Hundesöhne: Roman

by Louisa Merten

Das Tierheim Le Chat, das auch Lösch genannt wird, ist Ginnys Zuhause geworden. Seit mehreren Jahren kümmert sie sich zusammen mit dem kauzigen, verwitweten Betreiber Sebrov, dem "Hundeflüsterer", und seinem Sohn Mirko um die heimatlosen Katzen und Hunde.
Eines Tages taucht eine neue Praktikantin, Aka, im Lösch auf. Die Routine gerät aus den Fugen. Ginny wird mit ihrer Herkunftslosigkeit konfrontiert. In wachsender Verwirrung und Verunsicherung beschäftigt sie sich mit ihrer Vergangenheit. Ginny will ihre Geschichte neu erfinden. Einen Besucher des Tierheims erklärt sie zu ihrem Vater und verschafft sich Zutritt zu dessen Haus. Der Konflikt zwischen alter und imaginierter Herkunft eskaliert. Das Verwischen von Spuren wird im Lösch, wo Hoffnung und Verzweiflung, Liebe und Hass, Ankunft und Abschied einander bedingen, zu einer Frage von Leben und Tod.

164 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 5, 2025

Reviews

[Cewina]

Generous three stars, because the weird of this book made me wanna know with what weirdness the author could come up with in the end. I wouldn’t say I necessarily enjoyed the read, but it was certainly easy to read. The definition of never let them know your next move fr. I didn’t like the main character in the slightest, she genuinely needs a therapist 12 years ago and that she never mentions having one is absolutely appalling, because who looks at her and thinks „yep, definitely totally okay“. The way she keeps comparing herself to a dog suggests a veterinarian might suffice though. I‘m very confused about what this book was supposed to do and what actually happened because the POV is from that psychotic bisexual 21 year old mess that must’ve escaped from a bad wattpad fic. The language the author chose to use also didn’t wirk for me, because why are we ending our otherwise fine paragraphs with pseudo poetic metaphors?

Also naming a Tierheim Le Chat and then claiming the person that came up with it really had a way with words is actually insane. The thing with Le Chat having the same letters as Chalet is also very weit hergeholt and pissed me off even 100 pages after it was said.

Edit: removed a star because book so bad i missed a bunch of what the fuck aspects.

[wall]

sighhhhhhhhh what the fucky.
Pro tip: this book is 100% more confusing (than it already is) if you read 40 pages one evening a week and then proceed to discuss it with a bunch of teenagers who may or may not be media illiterate.
Ginny starts this book IMMEDIATELY becoming among the top ten worst main characters. I do not care everyone forgot your birthday girl you are TWENTY-ONE???? Ginny unfortunately reminded me far too much of a 12 year old in her Tumblr angsty internal monologue. She's verbose and overly dramatic and just, really horrible to interact with. I hope that was intentional on Merten's part, because she really should not have put any of her own personality into this book.
I actually enjoyed the language for the most part. I do like a book that is descriptive and gruesome in that description. The visceral smells and feels and tastes of the animal shelter were things that I like reading in contemporary fiction. This does loose some of its charm when you realized that every single character has the same inner thoughts and speaking quirks. Eme and Ginny and Remi write and think in the exact same voice as the rest of the book is written.
The symbolism is present, and I was intrigued by Ginny's "animal" connotation, which was well done in the first half before getting progressively more lazy. Ginny is "like a dog". She gets shouted at "like a bad dog". She should be leashed "like a runaway dog". One can see how this gets old. The second problem with this symbolism is that Merten never seems to understand exactly what she wants to express. Is Ginny a dog? A cat? A predator? The prey or the hunter? The deer in the headlights? Just making her an "animal" looses the nuisance in symbolism that different animal motifs can express.
I hate to be the one friend who is too woke or too prudish or whatever but Aka and Ginny's relationship was completely out of left field, made no sense, and felt forced. As a lesbian I love girls kissing girls, but we can't have girls kissing girls for absolutely no reason. Bitch, it doesn't even move the plot forward?? I think the failure of the relationship stems from the fact that Aka, much like many of the characters in this book (other than, rather unfortunately, Ginny) was severely underdeveloped. We got about five sentences about her, in all of which Ginny expressed her hatred for her, and then they made out and had sex <3 Also unsure how I feel about a queer relationship being in the same book where the straight relationship (Ginny x Remi) had me screaming incest accusations. Truly the duality of man.
Both the queer and incestuous relationships could be added for shock value, like some of the other things that happen, including the ending which, while I understood the point, I didn't find it very fitting. That Ginny accurately guess who her father and stalked him accordingly first try is sooooo insane to me considering she is actively psychotic. In edition to it being absurd I was also gaslit about it, making me psychotic as well. The fact that nobody really acknowledges Ginny's clear psychosis is a big plot hole, one of a couple that require a tremendous suspension of disbelief, even for contemporary fiction.
I will get the great honor, and seriously that is not sarcastic, of meeting Louisa Merten in person! I am excited to hear what she has to say about this book. I especially want to ask about some of her stylistic choices, like the page breaks on every other page or the parts of the book that were written in second person (very cool!). I would like to read another book by her, just not this one. This one is not great.
Update: I forgot vague Balkan war mention. So many things happen in this book and yet.

[Stefanie]

ich habe einiges wohl nicht verstanden.

[Claudia]

hat mich nicht abgeholt. liegt aber vielleicht auch daran, dass ich weder katzen- noch hundeliebhaberin bin!