Femme Feral

by Sam Beckbessinger

Like most women, 46-year old hyper-competent tech CEO Ellie's already juggling too much. She’s got a promotion coming up and it’s an inconvenient time to be beset by mid-life symptoms: coarse hair in new places, hot flushes, insomnia, losing time, finding bloodstains on all her clothing, howling at the moon.

Her doctor diagnoses perimenopause. But it's another 28-day cycle that's taking hold. One involving fur, and teeth, and a not insignificant amount of rage.

Suddenly the troubles in her life – hot flushes, thankless family, spiralling to-do list, oblivious husband, the w*nker promoted above her at work – seem almost… bite-size.

Outrageous, witty and wonderfully feral, in her adult debut Sam Beckbessinger explores female ferocity in modern urban (mid)life with a literary howl that will leave you transformed.

‘Savage, witty, gory, heartfelt, utterly relatable rage fantasy and a helluva good time. Miranda July meets Stephen King’ Sunday Times bestseller Lauren Beukes

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Adult, Contemporary, Thriller, Horror Thriller

384 pages, Hardcover

First published April 9, 2026

About the author

Sam Beckbessinger is the author of the bestselling Manage Your Money Like a Fucking Grownup and the novel Girls of Little Hope (co-authored with Dale Halvorsen). Her interactive story about climate change, Survive the Century, was featured in New Scientist and Gizmodo. She teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University, writes kids' TV and picture books, once wrote for Marvel, and is weirdly obsessed with spreadsheets. Her perimenopausal werewolf novel Femme Feral is coming in summer 2026. She grew up on a farm near Durban with a pet donkey named Mr Magoo, but now lives in London.

Reviews

[Mikey ಠ◡ಠ · Rating 1 out of 5]

Use of ChatGPT from a writer is wildly disappointing. Automatic one star.

Another highly anticipated yet ultimately disappointing read. Use of ChatGPT from the author aside, this is a book that had an extremely promising premise that completely lacked any successful execution whatsoever.

While I understand the overall theme of the book was repression and the main character bottling up her feelings and having the play nice and adhere to social expectations, I just feel like once she turned into a werewolf we could have gotten chaotic with it and started confronting things in a more head on way. I also thought Brenda’s storyline was wildly more compelling in every way and I sympathized with her in ways that for some reason I couldn’t with Ellie. And I should have been able to more than I did, Ellie had A LOT going on, trying to run a company in danger of failing, parenting a daughter who had her own struggles (that again weren’t really addressed), running a household and taking care of her father in law pretty much completely alone, it was a lot! And for some reason I just couldn’t find it in me to care!

The most frustrating thing was there was no clear and satisfying resolution to anything that came up in the book, all of Ellie’s challenges were skirted around but never fully, meaningfully addressed in any way whatsoever. It all just felt pointless by the end; Ellie never learned anything. And sure, maybe I just didn’t understand the vision here but to me this felt like a book just trying to capitalize on the popularity of feminine rage without trying to explore beyond the surface level stuff.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free eARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Sidney · Rating 1 out of 5]

edit: the author used chatgpt to write portions of the book so automatic 1 star.

dnf around pg 220.

I ultimately just feel like I have read or seen this same plot way too many times for me to get invested enough to care to push through. The writing is ok & at times I chuckled but this does not bring anything new or exciting to the "is it menopause or am i a werewolf?" trope. Not to mention Ellie was insufferable to me, it was like her entire personality is just complaining about things, which some of them she could have done something to fix the things she was complaining about???, like girl just stand up for yourself, confront your husband about his inability to help at all in life or the relationship, really anything other than just being passive aggressive 24/7

Thank you to NetGalley & the publisher for this arc in exchange for an honest review

[Jane ♱⃓ · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF at 200 pages


I didn’t find out until I was already halfway through the book that it was written with chatgpt.. disappointing.

The writing was funny at times, cringe at other times, but overall nothing too bad. I found myself wishing for the physical book so I could tab all my notes because reading this was a fun experience. There’s a few moments where the way fear is described is nauseating and almost tangible. I loved the vivid grotesque descriptions that the author does at certain times that weirdly correlates perfectly with my contamination ocd thoughts (besides the detailed descriptions of cat mutilation. That I didn’t enjoy). The story eventually turns into a mystery, which I actually liked.

