What do you think?
Rate this book
Animals Eat Each Other
In Elle Nash’s stunning and powerful debut, a girl with no name embarks on a fraught three-way relationship with Matt, a satanist and a tattoo artist, and his girlfriend Frances, a new mom. The liaison is caged by strict rules and rigid emotional distance. Nonetheless, it’s all too easy to surrender to an attraction so powerful she finds herself erased, abandoning even her own name in favor of a new one: Lilith.
As Lilith grows closer to Matt, she begins to recognize the dark undertow of obsession and jealousy that her presence has created between Matt and Frances, and finds herself balancing on a knife’s edge between pain and pleasure, the promise of the future and the crushing isolation of the present. With stripped-down prose and unflinching clarity, Nash examines madness in the wreckage of love, and the loss of self that accompanies it. Nash's work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire and others.
As Lilith grows closer to Matt, she begins to recognize the dark undertow of obsession and jealousy that her presence has created between Matt and Frances, and finds herself balancing on a knife’s edge between pain and pleasure, the promise of the future and the crushing isolation of the present. With stripped-down prose and unflinching clarity, Nash examines madness in the wreckage of love, and the loss of self that accompanies it. Nash's work has been featured in Cosmopolitan, Elle, Marie Claire and others.
121 pages, Paperback
First published July 18, 2017
75 people are currently reading
8158 people want to read
About the author
Elle Nash
26 books506 followersElle Nash is the author of the novel Animals Eat Each Other (Dzanc Books), which was featured in the 2018 June Reading Room of O - The Oprah Magazine and hailed by Publishers Weekly as a ‘complex, impressive exploration of obsession and desire.’ Her debut collection of stories, Nudes, was published in 2021. Her next novel, Deliver Me, is out from Unnamed Press in 2023.
Her work appears in Guernica, The Nervous Breakdown, Literary Hub, BOMB Magazine, The Fanzine, Volume 1 Brooklyn, New York Tyrant and elsewhere. She is a founding editor of Witch Craft Magazine.
Her work appears in Guernica, The Nervous Breakdown, Literary Hub, BOMB Magazine, The Fanzine, Volume 1 Brooklyn, New York Tyrant and elsewhere. She is a founding editor of Witch Craft Magazine.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 445 reviews
March 13, 2019
This is a novel about consumption. It is a novel about eating away at the basest parts of what makes up the self and gnawing our way into the lives of others, leaving irrevocable worm-holes of damage in our wake. This is a novel about what happens when we go so deep into another or so far away from who we are that darkness descends and we can not find our own way back.
I received a copy of this book and started reading it less than an hour later, so sure that this was going to be a five star read. But what I thought I signed up for was not what was delivered, in actuality.
My problem with this book stemmed not from its erotic nature but that I struggled to understand what the purpose of it all was. The dark subject matter provided no concluding, redeeming arc or - which I would have as equally preferred - an entire shunning of the societal system that deems the antics that take place so taboo in the first place.
There was so much pain, in every facet of every characters life, and whilst Nash bluntly confronted this with an abstract sort of beauty that I greatly appreciated, for me, the novella went no further than this. The story was one of bleak and unending sadness and I wondered what I was supposed to take away from that except more of the same.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Elle Nash, and the publisher, 404 Ink, for this opportunity.
I received a copy of this book and started reading it less than an hour later, so sure that this was going to be a five star read. But what I thought I signed up for was not what was delivered, in actuality.
My problem with this book stemmed not from its erotic nature but that I struggled to understand what the purpose of it all was. The dark subject matter provided no concluding, redeeming arc or - which I would have as equally preferred - an entire shunning of the societal system that deems the antics that take place so taboo in the first place.
There was so much pain, in every facet of every characters life, and whilst Nash bluntly confronted this with an abstract sort of beauty that I greatly appreciated, for me, the novella went no further than this. The story was one of bleak and unending sadness and I wondered what I was supposed to take away from that except more of the same.
I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to the author, Elle Nash, and the publisher, 404 Ink, for this opportunity.
March 7, 2019
OK, I'm clearly in the minority with regards to my feelings about this book, because everyone else apparently loved it... While I completely agree that the prose is very good, to the point of occasionally mesmerizing, everything else about this short novel irked me.
A nameless nineteen year old girl lives in a crappy suburb in Colorado; she works an unchallenging retail job, steals booze and meds from her depressed and possibly addicted mother and tries to have sex with her boss at every opportunity she has. She meets a young couple, Matt and Frances, and becomes entangled in a weird sort of ménage à trois with them. But since every part of this triangle is selfish and fucked up, things slide into bizarre drama and disaster rather quickly.
