the author when she was nineteen, and she used that as a catalyst for her main character, Paula. The book is set in Austin, Texas, in 1989. Paula and her mother, Mayree, are dealing with the recent death of Paula's father. When Mayree learns that Paula has been attacked, it brings up a lot of discord between them. In revealing that event and the ongoing threat of continued violence against Paula, the two are forced to reconcile their relationship.

This book was incredibly emotional. The author told the story from multiple perspectives, one of which is an anonymous letter writer who is in juvenile detention. He's writing to his mother in these interstitial letters throughout the book. They are relevant, but I won’t give away a significant spoiler. Readers should know that those letters are there for a purpose. One thing that interested me about this novel was the author’s exploration of the failure of memory, especially under duress. She touches on ways the human mind immediately engages in self-protection by shutting down certain physiological functions to focus on survival. Ultimately, despite the dark themes of trauma and memory, The Young of Other Animals is redemptive, hopeful, and moving.

To listen to my interview with the author, go to my podcast at: https://www.momsdonthavetimetoreadboo...

[Becky Gladhill · Rating 1 out of 5]

I picked this book from Amazon first reads after reading the description and thinking it sounded interesting. Unfortunately, it was very disappointing.

The story began with a bang, but then is very slow-moving to the point of downright boring. I would describe the writing style as pretty juvenile, except that the level of vulgarity is so over the top that I almost put it down within the first chapter.

I have a hard time not finishing a book I start, so I stuck with it and skimmed through until the end. Fairly predictable ending based on how much detail was given and when/how characters were introduced. 🤷🏼‍♀️

[Paula E · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 rounded up
Exciting beginning, dull middle. The ending does a good job of tying everything together.

[Taylor Davison · Rating 2 out of 5]

the first 80% of this was boring and the final 20% was predictable

[Ali Ashby · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book was slow moving, but it had enough substance to get me through. There was good character development for the main characters (mom, daughter, and the housekeeper) but it was forced on the other characters at the end of the story to pull the larger story together.

The conclusion wasn’t satisfying because it was tied into a neat bow with each character experiencing some sort of redemption, but in a way that didn’t feel earned because it wasn’t supported by sufficient development (we weren’t given much insight into the characters’ various struggles until the end when they were resolved and the character experienced growth). The conclusion also raised many themes, none of which were explored sufficiently to provide a satisfying conclusion except for the themes that follow Paula and her mom. It would have been much better to focus on the development of the main characters and the associated themes then to have each character provide a moral lesson…hard to explain sufficiently without spoilers.

My two biggest gripes about this book were:

1) the title felt like it had little relevance to the story. It was about humans and their young. There were references to other animals and their young, but in ways that were just an overt reference to the title and provided no deeper meaning. The title made set a tone that didn’t match the story.

2) the author repeated the words used in the attack to a degree that was absolutely grating. I believe the intention of the repetition was to be *shocking* and draw emotional connection from the reader by evoking our empathy. But in reality, it was so misplaced that it simply felt vulgar. The description of the attack was brief (thankfully) but that one vulgarity stuck out as a device for empathy that was simply a poor attempt to get a desired reaction. I understand that a victim of trauma will often replay and relive the moments of an attack, which is why the author kept repeating that detail, but it was jarring in a way that distracted from the story instead of drawing the reader into a deeper connection with the characters Paula.


I would not dismiss the book entirely, it just wasn’t well executed and the missteps were distracting. The story was good, the execution missed the mark.

[Angelia Menchan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved it

I saw the title and was immediately interested. This is a story of fractured love…between men and women, mothers and daughters and friends. No one is quite what they seem but they are on myriad ways exactly what they seem. Mayree is one of the best characters I’ve read in a long time. She’s a contrarian who is bitter but as is always the case it’s deeper than the surface, more than being married to a serial cheater and being an indifferent mother. Mayree is complex and written so well I feel I know her. I’m glad I chose to read. The title is perfect.

[Ashley · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really wanted to enjoy this book because the synopsis made it sound so much more exciting then what it really was.
It could of been 150 pages shorter. A LOT of repetitive storyline. Finding out who the person was at the end was very anticlimactic and felt like a throw away.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't love it; the mother was horrible and even her back-story didn't really excuse how she treated her daughter. I don't want to include any spoilers, but the ending/identity of the character was creepy.

[Debbie Adreon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting story line

I had mixed emotions about this story for much of the time but I obviously persevered. I found myself very frustrated with the characters. It was worth continuing though and In the end I liked the storyline and I'm glad I finished it.

[Victoria Kozub · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn’t love it, seemed a bit draggy at times and repetitive. I didn’t like reading the quote about slashing your neck and fing it so many times. The ending was interesting and wrapped it up.