I appreciate how it touches on how little the scientific world knows about menopause and that opens up a conversation for how women have always been neglected by the health industry.

I’m not usually a fan of multiple povs because I always end up liking one more than the others and that’s exactly what happened here. I definitely preferred Brenda’s pov (the old lady). The book paints her as rude and straightforward to a fault, but honestly she’s more relatable and less irritating to read about than the main character.

A personal pet peeve of mine, but the whole “Male lazy suck ooga booga relatable right?” shtick is not new or entertaining to read.. just stop being a pushover. How does the main character supposedly have a happy successful marriage but can’t properly communicate with her husband.. girl STAND UP

Not even remotely important but one of my favorite moments from this book is when it describes someone wearing a leopard print jumper, pink tartan skirt, floor-length puffer coat, and pink sunglasses — and says she looks like “the unabomber on the way to Aldi”.. miss queen in what world is the Unabomber wearing that lmfao

Something that grates me personally is how this book is set up as a feminist novel but the main character is constantly side stepping herself for her husband. Like I get the nuance but it gets annoying SOO quick. She complains in her head nearly everytime she is with him and that is entirely unsatisfying to read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Viking Penguin for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

[Angyl]

Thank you to Penguin Books for providing me with an electronic copy of this book to review.

I was initially excited to read Femme Feral, a feminine rage transformation horror, which is usually something I love. However, after seeing other early reviews of this book, I became aware of the author's usage of ChatGPT in writing a certain section of the novel.

The author discloses this usage and tries to justify it at the end of an author's note following the story by stating that ChatGPT was used to demonstrate how unhelpful AI can be and she thought it would be "useful, interesting, and funny" to utilize ChatGPT as a way of mocking itself.

It is my personal opinion that no matter the reason, generative AI has no place in the creative space and should absolutely never be used in a novel, which is why I came to the decision that I would not be reading, reviewing, or promoting this book. The author urges readers who may be upset by the AI usage to "engage with your local representatives to insist that they push for better regulation of this industry" and states that she herself is against generative AI. My question is - you claim to be against this, yet you use it in your novel? How can I trust your word when you say all other written text is your own work?

I write this to warn other readers of this incident. Truly, I think the publisher should be taking responsibility with disclosing the AI usage and I wish the author was more upfront about it rather than tucking it away at the end of her author's note.

[Georgie | The Pink Prose Parlour]

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

This book had all the hallmarks for a fantastic story—especially bringing perimenopause into the mix. However, as soon as I heard ChatGPT had been used to help push this story forward, I cannot with good conscience carry on reading the book. In future I would wish for more transparency up front to arc readers for the use of AI in books and not just hidden in the acknowledgments.

[Sally cosyhomelibrary]

There was a very particular part of this book that read as though it was written by chat gpt. It was one part and I kept reading because I enjoyed the premise and wanted to give the benefit of the doubt. I thought that perhaps I was wrong.

However I’ve found out since finishing the book that some of the AI dialogue in the book was in fact written by chat gpt and it makes me question if other parts were too. I’ve lost faith that if it has been used in some aspects why that would stop the author from using it in other areas.

This is the part that made me stop and think it was AI generated:

‘Yes, we're low on cash, but the rest? Every graph, trending upwards. User feedback, gushing.
The corporate module, two sprints ahead of schedule. Nothing visionary, sure, but bloody effective. I don't hold back or imply any false modesty. I've been killing it. It's all here, in black and white and Tranquillity-brand green.’

It reads like an AI generated paragraph and stopped me in my tracks.

I carefully considered whether to continue reading and I decided perhaps I was just jumping at AI ghosts, maybe I was wrong and to carry on reading it as it was an eARC and I trusted Bloomsbury wouldn’t have one of their authors use AI.

The cover art and the synopsis spoke to me and I thought that it would be great fun read, but somehow it missed the mark. I didn’t like the main characters but I appreciated some of the moments describing how it is to be a woman and to be take seriously medically, especially concerning “women’s health” issues such as menopause.