There is so much self-loathing (albeit often unconscious) and self-destructive behavior in this book, and I have to say that this is quite realistic about being 19 and confused and fucked up and feeling stuck. It is a sad truth that being sexually desired is often the only form of validation certain girls get, and when you internalize such an unhealthy idea, it becomes as addictive as a drug, and this is clearly what is going on with the nameless narrator: if no one wants her, she feels like she doesn't exist. If this is even just a little bit autobiographical on Nash's part, it is pretty ballsy to put it out there like this, but I unfortunately failed to be moved or gripped by it.
Every single character in this book is awful, and I assume that was part of Nash's point (though I'm still not sure what that point is); I am not someone who needs to like characters to enjoy a book, so in theory, this shouldn't have bothered me. Except that the people she wrote are not simply awful, they are also mediocre, immature and uninteresting. They reminded me of some of the people I knew growing up in a shitty suburb full of mediocre, immature and uninteresting people, and also reminded me why I moved away as fast and as far as was humanly possible.
Well written yet unpleasant. This was just the wrong book for me; maybe I'm getting too old and grumpy to tolerate teenage melancholia... 2 and a half stars, rounded up because of the quality of the prose.
A nameless nineteen year old girl lives in a crappy suburb in Colorado; she works an unchallenging retail job, steals booze and meds from her depressed and possibly addicted mother and tries to have sex with her boss at every opportunity she has. She meets a young couple, Matt and Frances, and becomes entangled in a weird sort of ménage à trois with them. But since every part of this triangle is selfish and fucked up, things slide into bizarre drama and disaster rather quickly.
There is so much self-loathing (albeit often unconscious) and self-destructive behavior in this book, and I have to say that this is quite realistic about being 19 and confused and fucked up and feeling stuck. It is a sad truth that being sexually desired is often the only form of validation certain girls get, and when you internalize such an unhealthy idea, it becomes as addictive as a drug, and this is clearly what is going on with the nameless narrator: if no one wants her, she feels like she doesn't exist. If this is even just a little bit autobiographical on Nash's part, it is pretty ballsy to put it out there like this, but I unfortunately failed to be moved or gripped by it.
Every single character in this book is awful, and I assume that was part of Nash's point (though I'm still not sure what that point is); I am not someone who needs to like characters to enjoy a book, so in theory, this shouldn't have bothered me. Except that the people she wrote are not simply awful, they are also mediocre, immature and uninteresting. They reminded me of some of the people I knew growing up in a shitty suburb full of mediocre, immature and uninteresting people, and also reminded me why I moved away as fast and as far as was humanly possible.
Well written yet unpleasant. This was just the wrong book for me; maybe I'm getting too old and grumpy to tolerate teenage melancholia... 2 and a half stars, rounded up because of the quality of the prose.
October 14, 2019
I think that I missed the " flowing prose" and" rawness" of this novella....
June 2, 2019
After reading Boyne’s novel about a horrible and self-centered protagonist, I unintentionally ventured into the same territory with Elle Nash’s short debut novel, Animals Eat Each Other. An unnamed nineteen year old finds herself in an unhealthy relationship with couple Matt and Frances, who quickly christen her Lilith, and we watch as she spirals in and out of their demanding and jealousy ridden relationship.
This novel has been likened to the works of Ottessa Moshfegh, whom I love, and I can see why. The characters here are apathetic and horrible in their daily lives, though they’re obviously quite interested in their arrangement, and generally give off a realistic yet perturbed vibe. Nash’s words are raw and affecting, and we know just how messed up and complicated these characters’ lives are. But I don’t think Nash is quite up there with Moshfegh. While the main characters of Eileen and Rest and Relaxation are similar to Lilith, Moshfegh gives us both the insight into her characters’ behavior and also some kind of resolution, which we don’t get with Lilith—she’s likely bound for more of the same. A little more introspection on Lilith’s part would’ve been quite welcome, and while that’s a little frustrating, it’s also (very likely) Nash’s point. Lilith’s life is doomed to go in circles, which is a fitting albeit sad conclusion.
I guess I think of this in terms of Lynch’s Blue Velvet too, but an arguably lighter and less complex version. Still, there are similar elements to Lynch and Moshfegh’s works—damaged goods, sex, obsession, drugs—so if those are intriguing to you, I don’t think Nash’s debut would do you any harm. I’ll definitely keep Nash in my radar, though, and look forward to what else she has in store for us.
