Femme feral

by Sam Beckbessinger

Sam Beckbessinger's FEMME FERAL, a feminist Jekyll and Hyde comedy-horror pitched as NIGHTBITCH meets Grady Hendrix, about middle-age female rage, following a hyper-competent tech CEO who thinks she's going through perimenopause, but is actually turning into a werewolf.

Genres: Horror, Adult, Adult Fiction

384 pages, Paperback

Expected publication 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

[Sidney]

dnf around pg 220.

I really think this is a case of "it's not you, it's me" . 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 fine & 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 almost 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

[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.

[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

[Shubnum Khan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun!

[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!!

[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!

[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.

[Ana · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s going to be challenging to write this as a spoiler free review but I can do it. And I want to do it too because I adored this book. It’d be more accurate to say this is a 4.5 but I’ll get into why later.

When I saw the premise, I was immediately intrigued. And before reading the book, I decided to check the author’s note. Sure, some might contain a spoiler and that’s why they are placed after the story is told but it’s rare that happens. With a book such as this one, I felt what the author had to say about her inspiration to write it would be important for me to know before reading the story. And it was. It also prepared me for the unexpected talk of dead pets that there is in the book but it plays a part in the story. It isn’t just there for shock value but it broke my heart a little.

Right away, we see all the things that inspired the author to write this book. Ellie is a bit of a mess but she’s not getting any help to do better. She’s stressed like most women are and has to do too much because everyone else does too little. She can literally be bleeding and yet she won’t stop doing things because who else will do them if she doesn’t? It’s such a relatable aspect to this character.
And then she finds out she might be on her way to menopause land. It’s a shock to her because she thinks she’s too young for that but it’s also something that changes her world drastically. A little bit like it happens to us during puberty, this is another moment when our body changes and we can’t control it. We sometimes don’t understand what’s going on either and that doesn’t help. Going through that while her life goes through so much else makes Ellie feel like she’ll lose her mind. Again, relatable.

The story is set in London and a lot of the areas mentioned are ones I know very well, so that helped me visualise things even more easily. The humour is very British too and I’m a fan of that. I kept laughing out loud while reading the book. One doesn’t need to be British to enjoy this book (I mean…I’m not British) but it’s true that there are mentions of a few things that hit harder if you experienced them yourself. I still remember the first time I tried to book an appointment with my family doctor…
However, Ellie is mostly a big city woman. Eternally stressed and surrounded by too much going on. Constantly trying to add some structure to the chaos and the way her body is changing is making that very difficult. It’s hard when even your own body is betraying you.
And her family…well, it’s a very particular family too. I loved Mo as a character because he wasn’t one dimensional. It added more interesting nuances to the story than a typical useless and mean husband character. It felt more realistic in a way too. And Paige…we’ll talk more about her later.

But this isn’t just Ellie’s story. It’s also Brenda’s and she’s fantastic. When we first meet her, she’s just a grumpy old woman. A character that I like but that can be frustrating at times. Brenda wasn’t frustrating, she was fabulous. There is so much more to her than the grumpy old woman tag. Through Brenda, we’re introduced to this storyline of pets being hurt. Again, hard to read when you have a cat next to you keeping you company while reading. But it’s what finally gives a purpose to someone who feels like they are just taking space. Because that’s what we do to old people. We make them feel like they are just taking space and are worthless, when they have done so much for us. It’s an awful thing that more and more people are talking about in recent years. The way that was explored through Brenda’s character was so great and I felt quite emotional at times.
That’s kind of the thing with the social commentary of this book. We talk more about menopause than we used to do and yet it’s still not enough. Women still feel alone during that period and don’t get the help they need. We also talk more about old people being lonely but aren’t doing a lot to solve that issue either. There are the “adopt a grandparent” campaigns, sure. And a lot of people try to help but it’s still not enough. So I loved that this book covered those topics in such a human way that really makes us stop for a minute to think about it.

Ellie’s job is managing an app and her first step when she finds out about her perimenopause is downloading an app about it. We’ve recently heard of scandals about those apps stealing information for women and I personally don’t use any myself. It never felt like they did much and I can just write the dates of when I got my period on my calendar. But…imagine if men had periods! Every app would be built to perfection so every second of their cycle would be the best possible. But it’s women who deal with it so just make an app with a pink background and put a couple of motivational phrases they can read. It really is frustrating how half of the population is ignored when it comes to things so vital as our health. And that frustration is portrayed so well in this book.