Overall I’m disappointed and I can’t understand why chat gpt was used to write parts of the book. It feels like cheating. Because of this I’m unlikely to read more of this authors work in future.

Thank you to Bloomsbury and NetGalley for the eARC.

[Maddie Earl · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for my review.

This is a slow-buildup, multiple POV, women's-fiction horror that focuses on Ellie, a middle-aged woman in tech. The horror aspect of the plot takes a bit to build-up, but it's symbolic of Ellie's rage that simmers until she becomes "the beast" and once the action really began it was all-consuming.

“I feel two extra feet pounding heavy on the ground behind me, I cannot outrun them”

The not-so-subtle foreshadowing and zoomorphism that builds the story is clever and every detail beginning from the first page is fleshed out and comes back into play later in the book. It is obvious that the plot was well researched and thought out. Even the side characters' backstories that are both relevant and again, have a bigger purpose in the plot. Brenda, the other older FMC, has her own repressed rage and experiences similar to Ellie (and many women in real life), whereas she is constantly dismissed and overlooked by men. I wish I could also sometimes take my repressed rage and channel it into a roaming beast.

“Rage isn't the problem, they say, repression is. Repression is rage turned inward, and that the beast is the part of us that will no longer allow us to do that”

Why have I not connected the lunar cycle and the female monthly cycle together before? The message of the book is commentary on women's health and the lack of research in the field. The authors note exclaims that "the medical industry knows about as much about perimenopause as it knows about lycanthropy" which really encompasses the premise of the story. The author also acknowledges in her note that she minimally uses ChatGPT for one paragraph. If the negative reviewers actually checked context and read- they might realize that this was a genius move on the author's part. Ellie works in the tech industry, and her current project utilizes AI language models to create meditational messages. The author generated actual AI gibberish (and edited it) as the FMC did to highlight how ridiculous and harmful AI can be when not used correctly. This choice was a blatant display of authenticity and relevance.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it deserves more praise than it’s been given.

[She’s Stranger Than Fiction · Rating 5 out of 5]

If I could give this book more than ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️, I would! Where do I even start? As a slightly past middle-aged woman, Sam Beckbessinger is the spokesperson I didn’t know I needed. Hell yeah to the female rage! Hell yeah to learning who you really are beneath all of the social conditioning! Women may not really be devolving into angry beasts (or maybe they are. I don’t judge), but we do want to be seen and to have our experiences validated. All of this soul-freeing beauty is packaged in a funny, immersive, dark, horrifying, and gory package, and I ate it up! Beckbessinger’s writing is provocative and crisp. Readers feel what Ellie feels, even when we know it’s irrational - and especially when we see something of ourselves in her. The pacing is perfect. The beginning, middle, and end are perfect. The plot and characters are perfect. I am craving more from the author. Cannot recommend enough!

This is an uncorrected proof I received from Netgalley. Thanks to Netgalley for putting this book in my hands, Penguin Books for providing this opportunity to read it, and to Sam Beckbessinger for creating it. I had a great time!

Opinions are 100% my own.

[Shae Bentley · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5⭐️ - I adored this one. It’s such a fun and clever book that blends social commentary with dark humour and full blown feral rage.

We follow Ellie as she juggles work in the tech industry, family expectations, the invisible labour of keeping a household running, and the general societal expectation that women should quietly hold everything together without complaining. Then perimenopause hits. Except in Ellie’s case, the mood swings, memory lapses, and sudden hair growth might not be hormonal after all…

Ellie is a hot mess and often unintentionally hilarious, especially as her life begins to spiral in ways she definitely did not plan for. She’s trying so hard to balance work, family, expectations, and a body that suddenly feels unfamiliar. She’s constantly picking up the slack while being underappreciated both at home and at work, and that simmering resentment and exhaustion was always going to boil over eventually.

We also get another perspective through Brenda, an older woman who becomes determined to investigate the mysterious deaths of local cats in the neighbourhood. She’s a hilariously stubborn, observant, and determined old lady and I really enjoyed her chapters!

There’s a whole lot of rage in this story and it feels very earned. The book has a lot to say about how women’s health is treated, or more accurately ignored. It touches on how difficult it can be for women to be taken seriously medically, particularly when it comes to menopause, an experience that affects millions yet still feels ridiculously under researched and dismissed.