This novel has been likened to the works of Ottessa Moshfegh, whom I love, and I can see why. The characters here are apathetic and horrible in their daily lives, though they’re obviously quite interested in their arrangement, and generally give off a realistic yet perturbed vibe. Nash’s words are raw and affecting, and we know just how messed up and complicated these characters’ lives are. But I don’t think Nash is quite up there with Moshfegh. While the main characters of Eileen and Rest and Relaxation are similar to Lilith, Moshfegh gives us both the insight into her characters’ behavior and also some kind of resolution, which we don’t get with Lilith—she’s likely bound for more of the same. A little more introspection on Lilith’s part would’ve been quite welcome, and while that’s a little frustrating, it’s also (very likely) Nash’s point. Lilith’s life is doomed to go in circles, which is a fitting albeit sad conclusion.
I guess I think of this in terms of Lynch’s Blue Velvet too, but an arguably lighter and less complex version. Still, there are similar elements to Lynch and Moshfegh’s works—damaged goods, sex, obsession, drugs—so if those are intriguing to you, I don’t think Nash’s debut would do you any harm. I’ll definitely keep Nash in my radar, though, and look forward to what else she has in store for us.
May 30, 2018
This slim debut is a force to be reckoned with and I loved every fierce and savage second of it. The unnamed 19-year-old narrator spends her free time getting high on Robitussin, snorting her mom’s pills and having shallow sex as a means of self-validation.
She’s reckless and destructive—and she knows it. When she becomes involved in a polyamorous sadomasochistic relationship with Matt and his girlfriend Frankie, it’s almost guaranteed that things aren’t going to end well. As her obsession with Matt grows, her destructive behaviors spiral further out of control.
In gritty, sharp prose, Elle Nash thrusts readers into the madness of infatuation and toes the fine lines been pain and pleasure, ecstasy and anguish.
The narrator longs to be close to another person, yet can’t seem to give up the thrill and validation of being desired—no matter what that may cost her. I think this is something that a lot of teenage girls experience: deriving self-worth from being perceived as a sexual object; struggling to differentiate genuine pleasure from the fleeting high of feeling wanted and desired.
If you’re drawn to raw, fearless writers like Merritt Tierce and Ottessa Moshfegh, you should pick this up immediately.
She’s reckless and destructive—and she knows it. When she becomes involved in a polyamorous sadomasochistic relationship with Matt and his girlfriend Frankie, it’s almost guaranteed that things aren’t going to end well. As her obsession with Matt grows, her destructive behaviors spiral further out of control.
In gritty, sharp prose, Elle Nash thrusts readers into the madness of infatuation and toes the fine lines been pain and pleasure, ecstasy and anguish.
The narrator longs to be close to another person, yet can’t seem to give up the thrill and validation of being desired—no matter what that may cost her. I think this is something that a lot of teenage girls experience: deriving self-worth from being perceived as a sexual object; struggling to differentiate genuine pleasure from the fleeting high of feeling wanted and desired.
If you’re drawn to raw, fearless writers like Merritt Tierce and Ottessa Moshfegh, you should pick this up immediately.
July 26, 2021
oh they're just all fucking and listening to marilyn manson - how edgy.
January 15, 2018
A short, sexy novel — Elle Nash has a talent for writing both intimacy & interiority. ANIMALS EAT EACH OTHER is told from the perspective of a nineteen-year-old woman who engages in a relationship with a (m/f) couple and becomes entangled in their emotional lives. She has a self-destructive streak, a fascination with pain, a complex kind of sexualized self-hatred. There are some lovely passages that deeply analyze the interpersonal complexities of sex and consent, the power games we play with each other, the way boundaries form and disintegrate. I also learned some interesting stuff about Satanism, and Nash provides some very thoughtful meditations on this idea of embracing “darkness,” and was it means to see one’s self as a combination of binary elements. This book is very sex-heavy, including several scenes of more serious bdsm, and I know not everyone would be comfortable with it. But the voice really rang true for me. & CW: domestic violence.
June 18, 2019
It's difficult to write a book about being young without descending into twee nostalgia or contrived edgelord menace. So ANIMALS EAT EACH OTHER is the rare work that presents the messiness and ugliness of young sex and romance in a manner that neither sensationalizes nor moralizes. It's an uncannily realistic depiction of young people scrambling for connection and intimacy but lacking the emotional maturity necessary to experience it. Furthermore, it's an incredibly insightful exploration of the ways we both knowingly and unknowingly manipulate the people we love (or think we love) in order to feel whole.
April 7, 2018
It's a hell of a thing to write something so vulnerable. That comes from the sore place the way this does.
The real strength of the book is in the moments of touch. They're perfect. There's a lot to feel in the book, and to feel with the body, not the head. The moments of touch are so good that you start to feel a little like the character, impatient for the next one.
Something that really sets this book apart from others like it is that it's not a morality tale. It's not a book that defends or condemns. The reader isn't told what the message is or what they should do with the story once they finish the last page. The reader finishes and gets to think on it, make their own decisions. It's a rare luxury that's in too-short supply.