[Kelly Gartner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chris Cander’s fifth novel, The Young of Other Animals, came out today. Chris’s novels often feature complex female characters who are dealing with past and/or present traumas, and this book is no exception. 19-year-old Paula and her mother, Mayree, are reeling from the death of Paula’s father, adrift in their own worlds of grief and bitterness. When Paula tells her mother she was assaulted at a party, Mayree lectures her about what she should have done to avoid the attack: don’t dress like a hooker, don’t get drunk, and never get into a car with a stranger. Mayree’s cold dismissal masks a devastating secret from her past; lurking in the shadows is someone who wants to harm both Paula and Mayree, setting up a showdown that will change their lives forever.

This story takes place in 1989, and I would like to think attitudes have changed about culpability in sexual assaults, but I know that’s not necessarily true. Paula’s best friend and the police also dismiss her: maybe she was too drunk to remember what happened; maybe she’s making it sound worse than it was. I felt so much compassion (and fury) for this vulnerable young woman who wasn’t believed.

What happens to Paula is based on a violent assault Chris experienced when she was the same age as her main character. Chris channeled her feelings into body-building and Taekwondo and now teaches self-defense to women. In contrast, Paula tries to make herself as small as possible, taking up less and less space until she rarely leaves her house. Mayree deals with her trauma by hardening her heart, refusing to ask even her closest friend for help. I couldn’t help but wonder: what would I do if something like this happened to me or someone I love?

I highly recommend reading this book if you like multiple points-of-view, dark family secrets, and thought-provoking, character-driven plots, with content warnings for physical and sexual assault, generational trauma, and foul language.

[Meghan Costigan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a book that was hard to get into at first, but by about 40% of the way in I didn’t want to stop (hence the 4-star rating). This book takes place over the course of 9 days; on March 25, 1989, college student Paula Baker is kidnapped & attacked by an unknown assailant after leaving a party. The resulting trauma is exacerbated by her embittered & widowed mother, Mayree (with whom Paula has a strained relationship) & tone-deaf longtime best friend, Kelly Cagle, not only being unwilling to believe her story, but implicating she might be at fault because she was impaired that night. Per her mother’s poor advice, Paula attempts to do away with the only possible evidence to corroborate her story, but over the next few days, frequent reports of break-ins show up on the news; animal traps pop up in their yard; & Paula receives threatening notes from the likely attacker. Can Paula work to get justice for herself or can she finally get her mother to believe her enough to help her?

The story is told from alternating 3rd-person POVs between Paula & Mayree, & it’s immediately apparent Mayree is written to be as unlikable as all out gets. Having harbored a victim complex for much of her life, she chain smokes & drinks, lashes out at everyone, & expresses resentment at the way her life has gone. Even with Paula’s supposed “wild child” streak, no one can blame her for acting out at all. In fact, her strained relationship with her mother (in contrast to the loving & nurturing one she had with her dad) plays a huge part in why she exhibits such low self-esteem & self-worth. It’s interesting from a psychological perspective seeing how Paula & Mayree’s individual pieces of baggage feed into their toxic dynamic & then as events unfold, how it ultimately impacts how they respond. In a story taking place long before the “Me-Too” movement, the book makes a point to champion women’s capabilities far beyond one’s wild imagination & reminds us all that whether in 1989 or 2025, the power has been in our hands all along. All we need is to know & believe it.

[Beth Casas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Paula’s relationship with her mother is strained. Mayree has never really been able to freely give her love to anyone except her husband, but that was early in their marriage, before the hurt and betrayal started. Paula feels unloved and not even liked by her mother, yet they are temporarily living together in the home Mayree and Frank shared after Paula went off to college. Things have been especially tough since Frank’s death a few months earlier. Paula was Daddy’s little girl and misses her father, but Mayree is struggling to live with the humiliation that Frank died of a heart attack in his mistress’s bed! So, there is a lot going on emotionally!
Paula’s boyfriend recently broke up with her so her best friend, Kelly, talks her into going to a party to “cheer her up” and get her out of the house. But while at the party, something happens to Paula that changes her drastically. She soon learns who she can and can’t trust and rely on, and the answers aren’t what she expects!

This was a slow starter and I almost didn’t stick with it. I don’t see myself reading this one again, but there were definitely some exciting, edge-of-your-seat parts!

So it earns a 3.5 for me.

[Cassandra Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you are avoiding reading books about violence against women, this is not the book for you. It opens up with an intense interaction that made me uncomfortable. Most of the characters suck. The mystery was enough to keep me going

Paula and Mayree live in the same house but they have ever been emotionally connected as daughter and mother. Mayree seems to resent Paula and curses her dead husband who had cheated on her and loved Paula more. Paula is more emotionally connected to their housekeeper Felicia. Paula’s best friend, Kelly, doesn’t believe her and minimizes her event like it’s no big deal. When Mayree discovers what really happened to Paula, she immediately places the blame on her daughter. The police office they report it to shrugs it off—twice. They just suck.