This story also explores a lot of heavy topics including ageing, the treatment of women in the tech industry, unequal labour in relationships, eating disorders, and mental health. It manages to tackle these themes while still maintaining a strong sense of dark humour, which I loved.

I laughed, I cringed, I got angry on Ellie’s behalf, and I was wildly entertained the entire time!

⚠️ I do want to mention that there are some difficult scenes involving animals. There’s a very descriptive animal death early on, and the theme of pet deaths appears throughout the story. It makes sense for the plot, but it was tough to read at times. 🖤

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for the gifted physical ARC and NetGalley for the eARC. 🫶🏼

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

UNFLINCHINGLY BRUTAL & FREAKING BRILLIANT. 🐺🩸
Straight out of the gate, this is a 5-star read. Perfection, no notes. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
It’s no secret I love horror and a good laugh, and Sam Beckbessinger weaves them together so naturally it hurts.

Femme Feral follows Ellie, a mid-forties "boss babe" who just got passed over for CEO by a walking caricature of white male privilege. At home, she’s the glue holding everything together; managing her easy-going husband, a father-in-law losing his mind, a struggling daughter, and a useless brother. And on top of it all, Ellie is feeling the effects of perimenopause!
Ellie’s life is a mountain of lists where she is always at the bottom. Her main emotions? Repression and resentment. And they finally come out to play during her monthly howls at the moon.
Then there's Ellie’s foil, Brenda: a fierce, hilarious curmudgeon desperately seeking justice for her slain cat. With barbs sharper than Ellie’s claws, Brenda’s life isn't exactly filled with family, friends, or joy. But driven by anger and a need for justice to uncover the truth behind the Walthamstow cat murders, she finds a reason to live again, and an unlikely friend.

The chapter that gutted me follows a male character who is stalked while walking home at night. Initially, he shrugs it off because he has no frame of reference for that kind of fear. Watching his transition from arrogance to clenching his fists to stop them shaking felt like pure vindication. Who among us hasn't walked with keys between her knuckles?

Femme Feral forces you to open your eyes, examine your life, and let out your inner beast. It’s a demand for happiness in a world that asks women to settle for lists.
My Verdict: Read it. It’s social commentary horror for the ages.

[rachel x]

This was a highly anticipated release of mine, but the author's use of ChatGPT in the creation of this novel is an instant nope.

Fuck generative AI

[Mel · Rating 4 out of 5]

The allegory is strong in this one…. Obviously modern women are tired of not having their ailments dismissed by their doctors, but despite the frustration Ellie really believed she was on her way to menopause and starts tracking her symptoms on an app. Brain fog? Memory loss? Irregular bleeding? All possible symptoms. Though, when she starts waking up naked and caked in dirt and surrounded by bloody body parts, she considers that there might be something else going on entirely. Put Werewolves of London on the top of your playlist and give this one a read.

[Shubnum Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun!

[Janalyn, the blind reviewer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am so angry but I read this stupid book and then learned it was mostly written by AI. That’s so disappointing.

[Howard Gorman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. Packed with characters that are painfully relatable in all the best imaginable ways, it’s as fearsomely ferocious as it is ferociously funny – paws down the most entertaining, terrifying, hilarious time I’ve spent with a horror book all year.

[Aga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you publisher and netgalley for this ARC.

I was super excited for this one. Perimenopause and 46yo woman who does it all. It was supposed to be funny and yet it did not deliver.

The story was written chaotically and I just couldn’t relate to Ellie. She is such a force of nature at work yet she seems to not be able to have a good relationship with her husband.

The use of ChatGPT for creating meditation app felt wrong in my opinion.

I am dissapointefd with this one as I was asking myself what do I read. It wasn’t funny, Ellie turning into a werewolf- not sure if that supposed to be a metaphor but did not work for me at all.

It is a miss for me.