Take the time to live in this world that's dirty and loving, filled with garbage and people. The relationships might look different than yours on the surface, but damn, they'll dredge up something of the familiar that's just heartbreaking.
The real strength of the book is in the moments of touch. They're perfect. There's a lot to feel in the book, and to feel with the body, not the head. The moments of touch are so good that you start to feel a little like the character, impatient for the next one.
Something that really sets this book apart from others like it is that it's not a morality tale. It's not a book that defends or condemns. The reader isn't told what the message is or what they should do with the story once they finish the last page. The reader finishes and gets to think on it, make their own decisions. It's a rare luxury that's in too-short supply.
Take the time to live in this world that's dirty and loving, filled with garbage and people. The relationships might look different than yours on the surface, but damn, they'll dredge up something of the familiar that's just heartbreaking.
January 19, 2018
A very well written and commendably compact novel about awful people fucking each other, fucking each other over, and fucking each other up. Not really my thing, but Nash knows what she's doing and she does it well.
May 23, 2021
I had the next two days off, with enough pills and enough Robitussin to bliss out for a while.
I clicked out a message letter by letter, then stared at my phone for a few minutes, deciding whether or not I should send it out. Too fucked up to determine whether the message was vulnerable or embarrassing, I deleted and rewrote it a few times.
Then, finally, hit send.
i need you,
come over.
I clicked out a message letter by letter, then stared at my phone for a few minutes, deciding whether or not I should send it out. Too fucked up to determine whether the message was vulnerable or embarrassing, I deleted and rewrote it a few times.
Then, finally, hit send.
i need you,
come over.
May 24, 2018
Elle Nash’s Animals Eat Each Other is a poignant debut that’s every bit as sharp and cutting as the barb of a scorpion’s tail. The story explores topics of intimacy, desire, and betrayal in relationships and how sometimes what people crave the most causes the direst consequences. It is a striking representation of the human dichotomy as fragile, but also venomous, and how people often hurt each other when they are at their most vulnerable.
Full review at CLASH
Full review at CLASH
November 14, 2019
This novel may be a debut, but it wastes no time crashing through boundaries. On the opening page:
"The one who tied me to the coffee table was his girlfriend, Frances. Her hand was on my thigh, small & smooth & birdlike, occasionally caressing back & forth across my leg as I lay on my back, pressed into the living-room carpet. Frances was naked." To appreciate ANIMALS EAT EACH OTHER, better bring an appetite— pun intended. Sex is set on a platter, the book’s overriding concern. “I’m pretty sure,” the narrator muses, “the meaning of life is about sex." Yet while the characters drip with unapologetic want, throughout, the novel proves remarkably subtle & insightful. The fucking never lacks for mind-fucking. The most intense three-way can include a thought that's rather a buzz-kill: “The sex became an absurd echo in which I was a caricature of myself.” What drives Elle Nash’s plot is the same as drives Proust’s, namely, obsession. Her unnamed narrator whips herself into a frenzy over married Matt. After he dubs her a “wild demon woman,” a "Lilith," she tries to live up to the role, though she's just 18 & Matt's wife remains “in charge ... the center of the mandala.” Complicating matters further is the BFF Jenny. When the narrator confesses she could "fuck Matt forever," Jenny just kisses her pal & asks: “So? I could fuck you forever.” Yes, these two animals are eating each other as well— though the presentation always maintains admirable rhetorical balance. Nash falls into neither the euphemisms of erotica nor the posturing of porn, & she keeps tossing in playful fillips. Either way, she steers clear of gravitas, one of the great pitfalls of writing about sex. Even more impressive is the tight rein on the drama. There’s “Lilith”& her obsession, the fuck-buddy & a few others. That’s it. “Lilith” shares a trailer with her widowed mom, & she acknowledges that the death of her other parent left a bad wound, but this glimmer of self-awareness changes nothing. Parents remain offstage, often in a Percocet haze, and the setting, Colorado Springs, seems all threadbare fringes, battered malls in which the players either tantalize each other or hook up, with the help of X or vodka. That's the point, really, the tragedy: these are creatures cast out of the American Eden (come to think, wasn’t Colorado Springs a gold-rush town?). What "Lilith" wants from Matt eventually goes beyond the dead-end groping & snogging; she craves being “part of a young nuclear family,” & not just “a girl who lived in her mom’s trailer & snorted her mom’s Vicodin.” Finally, it's this swift, stealthy, ticklish book itself which proves one spirit at least flew free of our all-American neediness & muck.