Now, if I feel so positive about everything, why is it not a 5 star read? It was for a while…until the 50% mark. Why was Carol part of this book? I didn’t like her character at all and feel that the little we get from it could have been done through another character instead. The scene when we first met her was one that made me pause. I wanted to beg the book to not turn from perfect to disappointment and it didn’t but…that whole scene would be deleted if I was editing this book. Unnecessary and infuriating in some ways.
Apart from Carol, I was also frustrated by Paige. She’s a well written character and her story is very interesting. I understand why she does what she does but my God is it frustrating to read! I wanted to scream at the book. And it’s one thing to act like that because, again, I get it. But the way Paige treated Ellie bothered me a lot.
I think this is a me thing but I hate characters who treat their mothers poorly. Because I adore my mum and if someone told me I will be like her when I grow up I would be flattered. As a matter of fact, I would probably say I won’t because she’s a much better person than I am. None of my many flaws are her fault. It’s all the good parts of me that I have to thank my mother for. And I understand that’s not everyone’s reality but it’s annoying to see ungrateful children who refuse to understand their parents are doing their best. If it’s too much, it can be spoken about. The extreme reactions Paige takes made reading the book less fun. And the whole narrative of not wanting to become your mother has such an undertone of internalised misogyny that it becomes off putting. Again, realistic…but off putting.

So the first half of the book was almost perfect and the second half could have been better. But Brenda fully saved the book. A book of just Ellie and her story would have been good too but Brenda is 100% the MVP of this book. It was a little disappointing to read such a strong start and then see the book struggling a bit more before ending. But the ending was still good and the action was a lot of fun. So it feels like going from great to good leaves this bittersweet taste but overall this was a fantastic read. And some of the issues I had are so personal, not everyone would care about them.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing Plc and NetGalley for providing me with an early copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

📚Femme Feral
✍🏻Sam Beckbessinger
Blurb:
"A savage, witty, gory, heartfelt, utterly relatable rage fantasy and a helluva good time. Miranda July meets Stephen King." --Lauren Beukes, New York Times bestselling author of The Shining Girls

Hyper-competent Ellie thinks she’s going through perimenopause, but discovers she’s actually turning into a werewolf in this feminist, dark-comedy debut

The head of a company she started from the ground-up, the worried mother of a troublingly secretive daughter, and the wife of an easy-going man who always has her picking up the slack—Ellie is already juggling too much. So, it's an inconvenient time to find herself beset by strange physical changes: hair sprouting in new places, running hot, trouble sleeping, losing time, finding bloodstains in all her clothing. And underneath it all, a boiling rage that threatens to disrupt the life she's worked so hard to build.

Her doctor diagnoses perimenopause. But it's another twenty-eight-day cycle that's taking hold, one that involves fur, teeth, and a not-insignificant amount of howling at the moon—and that gifts Ellie incredible strength and speed. Her new power's thrilling, as is releasing the anger she’s suppressed for years—especially as it turns out that there are some problems that can be solved with violence: The terrible new hire who is sabotaging her careful plans. The creep who's stalking her daughter. Only, the beast within isn't easy to control, and its bloody trail is getting harder to hide. With an obsessive hunter on her trail and a growing fear of what she's becoming, Ellie must find a way to yoke her fury before she tears through the people she loves.

A deeply gratifying, highly addictive and provocative read, Femme Feral is an exhilarating expression of feminine rage, with a warning: If you swallow your anger, it's sure to come back with a bite.
My Thoughts
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 Edelweiss, Penguin Books and Author Sam Beckbessinger for the complimentary copy of ""Femme Feral" I am leaving my voluntary feedback in appreciation.
#Edelweiss
#PenguinBooks
#FemmeFeral
#SamBeckBessinger
⭐️⭐️⭐️
⚠️Trigger Warning Animal Death

[Sarah Wahl · Rating 2 out of 5]

When I saw the summary of this novel, I was very intrigued and excited to delve into the story; however, I felt let down by the final product. First and foremost, I do want to touch upon the use of AI in this novel. In the acknowledgments, the author references using ChatGPT for some of the AI statements in the novel. While I wasn't a big fan of the mention of AI, I did appreciate how it worked within the story. On the other hand, I am extremely disappointed that AI was actually used to create some of the statements. If you have already gone the extra mile to write a 300+ page story, then what is the reason to use ChatGPT for a sentence or two? I understand that it wasn't the entire story, but it was used more than I like, which is not using it at all lol.