[Lydia Hephzibah]

DNF @ p.74

setting: UK
Rep: n/a

I was into this at the start but there's a VERY descriptive brutal cat death scene that recurs and I wish the synopsis had hinted at that. the blurb makes it seem like it will all be human death and violence. it felt gratuitous and unnecessary. also, just in general, this feels like stuff I've read before. I mean, I literally read another book in the last year that had a near identical premise of a woman unknowingly shifting and killing cats in the night. this doesn't do anything new, and it really doesn't help that the only way to read the arc is via the netgalley app on my phone with no option to increase the font size. publishers, do better!!! it is such a small ask!!

[Charlie Helton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This feminist horror is packed with dark satire, sharp humor, and all the rage of being overlooked, underestimated, and expected to keep it together while life is very much not keeping it together. Add in perimenopausal chaos, tech-company drama, a mediocre marriage, tension with a college-aged daughter, and the discovery that you’re now a werewolf? Yes please.

This was such an entertaining read with a ton of personality, dark humor, and bite. It was a quick, easy read that still had a lot to say, and I had a great time with it. Highly recommend if you love feminist rage, horror with humor, and messy midlife monster energy

[BookishKB]

🐺🌕 Femme Feral 🌕🐺

📖 Bookish Thoughts
I’ll be sharing my full review closer to publication date.

🩸What to Expect
• Perimenopause
• Werewolf horror
• Feminine rage
• Dark comedy
• Workplace sabotage
_ _ _ _

📅 Pub Date: May 12, 2026
📝 Thank you to Viking Penguin, Penguin Books, and NetGalley for the advanced copy. All thoughts are my own.

[Zoë · Rating 2 out of 5]

Femme Feral - Sam Beckbessinger
2.5 & 1 ⭐️
Ebook ARC

I’ve split this review into two parts - please read the full review to see why.

46-year old hyper-competent tech CEO Ellie's already juggling too much. It's an inconvenient time to be beset by mid-life symptoms: coarse hair in new places, hot flushes, insomnia, finding bloodstains on all her clothing, howling at the moon. Her doctor diagnoses perimenopause. But it's another 28-day cycle that's taking hold. One involving fur, teeth, and a significant amount of rage. Suddenly the troubles in her life - seem almost... bite-size.

2.5⭐️: This book really intrigued me and I loved how original and crazy the concept was. Menopause that turns you into a werewolf? I love that, sounds hilarious. Sadly I don’t think it was executed all that well. It took a bit too long to really get into the story where Ellie fully embraces being a werewolf, and when she did it was kinda fun then kinda weird. It didn’t end how I expected and assuming it would be a funny book, I didn’t really find myself laughing much. A fun story but didn’t quite execute it.

1⭐️: It’s important to address the use of AI in this book. In the author’s note (see second slide), Sam confesses to using ChatGPT3 to write one AI meditation for the book, and Apple predictive text for another one, and then editing them both for the book. I respect the honesty and trust that no more AI was used to write this book but any use of AI in the creative arts is unacceptable. It’s just one paragraph that’s been edited by Sam - just write it yourself?! So I cannot in good conscience recommend or rate this book higher than 1 star for that aspect of it. My advice to the author would be to apologise publicly, promise to never use AI again and stick to that as this will drive lots of people away as AI is such a big no no in the creative arts.

Thanks to those who made it to this paragraph. You might think why don’t I just go “1 star AI” and leave it at that? I feel it is important to review a book in more depth and it was my choice to review the whole book and then discuss the AI since 99% of the book is original.

Thank you NetGalley and Bloomsbury for the ARC.

[Life Of A Seashell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thankyou to Bloomsbury for this ARC for my honest review.

I really wanted to like this book… The premise had so much potential. A middle-aged woman navigating menopause, but you couldn’t tell if she was actually just going insane from the symptoms or was she actually turning into a werewolf?

But this just… did not land.

The story follows Ellie, a mum stuck in a stale marriage, running a “tranquility” mental health app while quietly falling apart. Alongside her is Brenda, an isolated, cranky older woman investigating a string of brutally murdered animals (including her own cat — which was genuinely upsetting). Brenda’s storyline had tension and purpose, but it felt like it never fully paid off.

As the book progresses, Ellie’s transformation becomes literal , she is a werewolf, and that’s where things really start to unravel. The narrative turns chaotic, messy, and honestly exhausting to follow. There are moments that feel completely out of place (that one werewolf scene… wtf was that??), and instead of adding depth, they just made the story feel disjointed and uncomfortable.