(This review adapted from my piece in BROOKLYN RAIL)
"The one who tied me to the coffee table was his girlfriend, Frances. Her hand was on my thigh, small & smooth & birdlike, occasionally caressing back & forth across my leg as I lay on my back, pressed into the living-room carpet. Frances was naked." To appreciate ANIMALS EAT EACH OTHER, better bring an appetite— pun intended. Sex is set on a platter, the book’s overriding concern. “I’m pretty sure,” the narrator muses, “the meaning of life is about sex." Yet while the characters drip with unapologetic want, throughout, the novel proves remarkably subtle & insightful. The fucking never lacks for mind-fucking. The most intense three-way can include a thought that's rather a buzz-kill: “The sex became an absurd echo in which I was a caricature of myself.” What drives Elle Nash’s plot is the same as drives Proust’s, namely, obsession. Her unnamed narrator whips herself into a frenzy over married Matt. After he dubs her a “wild demon woman,” a "Lilith," she tries to live up to the role, though she's just 18 & Matt's wife remains “in charge ... the center of the mandala.” Complicating matters further is the BFF Jenny. When the narrator confesses she could "fuck Matt forever," Jenny just kisses her pal & asks: “So? I could fuck you forever.” Yes, these two animals are eating each other as well— though the presentation always maintains admirable rhetorical balance. Nash falls into neither the euphemisms of erotica nor the posturing of porn, & she keeps tossing in playful fillips. Either way, she steers clear of gravitas, one of the great pitfalls of writing about sex. Even more impressive is the tight rein on the drama. There’s “Lilith”& her obsession, the fuck-buddy & a few others. That’s it. “Lilith” shares a trailer with her widowed mom, & she acknowledges that the death of her other parent left a bad wound, but this glimmer of self-awareness changes nothing. Parents remain offstage, often in a Percocet haze, and the setting, Colorado Springs, seems all threadbare fringes, battered malls in which the players either tantalize each other or hook up, with the help of X or vodka. That's the point, really, the tragedy: these are creatures cast out of the American Eden (come to think, wasn’t Colorado Springs a gold-rush town?). What "Lilith" wants from Matt eventually goes beyond the dead-end groping & snogging; she craves being “part of a young nuclear family,” & not just “a girl who lived in her mom’s trailer & snorted her mom’s Vicodin.” Finally, it's this swift, stealthy, ticklish book itself which proves one spirit at least flew free of our all-American neediness & muck.
(This review adapted from my piece in BROOKLYN RAIL)
March 6, 2022
if i could give this book zero stars i would. what a contrived little self hating whine of a novel. the male gaze of it all. this markets itself as queer but is possibly the most heterosexual book i have ever read. the characters are boring, the plot is nonsensical and absurd, and everything i thought would be good from the synopsis was self obsessed and pretentious in the worst way. i should have turned around the minute marilyn manson was mentioned. jesus. i need an exorcism.
April 2, 2021
Good psychological insights into the ways people fuck each other up just based on their own internal mechanisms. Makes me look back on certain things I've done and that other people have done and makes me think about how helpless everyone is.
March 24, 2018
Wow! Penetrating and gripping account of intensely self-destructive feelings and sexual behaviour. Reads like a memoir by someone with incredible objective recall: 100% authentic. Amazing.
September 27, 2019
"It was exciting to forget I hated myself so much."
October 31, 2019
An unnamed female narrator with ambiguous sexuality and desires begins a three-way romantic and sexual relationship with another couple. She's also partaking in other sexual exploits, looking for attention and fulfillment in whatever person will give her attention and warmth.
She's self-aware, although the self awareness seems to be speaking from the future. Our experience-wizened narrator seems to be reflecting from a future where she can only look at her past transgressions and sigh. She's isn't judgmental of her past self--only weary and sad.
The novels strength is within its self-awareness, but it's also a weakness. For a book relishing in its exploration of taboo and sexual desire, the reader also just stews within the narrator's head as she reflects and unravels. It's early 00's emo-girl in a way that was relatable but also cringey. Specifically that small-town drama cringe that's sometimes absorbing and sometimes just hard to read.
The three way participant with a devoted partner and child explains Satanism by talking about how society has made us all sheep with ~shame~. The reader can see his bulging, eager eyes telling us to take the red pill. Relatable but shiver-inducing in the worst way.
She's self-aware, although the self awareness seems to be speaking from the future. Our experience-wizened narrator seems to be reflecting from a future where she can only look at her past transgressions and sigh. She's isn't judgmental of her past self--only weary and sad.
The novels strength is within its self-awareness, but it's also a weakness. For a book relishing in its exploration of taboo and sexual desire, the reader also just stews within the narrator's head as she reflects and unravels. It's early 00's emo-girl in a way that was relatable but also cringey. Specifically that small-town drama cringe that's sometimes absorbing and sometimes just hard to read.
