The Hitch

by Sara Levine

A KIRKUS BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“A wonderful storyteller with a vibrant voice.”—New York Times 

From the author of the cult classic Treasure Island!!!, a delightfully unhinged comedy following a woman as she attempts to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her nephew and renegotiate the borders of her previously rational world 

Rose Cutler defines herself by her exacting standards. As an anti-racist, Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior, she is convinced she knows the right way to do everything, including parent her six-year-old nephew Nathan. When Rose offers to look after him while his parents visit Mexico for a week, her brother and sister-in-law reluctantly agree, provided she understands the rules—routine, bedtime, homework—and doesn’t overstep. But when Rose’s Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park, Nathan starts acting barking, overeating, talking to himself. Rose mistakes this behavior as repressed grief over the corgi’s death, but Nathan insists he isn’t grieving, and the dog isn’t dead. Her soul leaped into his body, and now she’s living inside him. Now Rose must banish the corgi from her nephew before the week ends and his parents return to collect their child.  

With the ferocious absurdity of Rachel Yoder’s Nightbitch and the dark, brazen humor of Melissa Broder’s Death Valley, The Hitch is a tantalizingly bizarre novel about loneliness, bad boundaries, and the ill-fated strategy of micromanaging everything and everyone around you. 

Genres: Fiction, Fantasy, Humor, Magical Realism, Literary Fiction, Audiobook, Animals

295 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 13, 2026

About the author

Hi! My novel THE HITCH is available for pre-order now and will be published January 13, 2026.

I am also the author of the novel TREASURE ISLAND!!! and the short story collection SHORT DARK ORACLES.

If you haven't read Robert Louis Stevenson's TREASURE ISLAND, I recommend the Penguin's Mass Market paperback which includes my Afterword.


Sign up for my newsletter at

https://delusionsofgrammar.substack.com/

Reviews

[Carolyn Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Thanks to NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for an advance copy of The Hitch by Sara Levine. This is a dark, unique, and bizarre story. It is told with humour, which sometimes seems forced. It is a quirky combination of comedy and character study with supernatural elements.

Rose Cutler describes herself as an anti-racist Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior. Others tend to describe her as a misanthrope, judgmental, intense, self-righteous, and lacking in emotional connections with most people. She becomes estranged from her friend Omar and is lonely. She has fixed opinions. She dislikes a Polish restaurant because of the Polish government's actions during WW2, and believes Aunt Jemima pancakes (name now discontinued) referred to slaves making pancakes for their masters. She tends to micromanage everything.

There are vegan recipes and food discussions scattered throughout the book. Rose has run a yogurt company, and her food consisted of grains, vegetarian and dairy products. She is now trying to sell her yogurt company after a Chinese study suggested the evils of dairy products. The fact that her latest yogurt flavour was contaminated is a drawback for possible sales.

She is devoted to her Newfoundland dog, Walter and dislikes corgis. Rose wants to look after her 6-year-old nephew, Nathan, after she learns that his parents are visiting Mexico for a week. They reluctantly agree, insisting that Nathan follow his strict home and school routine. Rose is excited about Nathan's upcoming visit and redecorates a spare bedroom for him. She paints it a shade of grey, which her nephew will call sweatsock grey. She prepares a list of nutritious vegan foods for him.

There is trouble on his first day. Rose walks her Newfoundland dog to a park with Nathan. Her huge dog kills a corgi. Nathan begins to act strangely, barking, overeating, and frequently behaving like a dog. Rose believes he is traumatized from seeing the corgi killed. Instead, Nathan is delighted. He believes the corgi's spirit has entered his body, becoming part of him. He was never allowed to have a pet dog, cat, or even a tiny animal, and now he has an 'inside dog.'

Rose is in a panic, as she must find a way to banish the corgi's spirit from inside Nathan before his parents' return. She believes the ordeal has made her a better person, which, selfishly, she attributes to success. Little character change or growth is displayed. She remains a caricature.