The themes seem to aim for something powerful , rage, female autonomy, rejecting societal expectations, but it ultimately reads like: give in to your anger and don’t apologise for it, without any real nuance or resolution. By the end, it just felt like a spiral with no meaningful payoff.

Also, the pacing? Rough. It was a STRUGGLE to get through, and I don’t say that lightly , this actually put me in a book slump, which almost never happens.

There were glimpses of something interesting, the concept, the exploration of menopause as something monstrous and misunderstood, Brenda’s investigation… but it all got buried under chaotic plotting and jarring tonal shifts.

Overall, a great idea with messy execution. I came away frustrated more than anything else.

[Brianne]

I'm so bummed to say I won't be reading this book because of the use of generative AI.

While I appreciate that the author said she used AI, I wish it had been more prominently displayed and shown at the beginning of the book rather than at the end. I also wish the publisher would have included this somewhere in the blurb or something.

I understand Beckbessinger's argument/explanation for using generative AI; however, I don't believe it should have been used. (Beckbessinger wrote a book about a perimenopausal werewolf, so I believe in her creativity to write tech-sounding meditation guides without using AI.)

This book sounded so interesting and I was so looking forward to reading it, but I will not be reading it.

Thank you to Viking Penguin and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC.

[Karen (kmo.reads) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Thank you to Viking Penguin and NetGalley for the gifted ARC.

I had high hopes for this book, as I thought it might feel relatable especially with perimenopause and people pleasing being all I seem to feel these days. However, I didn’t care for the writing style. My ARC had no chapter breaks, which made it harder to read, and the alleged use of AI was disappointing. It’s just too bad.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely loved this book. 10/10. I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This is a fascinating novel that combines lycanthropy with the menopause. It’s a scathing look at the ridiculous amount of pressure women are under through family, work etc, and the lack of understanding and research around menopause despite the number of humans who go through it.

This book is full of rage and feel prepared to be enraged reading it. But it also manages to be fairly nuanced. The husband is a bit dismissive, doesn’t really notice things, a bit oblivious to the fact his wife is constantly having to pick up his slack. But he’s also nice, kind and caring. No-one is really presented as a villain as such, it’s more the accumulation of neglect or indifference that creates the overwhelming circumstances our main character finds herself in.

We have a couple of perspectives here. Both middle aged women, in very different circumstances. One starting menopause who is also wealthy and with a fairly demanding and unappreciative family, one older and with health problems and a lack of family and income. Our second character becomes obsessed with finding the killer of local cats.

For the main character, it’s a bit of an extreme change, and yet she’s incredibly relatable. She is trying so hard to balance everything, she’s woefully under appreciated by her family and her work. When she tries to take a step back people suffer so she has no choice but to be mixing in constantly. She’s keeping lists all the time of everything she needs to do and there’s no consideration from others about picking stuff up themselves. The repressed rage, resentment was bound to boil over eventually and in this book, it’s explosive.

I have nothing but good things to say about this book, it was incisive, thought provoking, intense, totally fascinating and a wild read.

[Keely Kovacevic · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book felt like it was ripped right out of the depths of my subconscious. As a woman just entering her 40s, this was an incredibly powerful book. Women are so defined by their worth, by what they do for others, as a wife, a mother, a caretaker, a boss with her shit together. As soon as there is confrontation women are seen as emotional rather than justified, and this book laid it all out on the table. I was completely in love with the two main characters, I felt so much hatred for all the men in Ellie’s life, and I felt that everyone got what they deserved (except the cats, poor babies).

You need to get a little angry.

Read trigger warnings. Self harm, animal mutilation, stalking, violence

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin for providing an ARC of this in exchange for an honest review.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Spoilers included**

Starting off for things to consider before the book even begins, I would highly suggest including trigger warnings for eating disorders, animal mutilation, and stalking. These were the topics I was surprised by in the content, but there may be other triggers to include as well for readers' benefit! Also, I definitely think the title as an allusion to "femme fatale" is delightful.