The three way participant with a devoted partner and child explains Satanism by talking about how society has made us all sheep with ~shame~. The reader can see his bulging, eager eyes telling us to take the red pill. Relatable but shiver-inducing in the worst way.
June 20, 2018
“Pain is closer to love than indifference, right?”
I blasted through this in a few hours thanks to Nash’s raw, unrelenting style of writing. I was brought back to what it feels like at 19 to know you can use your powers for good or bad and perhaps you need to see how deep the bad goes.
I blasted through this in a few hours thanks to Nash’s raw, unrelenting style of writing. I was brought back to what it feels like at 19 to know you can use your powers for good or bad and perhaps you need to see how deep the bad goes.
September 15, 2023
TW: Language, drinking, death of parent, depression, anxiety, drug abuse, toxic parent relationship, smoking, cheating, gaslighting, toxic relationships, abusive relationships
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:a girl with no name embarks on a fraught three-way relationship with Matt, a satanist and a tattoo artist, and his girlfriend Frances, a new mom. The liaison is caged by strict rules and rigid emotional distance. Nonetheless, it’s all too easy to surrender to an attraction so powerful she finds herself erased, abandoning even her own name in favor of a new one: Lilith.As Lilith grows closer to Matt, she begins to recognize the dark undertow of obsession and jealousy that her presence has created between Matt and Frances, and finds herself balancing on a knife’s edge between pain and pleasure, the promise of the future and the crushing isolation of the present.
Release Date: July 18th, 2017
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 121
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
What I Liked:
1. I adored the author's writing style
2. The characters felt flawed
3. So much packed into a short book
What I Didn't Like:
1. NOT called a tattoo gun - tattoo machine
2. Some parts rambled on and on for too long
Overall Thoughts:
Book starts off with such an interesting prologue. I was instantly sucked in. Had to know where we were going with this.
Yep, that was beautiful.
Satanism is a religion. While I do like what LaVeyan Satanism stands for it is an organization that wants you to read the books, believe the things they do, and does rituals.
Some parts contradict themselves; one chapter says she forgot Matt hour by day and next chapter says she was more obsessed.
I know it's messed up to feel badly for Lilith but she's just minding her own business and these two characters decide they want her. For months they call her and act like she's important only then to turn their backs on her when she starts to get comfortable. Matt was the one to step out if his relationship and express his interest in leaving Frances to be Lilith. Honestly though there are no victims in this story.
Final Thoughts:
I adored the author's writing. I loved this book so much. The characters are all flawed and find ways to screw one another over for their own personal gain.
I felt every word that was written and could relate to so much that happened.
I can't wait to start on the authors other book (I have an arc)
Recommend For:
• Fans of Bunny
• Troubled teens
• Push boundaries of sexual scenes
• Queer sex
IG | Blog
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:a girl with no name embarks on a fraught three-way relationship with Matt, a satanist and a tattoo artist, and his girlfriend Frances, a new mom. The liaison is caged by strict rules and rigid emotional distance. Nonetheless, it’s all too easy to surrender to an attraction so powerful she finds herself erased, abandoning even her own name in favor of a new one: Lilith.As Lilith grows closer to Matt, she begins to recognize the dark undertow of obsession and jealousy that her presence has created between Matt and Frances, and finds herself balancing on a knife’s edge between pain and pleasure, the promise of the future and the crushing isolation of the present.
Release Date: July 18th, 2017
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 121
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
What I Liked:
1. I adored the author's writing style
2. The characters felt flawed
3. So much packed into a short book
What I Didn't Like:
1. NOT called a tattoo gun - tattoo machine
2. Some parts rambled on and on for too long
Overall Thoughts:
"MATT PLACED THE KNIFE on my face, pressing down against my lips. He wanted me to lick the edge of it, to push my tongue up against the serrated edge so he could watch the way the muscle in my mouth looked against the metal. With his other hand, he held my neck to the floor."
Book starts off with such an interesting prologue. I was instantly sucked in. Had to know where we were going with this.
"When couples are together long enough, they speak as though they are one creature. I wondered if that was a thing only women did, as if we were absorbed into the bodies of men, molded inside of them with only the indigestible parts of us left over."
Yep, that was beautiful.
Satanism is a religion. While I do like what LaVeyan Satanism stands for it is an organization that wants you to read the books, believe the things they do, and does rituals.
Some parts contradict themselves; one chapter says she forgot Matt hour by day and next chapter says she was more obsessed.
I know it's messed up to feel badly for Lilith but she's just minding her own business and these two characters decide they want her. For months they call her and act like she's important only then to turn their backs on her when she starts to get comfortable. Matt was the one to step out if his relationship and express his interest in leaving Frances to be Lilith. Honestly though there are no victims in this story.