Recommended for readers who enjoy an unusual. humorous, offbeat story. Publication is scheduled for January 13/2026.

[Bdubs605 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever dreamed of a book mixing vegan recipes, food lectures, and a six-year-old sharing his body with the soul of a corgi named Hazel? Look no further—Sara Levine’s The Hitch delivers.

The protagonist is Rose Cutler, an “anti-racist, Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior” … and she is every bit as intense as that sounds. From moralizing about eating at a Polish restaurant in Chicago [because of the Anschluss—how Poles voted to join Nazi Germany], to a dissertation on Jefferson’s “pancake-making slaves,” to vegan recipes including one for chocolate silk pie where “nobody ever knows they’re eating tofu” [I asked a vegan friend and fantastic baker who said the recipe would “make something that would resemble a chocolate silk pie” but that people would definitely know it was tofu], Rose is a character I personally came to love—even as her obsessions make life harder for herself and everyone around her.

One of Rose’s favorite people is her 6-year-old nephew, Nathan. When his parents go to Mexico for a week, Rose campaigns hard to watch him. When they reluctantly agree, Rose goes… full Rose. She creates a binder of researched vegan meal plans and designs a bespoke bedroom painted Wevet [what Nathan calls “sweatsock grey”] because “inky blue seemed better for an accent wall… and yellow too reminiscent of a weeping clown.”

Rose—who runs a multinational yogurt company she now wants to sell after reading a Chinese study on the evils of dairy—has two other main loves: her Newfoundland, Walter, and her best friend Omar, who dares to start using Grindr again just when she needs him most. And she needs him—because on a walk with Nathan, Walter kills a corgi named Hazel. Hazel, a corgi who inexplicably knows all of Shakespeare and has telepathy, chooses not to move on and instead inhabits Nathan’s body.

Nathan, whose mother won’t let him have so much as a grasshopper mouse, is delighted—he finally has his “inside dog.” Rose is… well, let’s just say, less than delighted. As her life begins to unravel—her company won’t sell, her new yogurt flavor Gotcha Matcha [“I eat it at my dacha” campaign] goes wrong, Nathan’s parents (through Nathan) reveal what they really think of her [6-year-olds, after all, tell the truth], and her blow-up with Omar strains her closest friendship—Rose has less than a week to put everything back together before Nathan’s parents return.

The Hitch is offbeat, sharp, and full of oddball charm. While Rose can be exhausting, she’s also strangely endearing, and Levine never loses sight of the humanity beneath the satire. If you enjoy books that are witty, messy, and completely unlike anything else you’ve read this year, this one is worth the ride.

Thank you to Edelweiss and Grove Atlantic for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!

[haslerroberson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two words: ghost corgi. Ok, now that I have your attention, this book is so can’t and absurd and unlike anything I’ve ever read. It was a wild ride from start to finish and an experience unlike any other. Not only was this story unpredictable, but it also proffered some hard-hitting reminders: life can’t simply be split into good and bad, eight-piece Finnish dining room sets and yogurt bloat, and sometimes it takes a probably-not-evil dog entity to remind us of that. Though I don’t fully understand what I just read (I’m either not intellectual or not possessed enough), I have no complaints. And, full disclosure, I expect to have ghost corgis on the brain for the foreseeable future.

[Miranda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is so weird and funny and quietly devastating!!! Telling everyone I know to read it <3

[Athena A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

rocky start, but wow was i amused once Rose met her nephew’s “inside dog” !! totally hilarious, tail-wagging chaos written to the tune of unhinged girl fiction.

+ though it felt a little misplaced, i honestly found her random vegan recipes & food studies musings cute and part of the character building.

Thank you NetGalley and Grove Atlantic for the ARC.

[Lindsay Hunter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book RULES. I read it too fast even though I tried not to because it’s like watching a maestro fuck with you. Every word, every sentence, is crafted to both stabilize you and knock you over. It’s so playful and strange and hilarious. Thank god Sara Levine is back!!