Getting into the actual text, I found that each of the characters were believable, relatable, and had a natural quality when reading from their POVs. Ellie as the overworked and high-strung corporate mom trying to hold every crumbling part of her life together while making never-ending mental To Do Lists is equally familiar and infuriating. Brenda as a no-nonsense 80 year-old on a mission of justice no one else seemingly gives a hoot about is a firecracker of a woman. Paige (sorry to say I forgot her name, along with dad's), while a little forgettable, did read as a self-conscious young woman fighting the internal battle with standing up for herself and being perceived as a bitch when dealing with the consequences of a young man's unwanted attention. Each of these women very clearly represented to me the phases of growing up as a woman and determining where you want to fall under a patriarchal society. I appreciate seeing the different stages of life reflected in the text, but remain frustrated that some things never change.

I understand the topics included are inherently frustrating, such as the unerring audacity of men so accurately captured between these pages. The belief that women should play nice and behave is repeated, particularly by Ellie, until the very end of the book. Brenda does stand in opposition, but less in overt protest and more in her hardass attitude. However, the frustrations I have from the male characters is not what I wanted to take away from a story centered around a woman with primarily female POVs. Particularly, the ending that seemingly wraps everything up neatly left me wanting.

**SPOILER**

I'm not sure whether Ellie is supposedly presumed dead, if she is considered off on sabbatical, if her ex-husband Mo (had to look up his name, and are they actually separated or divorced??) knows where she is and what happened, etc. I'm frustrated that Ellie's passive aggressive behavior and Mo's weaponized incompetence is never addressed. There are a few moments where Ellie slips out of frustration, sure, but the issues in their relationship are never actually addressed and instead they split up so they can both end up with a new partner. Without therapy, they're both doomed to repeat the same mistakes! It also left me more concerned about Yusuf and how Mo is likely to ignore his father to death than anything else.
**END SPOILER**


I wasn't sure where the story would go since it includes the surprise of menopause to werewolf up front. There were moments where we know things are going to go bad, but go even worse than I could have guessed, but I'm not sure how the ending sits with me. During the entire final confrontation I was preparing myself for *the* moment, and think I'm ultimately disappointed--

**MORE SPOILER**

--that Ellie survived. She had several opportunities to do the right thing (for herself and everyone else) but was consistently selfish and put everyone in harm's way. I'm disappointed the others gave her the option to join them on their monthly retreat and allowed her to continue to rampage. I'm disappointed Paige is left off under the mindset that she is the problem rather than the victim of a miscommunication that spiraled out of control. I'm shocked Brenda went from preparing herself to take down a monster to convincing Ellie to fight for her daughter.

**END SPOILERS**

The whole thing just felt disjointed to me after spending time in these women's minds.

Overall, I did find the book enjoyable and wanted to offer a critical eye. I do wish the author had not utilized ChatGPT to generate part of the AI meditations as I found her own writing of the fictionalized AI to work well. I appreciate the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book and to offer feedback!

[Steven Blackman]

My TBR pile is big. Terrifyingly big. But I'm seriously considering ignoring it while I re-read the book I finished just this morning. Femme Feral by Sam Beckbessinger grabbed me in a way that a book hasn't for a long time. The tech world in which protagonist Ellie works is one I know, and it has been described perfectly: the conversations, the pressures, the hierarchies and systemic barriers to women. And when Ellie is passed over for promotion, the simmering anger she's been carrying for years begins to leak out, slowly at first. Doctors reassure her it's "only" perimenopause – but that's not the change that's really taking place.

Yes, Femme Feral is a story about a woman in her 40s turning into a werewolf. But it's so much more than that. In close-up it looks at what it means to be a woman undergoing a profound change in her body, while a broader social lens takes in our lives with technology – working in it, using it, and trying to live well alongside it. Ellie carries the emotional and practical load of her family and we're reminded – sometimes uncomfortably – how it feels to care for the people around us, even when they make it really, really difficult. Her stress is made tangible through her dependence on (and hate for) the endless list that defines her life. And it sits between the parentheses of two other women: seventy-year-old Brenda, whose anger is finally given life in the search for a cat-killer, and Ellie's daughter Paige, who is forced to discover her anger while at university.