Final Thoughts:
I adored the author's writing. I loved this book so much. The characters are all flawed and find ways to screw one another over for their own personal gain.
I felt every word that was written and could relate to so much that happened.
"This whole game is just a giant trick to get us to fuck each other and make more ugly people until the Earth burns."
I can't wait to start on the authors other book (I have an arc)
Recommend For:
• Fans of Bunny
• Troubled teens
• Push boundaries of sexual scenes
• Queer sex
IG | Blog
May 21, 2021
A thin book covered with sharp, jagged edges, ANIMALS EAT EACH OTHER is filled with all the things that make us, for better or for worse, human.
February 9, 2020
The more of this Juggalo Noir novella by Elle Nash I read, the more it grew on me, which I suspect is what I'll find to often be the case once I post this and start reading other Goodreads reviews of this 2018 literary debut from respected indie publisher Dzanc. Certainly it starts off as only a mediocre morality tale, which plays out much like as if Nash was sitting around getting high one afternoon while watching the Jerry Springer Show and thinking, "You know, I bet these young rural metalheads caught in strange sexual love triangles all have interesting stories that got them to that place," then worked backwards from there for six months before arriving at this manuscript. But I don't know, I suppose I got more and more into our soul-dead, medication-snorting, Marilyn Manson-loving teenage anti-hero the more I got to know her, a pitch-black portrait of alienation and psychosexual dysfunction that starts out glib and cliched, but that Nash works hard to deepen and add complexity to as this character-heavy tragedy continues, turning her not exactly into an unreliable narrator but showing how she might be the instigator of much bad behavior, while remaining sympathetic to what drives that behavior that makes all the people around her so exasperated and offended. It's a tight, dark little story that can be read in its entirety in a single afternoon, not without its problems (including as well its prose that can get too purplish at times) but still a nasty little charmer when all is said and done.
[Enjoy my writing? Get a lot more of it at patreon.com/jasonpettus.]
[Enjoy my writing? Get a lot more of it at patreon.com/jasonpettus.]
March 16, 2018
This book is a marvel. Elle Nash is. Already anticipating feverishly whatever it is she writes next.
April 3, 2018
Attention attention this is a great novel about cough syrup and group sex and Satan attention attention. Elle Nash is a great writer. The end of this book was imo a perfect ten
May 19, 2022
Over time, she's transformed. Slowly shedding any semblance of who she used to be, morphing into what she knows she's meant to be. Who she should be, not for herself but for him. Girl forged from dirt. Lilith.
Animals Eat Each Other follows an initially unnamed narrator (eventually dubbed Lilith) through the early 2000's as she recounts her year long three-way relationship with Satanist, Matt and his long term girlfriend Frankie. Obsessive behaviors and consistent longing for attention nourish L's deterioration of her sense of self, creating an unsettling environment that highlights the lengths she's willing to go to feed her fixation.
Darker than I anticipated, Animals Eat Each Other is a deep dive into the psyche of someone who will destroy themselves in order to feel thought of, loved, cared for, cherished. Lilith's total disregard for herself in order to seek attention to fill the void left from childhood trauma and neglect was bleak yet so entertaining. I love her. The fact that Matt was who she chose to obsess over was almost infuriating but it was so ridiculous that I bought into it quickly. Matt is an absolute loser and the fact that he is 26, Lilith is 18, and Frankie is 17 (and the mother of his child !!??) only confirms this. While the novel creates and consistently holds a moodiness throughout, I wish there was more of an arc in the plot (it is only 121 pages but...still), as the last 40% was more anticlimactic than the rest of the novel suggests. An easy 4 stars, read for a needy, moody moment.
P.S.: This book was built for the Lana Del Rey baddies. If you were ever a Lana stan/Born to Die dropped during your formative years/Elizabeth Grant has EVER had you in a chokehold at ANY POINT IN TIME you will most likely enjoy this book. I finished it 3 days ago and I've been bumping Born to Die, Ultraviolence, and NFR albums almost exclusively since :-)
Animals Eat Each Other follows an initially unnamed narrator (eventually dubbed Lilith) through the early 2000's as she recounts her year long three-way relationship with Satanist, Matt and his long term girlfriend Frankie. Obsessive behaviors and consistent longing for attention nourish L's deterioration of her sense of self, creating an unsettling environment that highlights the lengths she's willing to go to feed her fixation.