[Stacy40pages · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hitch by Sara Levine. Thanks to @atlanticgrove for the gifted copy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rose is watching her six year old nephew while her brother and her sister in law vacation. They were hesitant to leave Nathan with her, but took a leap of faith. When Rose’s Newfoundland kills a corgi in the park, Nathan insists the corgi’s soul is now in his body.

I feel like I need to reread this one to fully understand it, but I did definitely enjoy it. It was very unique, and a bit out there. Rose’s character was not pleasant but she did have some development and learning at the end. It was nice seeing her bond with her nephew, despite her odd views and judgmental personality. The whole corgi thing was interesting and definitely the unique part of the plot.

“Did he really feel, when it came to chances for happiness, a ghost corgi was his best bet?”

Read this if you like:
-Animal or dog characters
-Unique plot lines
-Curmudgeonly main characters
-Family dynamics

The Hitch comes out 1/13.

[Ashley · Rating 5 out of 5]

(4.75/5, rounded up)
𝘗𝘰𝘴𝘴𝘪𝘣𝘭𝘺 𝘮𝘺 𝘧𝘢𝘷 𝘑𝘢𝘯𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘦, 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦.

Astute, wry, original af. Sara had me ordering 𝙏𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙄𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙!!! before I'd even hit 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝's halfway mark.

This sense of humor is my fav kind, & it was leveraged expertly. I legitimately LOL'd-...I lost count of how many times. & the humor is so well-backed, 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙃𝙞𝙩𝙘𝙝 is 𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘵. Chock-full of education & commentary without ever losing you in the midst.

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘭 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭, 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤 𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘰𝘨𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘦 𝘯𝘦𝘶𝘳𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘤.
I fuggin loved Rose, our FMC. I saw so much of myself in her, like it or not 😅😂 She reminded me of the characters we know & love from 𝘌𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺 𝘈𝘶𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘯, or 𝘓𝘶𝘤𝘪𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘴𝘤𝘩's 𝙎𝙖𝙙 𝙅𝙖𝙣𝙚𝙩. I immediately texted @lady.and.the.book to let her know this one's a must, esp bc I need her thoughts on whether or not Janet would be able to stand Rose 🫣

I can't wait to come across reviews for this one, esp from dog owners. I'm a cat lady, so some of the more pointed comments just had me rolling... I'm curious how owners of 1 specific breed will feel. I've gotta just leave it at that tho, for spoiler's sake 🤫

I cannot recommend this one enough, I'm obsessed. But if you get offended easily—consider this your warning, ya may end up w hurt feelings 🤭

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quirky, funny, with a slightly manic undercurrent of sadness.

[Sadie Zabawa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely

[Hope · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite possibly the most bat-shit (or should I say cat shit) crazy novel I’ve ever read, but… I loved it? I actually laughed out loud several times. I don’t often do that while reading. Bizarre but heartfelt at the same time, this story made me ponder more than the possibility of a corgi’s soul attaching itself to a child’s body. Not for everyone but I recommend it.

[Luísa Andrade · Rating 2 out of 5]

“The Hitch” had everything going for it: a curious premise, with a dog at the center of the narrative. The choice of a stream-of-consciousness style is, in fact, a strength — it pulls the reader directly into the protagonist’s mind in an immediate and unsettling way, creating a strong sense of isolation. The book falters, however, exactly where it most needs to hold attention: in its protagonist. Rose is written so thinly that she borders on caricature; what may have been intended as ironic or eccentric comes across as simply exhausting. Her limited self-awareness, combined with a rushed and forced final arc of transformation, makes deeper emotional engagement difficult and drains any sense of narrative payoff. There are flashes of sharper writing, moments when the text hints at something more thoughtful beneath the surface, but they are ultimately lost in a deliberately flat narrative voice. A book of wasted potential.