Eventually things change and we discover why the characters react and behave the way that they do. Mayree softens towards her daughter as she deals with her own past trauma.

The conclusion and plot twist felt abrupt. We read both Paula and Mayree’s POVs in detail. But when the climax comes, everything falls flat. Given the intensity of beginning, the ending was b o r i n g.

[Elizabeth Edwards · Rating 5 out of 5]

out on Feb 1, 2024. women's crime fiction. mothers & children fiction. domestic thrillers. i am new to Chris' writing. well done. awesome!! love her writing style. i am such a liar ... not really but when i did some research here on Goodreads ...apparently i have another one of Chris' books ...it would be ....
this came out Jan 22, 2019. apparently i won it through a Goodreads giveaway ..wondering why Goodreads and Amazon are not linked together ...weird ...thought they were a similar company ...right??! i thought so. so that is a "romance literary fiction". "women's literary fiction". "contemporary literary fiction." similar ...but so not. if that makes any sense. LOL!! i just think it is hilarious ... any who ...this is coming out Feb 1 ...it was one of my "first reads" i think that is what Amazon calls them ...but i got 2 this month ...no clue why that is the way it is ...some months ...but this book as well as "Last Night" - by Luanne Rice

[Chari Buongiovanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mayree and her daughter Paula are not close, and after their husband/father dies (in bed of his secretary) they each are flailing. Paula gets attacked at a party, but no one believes her/thinks its a big deal. Paula spirals, Mayree eventually finds out that her husband was into bad things, and it could be someone after them. Mayree makes up with her best friend (who is separated from her husband, and was Mayree's best friend), and they work together to protect Paula and all of them (including her friend's daughter/Paula's best friend). Ends up her husband fathered a son, but didn't claim him as his own...the mother died of cancer...and the son was angry. Her best friend's husband also knew of this, and had gotten the boy thrown into prison to keep him quiet. They eventually fight of the attacker, and the women learn to lean on each other, and grow stronger. Was good, kept my attention, but a little more "girl power" than I want.

[Kelly Crawford · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boo. Like seriously this book was pretty bad.

We meet a mother (Mayree) who has just lost her husband who had a heart attack but was found in his mistresses bed. We learn throughout the entire story of how Mayree's husband had infidelity issues their whole marriage. We also learn that Mayree never really wanted children and that she was born and raised on a cattle farm in the middle of no where but left as soon as she could.

We then meet the daughter (Paula) she is at a party and is sorta kidnapped and sorta hurt buy some guy she doesnt know.

Throughout the whole book we pretty much learn why Mayree was not really meant to be a mother or have kids (her family issues and she was also raped on the farm) and we finally learn who the attacker was which was some kid who may or may not have been Mayree's husbands (and no we never actually find out)

Dont waste your time on this and move on :)

[Abby · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would give it 2 & 1/2 stars. I had a hard time reading this as it’s a very traumatic situation. It’s what every woman fears deep down, being attacked or raped.

This at least had a good ending in the fact that wounds were being healed, relationships starting to mend & people discovering their self worth.

It is interesting to know if Mayree & her situation was handled differently would have turned out different. The emotional & physical trauma she experienced did change her & her relationships. She built a wall around her thinking it was going to protect her but instead she lost some of the joy in life.

The author did say in her Acknowledgments that she had suffered an attack. I hope that writing this book gave her some peace & helps others know that what happened to them is not their fault.

[Carla Suto · Rating 3 out of 5]

THE YOUNG OF OTHER ANIMALS by Chris Cander was one of my Amazon First Reads selections for January. It is a story of broken relationships between women and men, women and friends, and mothers and daughters. Main characters, Mayree and Paula, are a mother and daughter that have grown distant after the death of Mayree’s husband, Frank. Paula is trying to cope with the grief of losing her beloved father, but Mayree is cold and dismissive, which hurts Paula even more. At a party she reluctantly attends with her best friend, Kelly, Paula narrowly escapes a violent assault. But her mother and her best friend both dismiss her paralyzing fear and trauma. As additional shocking events occur, it becomes clear that Paula’s attack may be more than an isolated incident. Can mother and daughter help rather than hurt each other during this trying time? The story was a bit slow-moving and repetitive for me and the repeated use of strong profanity diminished my interest quite a bit. The premise of the book sounded promising, but it just didn’t quite work for me personally.

[Rebecca Bailey]

Trauma and teen aged women

The Young of Other Animals is a book about trauma, past and present. Sexual trauma occurs so frequently against young women and can be implied in many ways, and completed. It is life changing for the woman preyed on and her friends and family as well.

This book is a poignant tale of predation by men on two generations of women in one family and more predation as a man has extramarital affairs, resulting in a child unknown to our heroines until late in this telling.

Get out your box of tissues to read this one! If you are not able to confront this kind of trauma in a book yet due to your own issues, it is best to set this book aside until you can. And please, if this is you, get help.