Truthfully, the reason this book didn't get a 1-star rating is because of the character Brenda. I do love a multiple pov kind of book, as I think it is fascinating to see how the different characters interact with the same information, so I was excited to read from the perspectives found in the novel. The narrator whom I enjoyed the most, similar to what others have said, was Brenda! She is spunky and doesn't give a shit what others think about. Beneath that attitude, you can see she truly cares. The cat that she has didn't even originally belong to her, but she took it in. She wanted to know what was happening to these poor animals that were getting killed, so she went out and did some sleuthing herself! I also liked her perspective best because it felt like Ellie was just too much at times, but in the wrong way. I love to see/read a woman getting her revenge, but I felt like a lot of the revenge she took was more extreme. It was difficult at times to read how she mutilated cats as the beast/werewolf. I actually didn't mind her actions toward Andreas because he was annoying and sexist, but it felt like the other violence was just her way of repressing any other feeling. I do understand that part of the book is her learning to accept that anger, but her learning to control it doesn't become a thing until the very end. We see Brenda go through a whole character arc in her pov, but it felt like Ellie didn't learn too much by the end.

I did have a fun time reading this book, as the concept of equating menopause to lycanthropy is very clever. I think the act of changing on the full moon and going through the changes from having a period to menopause are very similar. I saw in another review that this kind of story has been done before, and I would be interested to read more books with this kind of concept!

Last but not least, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

★★★★☆

I wasn't really sure what to expect with this, but I definitely enjoyed it. There are tropes that we've seen before; workplace based plots, cog-in-the-machine employees that aren't being recognised, the systemic misogyny inbuilt into society and main characters lashing out at it, and finally, werewolves. Mix them altogether and it turns out you have a pretty good (if entirely unsubtle) metaphor.

This was just trendy enough whilst it didn't take itself seriously so it never felt over done or done only BookTok. Keeps you guessing and whilst you might be able to work out how it ends, everything that happens along the way is a bit of a surprise.

EDIT: I saw some reviews saying they DNF'ed or 1 star because the writer used ChatGPT/the book was written by ChatGPT. Just for clarity, the writer used ChatGPT/AI to write 2 of the meditations used in the book only. I'm wholeheartedly anti-AI because I think the lines drawn between AI and reality are so very thin that we need better regulations and it's grinding down attention spans to 0.2 seconds, HOWEVER, it is entirely unfair to say that this writer used AI to write the whole book. That is not the case. I don't think they should have used it in the first place, because really, just make up the meditations, but it was used in two very minor places which had no grounding on the plot of the book as a whole.

Huge thanks to Bloomsbury for the advanced copy. All opinions are my own.

cw// gore, violence, adult language, sexual content, mentions of stalking/harassment, animal abuse

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

My family had to laugh when I told them about the blurb for “Femme Feral”. We have a few family members that are currently going through perimenopause. Of course, it became a must read.

The first half of the book takes its time telling a story, introducing you to the characters and the situation. There were many chuckles reading as Ellie is describing how she is feeling and her symptoms of perimenopause. It’s quite an enjoyable read, well unless you are one of the pets that die as the beast emerges. The Karen of the neighborhood, the older lady on the hunt for the beast, the Facebook group, and all the craziness at work provide a lot to laugh about.

And then we get to the second half of the book. It isn’t as funny of a novel at that point, and it embraces its horror side. Which is fine. What began to bother me was the beast became the most likable part of Ellie. I realize this is a parody of how women feel during perimenopause, but to me, she went from a sympathetic character that couldn’t control how she felt to being a person that you couldn’t connect with. Maybe that was part of the point. But she ceased to be a victim of her physiology and just wasn’t a nice person. Maybe that is just me not understanding.

I received this ARC from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an unbiased review.