[Scott Baxter]

I first heard of Sara Levine from Emily Temple who published an article on LitHub dot com called The 50 Best Contemporary Novels Under 200 Pages. One of those books was Levine’s Treasure Island!!! Temple said:

”A truly insane novel about a young woman who decides to live her life by the principles of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island, those principles being Boldness, Resolution, Independence, and, of course, Horn Blowing. One of the most fun reading experiences I can remember.”

Treasure Island!!! was a fun book. It has been nearly fifteen years, but Levine has written another comic novel which, at least in my opinion, is worth your time.

The Hitch is narrated by Rose Cutler, a single woman living in Chicago who has built her own successful yogurt business called Cultured Cow. This passage gives some idea of the way Rose thinks about the world:

“In my twenties, I had an obsession with Mollie Katzen and the Moosewood Collective. Not that I joined the Collective—or ever visited the restaurant—but I believed in Mollie Katzen, particularly her cookbook The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and threw myself into making healthy meals out of vegetables, grains, and dairy. For reasons I can no longer fathom, I was particularly keen on serving friends the Moosewood Mushroom Yogurt Pie with Spinach Crust. I also remember a socially strained dinner party at which I served crumbling tofu burgers, baked not fried, in an apartment that had no dining room table; I expected people to eat them in their laps. It was precisely at the height of my fervent Enchanted Broccoli Forest phase that I started an artisanal yogurt business, believing yogurt was a health food” (location 214).

Rose has agreed to watch her six year old nephew Nathan while her brother Victor and sister in law Astrid go on a vacation to Mexico for a week. On the first day, Rose’s dog, Walter, attacks and kills a neighbor’s dog, Hazel. Somehow the boy Nathan finds Hazel living inside him. How this happens is never really explained. The Hitch is not a realistic novel.

Overall I thought Levine’s book was a great example of satire and humorous writing. If the book has one flaw it is the fact that somewhere between the halfway point and the two thirds point, Levine seems to take the plot a little too seriously.

The title of the book is never really explained except in this brief exchange between Rose and her brother Victor toward the end of the book:

“What’s the hitch? There’s no hitch. There’s always a hitch” (location 3518).

A better title for the book would be Inside Dog. This book will appeal to people who enjoy reading about someone who takes herself way too seriously.

epub. 304 pgs. Read 5 September 2025. Scheduled for publication 13 January 2026.

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

📖+🎧I just finished The Hitch and laughed on and off all the way thru.
Sara Levine is so smart and funny & took me on the ride I was looking for. (A huge nod to Lisa Flanagan as well, her narration absolutely made the audiobook)

It’s literary satire done so well.

It’s also absurdist fiction, the quiet, modern strain where behavior is just tilted enough to expose how ridiculous our social rituals already are.

The female narrator, Rose, is unreliable because her self-perception and reality are constantly misaligned.
She thinks she is operating at a higher level than everyone else. That gap is the comedy.
She is also searching for meaning while making objectively terrible decisions. And she is fully committed to her own logic.

And at its core, this is part of that modern lineage of socially feral women in literary fiction…the descendants of narrators in My Year of Rest and Relaxation who refuse likability as a personality trait.

This type of book is a mood.
One I so enjoyed.
It’s sharp.
It’s smarter than it lets on.
And it made me cackle.

[Heather~ Nature.books.and.coffee · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this one. It sounded really weird, and sometimes that just calls out to me. I gotta say, The Hitch was pretty entertaining. It follows a woman as she attempts to exorcise the spirit of a dead corgi from her nephew and renegotiate the borders of her previously rational world. As an antiracist, secular Jewish feminist eco-warrior, Rose is convinced she knows the right way to do everything, including parenting her 6 yr old nephew Nathan when his parents reluctantly agree to let Rose babysit him while they go on a vacation designed to save their marriage. On her first day with Nathan, Rose’s beloved Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park and Nathan starts acting strangely: barking, overeating, talking to himself. Rose thinks it's just Nathan's coping, but Nathan says the dog's soul is living inside him. With only a week left before his parents return, Rose races to ban­ish the corgi from her nephew

The death of the corgi, I thought was going to make me upset, but it's only a sentence, saying it happened, so that was good. Nothing upsetting. This is zany, funny, and completely weird. But I will say …I liked it. It was engaging and unique. I'm happy I read it.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.