At its red, beating heart, this story looks at the tension between existing as a strong woman and constantly allowing yourself to be given responsibility for things, while apologising if those things do not meet the demands of others. And it asks what the cost might be of denying that tension, and minimising and swallowing years and years of anger. Ellie's greatest transformation is when she shifts from repression of that anger, to acknowledgement and ultimately giving it life. And when she does, it's glorious.

Femme Feral is a triumphant celebration of female rage. It offers a scathing critique of the cult of tech and the fragile mythology of mental wellness apps. It skewers the medical profession, showing that it has a blind spot as big as the one caused by Brenda's macular degeneration where it comes to women's experiences. I's lyrical, it's thought-provoking, it's contemporary and funny and gory, and it's a deliciously sweary celebration of female anger as something powerful rather than shameful. This story is as sharp as a wolf's claws, and as biting as its powerful jaws. No wonder it has me in its tight grip.

[Lena Reads Everything · Rating 4 out of 5]

44-year-old tech Ellie is juggling a promotion to CEO, an exhausting workload, oblivious husband, thankless family, endless to-do list, the idiot male colleague, all while dealing with the onset of perimenopause. But as her doctor offers a perfectly normal diagnosis, Ellie realises something far stranger is happening: her body is syncing to a different 28-day cycle, one of fur, teeth, moonlight, and rage. Still trying to please everyone, Ellie needs to accept all the parts of her, including the rage.

The moment I read the premise of this story, I immediately put my hand up to read it. An older woman going through perimenopause, trying to overcome people-pleasing while carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders? Been there, living it now! There comes a point where the IDGAF mindset kicks in, and you realise embracing the rage is far healthier than repressing it. So I loved that this book leans into that truth, blending it with supernatural horror in such a fun and satisfying way.

That said, I did struggle a little with Ellie’s level of acceptance. I would have loved to see her rage escalate further, with her human side fully embracing it, rather than the story focusing mostly on her internal tug-of-war between what she is and what she could become. Brenda’s storyline was compelling, and while the group of similar women supporting Ellie had so much potential, I would have liked them to have more influence, though I can understand Ellie’s hesitation, given how narrow her world had become.

The pacing was tight, and I really enjoyed the chapter titles, which paired moon phases with menopausal symptoms. I love seeing more stories like this being published, where women come into their own while still acknowledging the real horror of the struggle.

Definitely one to pick up if you love female rage and werewolves! 4/5

Thanks to Bloomsbury and the author for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Available from the 9th April 2026.

[Shelleyrae at Book'd Out · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though I prefer to avoid the horror genre I was willing to take a risk with Femme Feral, in part because of my empathy for anyone suffering perimenopause, but also to take a step out of my comfort zone in honour of the Speccy Fiction Challenge.

To be honest I’m not exactly sure how I feel about it. The social commentary is on point, not only as Ellie struggles to balance the demands of work and family while overlooking her own needs; but with regards to the medical misogyny, attitudes to ageing, and the entitlement of so many of the men in the story. The none too subtle analogy between the symptoms of perimenopause and ‘the beast’ is in some ways all too relatable (The insomnia! The brain fog! The hair!); and there’s some satisfaction in Ellie’s revenge.

At times Femme Feral made me snigger, but it’s also not unexpectedly, very dark. Quite apart from multiple gruesomely described pet and people deaths, Beckbessinger explores serious topics including eating disorders, domestic violence, stalking, and suicidal ideation.

While the horror elements didn’t bother me and I appreciated Femme Feral’s sharp commentary and fearless exploration of feminine rage, I’m left feeling rather ambivalent about the story as a whole. Ultimately Femme Feral is a book I admired rather than enjoyed.

[Julia Carter · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is a take on the "is it menopause or am I turning into a werewolf?" trope. This was done in multiple POV, including our FMC and Brenda, a neighbor who's cat got mutilated and has made it her mission to figure out what happened. This book was a little cliche and the main character got on my nerves a bit, she had all these problems and never really got around to solving them in a satisfactory way. I'm giving this 2 stars. I read that the author used chatgpt but I am not sure if that's true or just a rumor. Either was I am judging based on what I read and not what the author may or may not have done. I recieved this ARC from netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.