[Elise · Rating 4 out of 5]

From the very beginning of the book, it's obvious Ellie is overextended and trying to manage her life as best as possible but the world kind of sucks and she can't get a win. The book is written in a way that resonates so well with women who work, are moms, wives, and juggling the whole world on their shoulders without any appreciation. Add on starting menopause and it all becomes a s show.

Through this, animals start showing up dead around her neighborhood and her body is changing in ways that seem a little extreme (even for menopause). There's not much correlation in the beginning as these just seem another thing she has to deal with/worry about/make to do list for.

At some point the story moves to multiple pov's which I wasn't sure about at first but ended up appreciating. All the characters had unique stories and their endings were nuts (for lack of a better term 😂)

I actually really enjoyed this book. It was stressful at first but I think it was obvious some kind of breaking point was coming along with retribution.

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

[Cami l · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book more than I expected to. Sure, the menopause/ werewolf transformation was nothing new, but the more modern backdrop with a woman at the head of a tech company, working with AI and balancing everything from caring for her college-age daughter to picking up on her bumbling idiot husband’s slack felt very real. Brenda and Ellie aren’t exactly sympathetic narrators, and I almost prefer the random one-off POVs from anyone else’s perspective, but the story was interesting to read nevertheless. One thing that bugged me a bit was the switches between the multiple POVs, some characters have their chapters written in first person POV and others have it written in third person POV.

I also do want to address a recurring comment in other reviews- the author disclosed that she used generative AI to write some of the prompts that were written by AI in the story. The rest of the book is her original authorship. This disclosure is at the very end of the book, so just keep in mind before reading.

[Mellonie Yasmina · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was actually surprised by how much I liked this book. Werewolf themed stories are usually not my thing at all, but I ended up really enjoying this one. I was able to relate a lot to Ellie, especially the stress of a corporate job, working in a male dominated environment and being the only woman in the room. The office politics, the pressure and the small details of working life were painfully believable. The way the book explores ageing, hormones and that constant pressure to keep it together felt very real, even before the horror elements fully kicked in.

It balances the horror of becoming something monstrous with the very real horror of being a woman navigating that kind of world. I also liked that we get multiple perspectives, which added more depth and made it more engaging.

I did need to read it twice to fully appreciate it and I do think a content warning at the beginning would be helpful. Some of the gore and descriptions are very visual and while I personally can handle that, I know it could be triggering for others. That said, it was a new and unexpected direction and I’m glad I gave it a chance.

[Dominika · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was so much fun! I don't even know where to start. We have a forty-something year old woman who works for a tech company. She has everything under control, she's looking after everyone else and she has a neverending to-do list. On the day when she believed she was being promoted to CEO she finds out someone else got the job..and on top of that it looks like she might be starting her menopause.
Suddenly her whole life is turned upside down. She feels constant rage, insatiable hunger, a few times now she has woken up naked, not knowing where she is or how she got there. She believes the menopause is making her go crazy. But is it?....
This is a very graphic and disgusting book at times. It is full of rage but also full of misunderstanding, love and life. I had so much fun reading it!

Thank you so much to NetGalley for my copy! ☺️

[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.

[Tiffany (areyoutellingstories) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"My devil had long been caged, he came out roaring." Robert Louis Stevenson

As women, we are taught to be polite, calm, demure. But what happens when all that 40+ year-old bottled-up rage is ready to be unleashed? You become menopausal and burn the world down! Or in Ellie's case, you become a werewolf.

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this to my mum and she’s really liking it. I just found it hard to read at times. Kept forgetting about it. Think the ai thing is blown way out of proportion it’s a weird little app. That being said I think all ai could be funnier as predictive text. Felt like ending was rushed. She really stayed tho (all those cats)

[Georgie | The Pink Prose Parlour]

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.

[J R · Rating 4 out of 5]

feels pretty good, but ultimately a little underwhelming. it has all the right plot aspects but at the same time it feels a little bit reused if that makes sense? 4 stars. tysm for the arc.

[Owen]

**preorder**

[rachel x]

"Sam Beckbessinger's FEMME FERAL, a feminist Jekyll and Hyde comedy-horror pitched as NIGHTBITCH meets Grady Hendrix, about middle-age female rage, following a hyper-competent tech CEO who thinks she's going through perimenopause, but is actually turning into a werewolf."