[Asia Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Hitch surprised me a lot. On the surface, it’s an entertaining, fast‑moving story with plenty of humour and chaos, but Sara Levine threads deeper themes through the book without ever weighing it down. Sara Levine has a talent for crafting characters who feel absurd and painfully real. I found myself laughing at the sheer unpredictability of the story while also pausing to sit with the emotional thoughts, woven between the lines. If you enjoy fiction that blends humor with heart, and isn’t afraid to get a little weird, this is a great one to pick up. Thank you Sara Levine, Roxane Gay Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

When Rose's brother and sister-in-law go on vacation to Mexico, they reluctantly leave their six year old son, Nathan, with Rose for the week. Rose has the perfect week planned, until things go wrong on the first day when Rose's dog, Walter, bites a corgi named Hazel in the neck and kills her. Rose quickly discovers that things have gone even more wrong when Nathan informs her that Hazel's soul has jumped into his body.

This book is quite quirky. Rose is a very strange character and the plot is obviously pretty bizarre. But it's a short read and entertaining.

I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, Roxane Gay said to read this so I did because she has the best taste.

This book is hilarious, witty, and original. I loved every second and you really can't miss a sentence because each line is a joke itself. The audiobook narration is incredible, 5 stars on the portrayal of Rose. I will definitely buy a copy as I want to experience it again. This is going to be TE book I am recommending this year.

[Sharon · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three stars mostly for the first half. After just a few pages, I thought for sure that Levine must have no children and be a devoted aunt—her depiction of auntie life at the start of the book was uncanny. I stayed with her as she dialed up the uncanny, but in the second half she seemed to abandon her protagonist, and it was pure cacophony.

[ari · Rating 3 out of 5]

a book with corgis, possession, & multiple bunion references is obviously a book i’m going to read. this was weird & funny & my well-over 30 lb corgi is offended that the author said corgis are under 30 lbs.

[Jody · Rating 4 out of 5]

this will be a fun movie (eventually I assume; I'll come back and edit then lol)

I really enjoyed the Nightbitch/Rosemary's Baby-lite vibe here and the comedy is strong. I want to check out Treasure Island!! soon.

[Joel Vastbinder]

I can recommend you read it, but I can't assign a star value to it.

[Onceinabluemoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5-4

[Margaret Farrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Funny and bizarre.

[Jackie O · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loud bark deep bite

[Leslie Basney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Without a doubt one of the craziest books I’ve ever read.

[Jessica Hayes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was strange, dark, and funny. I love a book that takes an unexpected turn, and a dead corgi’s spirit inhabiting a child was definitely not what I thought this book was going to be about. It was fun and unsettling at the same time.

[Andrew Block]

i can't imagine a more unlikeable main character than an extremely self-righteous vegan who hates corgis. good book.

[Brooke Ihlefeld · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was a fun concept and amusing at times but I was hoping for something way more interesting or at least strange. The way the protagonist was written was so exhausting and frustrating to read that I really couldn’t get into it. I’m all for an unlikeable main character but Rose was so one note, self absorbed, and by the end she didn’t seem to change much and it had me thinking, what was even the point of all this? I feel this book needed a way more nuanced main character to illustrate its point more effectively, or it needed to be like 10x weirder.

[andré crombie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved Sara Levine's first novel. This one shares its sense of the absurd and funny, bizarre details. Unfortunately, where TREASURE ISLAND!!! had a tender regard for its unhinged characters and their lives, I found this book sour and a bit cheap.