Darker than I anticipated, Animals Eat Each Other is a deep dive into the psyche of someone who will destroy themselves in order to feel thought of, loved, cared for, cherished. Lilith's total disregard for herself in order to seek attention to fill the void left from childhood trauma and neglect was bleak yet so entertaining. I love her. The fact that Matt was who she chose to obsess over was almost infuriating but it was so ridiculous that I bought into it quickly. Matt is an absolute loser and the fact that he is 26, Lilith is 18, and Frankie is 17 (and the mother of his child !!??) only confirms this. While the novel creates and consistently holds a moodiness throughout, I wish there was more of an arc in the plot (it is only 121 pages but...still), as the last 40% was more anticlimactic than the rest of the novel suggests. An easy 4 stars, read for a needy, moody moment.
P.S.: This book was built for the Lana Del Rey baddies. If you were ever a Lana stan/Born to Die dropped during your formative years/Elizabeth Grant has EVER had you in a chokehold at ANY POINT IN TIME you will most likely enjoy this book. I finished it 3 days ago and I've been bumping Born to Die, Ultraviolence, and NFR albums almost exclusively since :-)
July 8, 2018
Elle Nash has been on my radar for the past two years, and I was excited to read her much-anticipated debut novel. This is a unique book, told from the perspective of a bisexual late-teen who finds herself in a complicated triad with a young couple who have a baby together.
This was a visceral, often uncomfortable, highly true-to-life read that reminded me of so many peers and friends from my own small hometown - stuck, yet searching, and constantly feeling like they're failing and no one's got their back, but how could they learn to live any differently without role models or attentive parents?
Some favorite lines:
"His glass was empty and he'd shake it like a Yahtzee cup, the ice rattling around inside."
"...the biggest industry in Colorado Springs outside of Jesus was the defense industry."
"I felt encased, like the yoke of an egg."
This didn't get 5 stars from me due to the book's pacing and organization. There were opening sentences to paragraphs that didn't seem to relate to the immediate content. The story moved fairly quickly, leaving me feeling like I was missing enough character development to truly invest in and care about the other people in Lilith's life. Also, there were a number of times the author used a retrospective voice, but the book concluded within a year of the primary story, with only a glimmer of potential change for Lilith's future.
Overall, this is a work of enlightening realism about coming-of-age confusion in an era where teens are more free than ever to experiment with various relationships, and the hard lessons that come with that freedom.
This was a visceral, often uncomfortable, highly true-to-life read that reminded me of so many peers and friends from my own small hometown - stuck, yet searching, and constantly feeling like they're failing and no one's got their back, but how could they learn to live any differently without role models or attentive parents?
Some favorite lines:
"His glass was empty and he'd shake it like a Yahtzee cup, the ice rattling around inside."
"...the biggest industry in Colorado Springs outside of Jesus was the defense industry."
"I felt encased, like the yoke of an egg."
This didn't get 5 stars from me due to the book's pacing and organization. There were opening sentences to paragraphs that didn't seem to relate to the immediate content. The story moved fairly quickly, leaving me feeling like I was missing enough character development to truly invest in and care about the other people in Lilith's life. Also, there were a number of times the author used a retrospective voice, but the book concluded within a year of the primary story, with only a glimmer of potential change for Lilith's future.
Overall, this is a work of enlightening realism about coming-of-age confusion in an era where teens are more free than ever to experiment with various relationships, and the hard lessons that come with that freedom.
May 15, 2019
Thank you @404ink for my free ARC of Animals Eat Each Other - I think this little novel (novella really, at only 150 pages) had a tonne of potential, but I’m not sure it was for me. It portrays the fraught, three-way relationship between the unnamed narrator and an older couple which is typically doomed from the beginning and explores some very dark places. I certainly was a fan of Nash’s raw, no-frills writing, which was perfect for the topics she was handling, but a lot of the content felt like it was just for shock value. If the themes such as satanism and destructive behaviours had been explored more fully then I think it could have been something great, but it barely scratched the surface with 150 pages.
.
Try this one if you like books about twisted relationships and damaged characters! I’d personally be open to reading more of Nash’s work - if there are a few more pages to work with and perhaps less shock-value material.
.
Try this one if you like books about twisted relationships and damaged characters! I’d personally be open to reading more of Nash’s work - if there are a few more pages to work with and perhaps less shock-value material.
Read
August 28, 2018this book is bare. the narrator stating again and again that she fucks for validation. “daddy-shaped hole” like it’s too good to only use once.
the setting is unrealized potential. instead the author provides no description until the book is almost over. in the last pages there’s a few rich paragraphs about a mobile home. that the reader has already been in, like nash remembered imagery as she was finishing but didn’t want to go back and work it in.
an entry from an edgy, self-indulgent 20-year-old’s sexcapade blog. only it repeats itself for tens of thousands of words.
i do appreciate their drink of choice, cherry coke and vodka out of coffee mugs. very lana del rey.
1 & 1/2 stars
the setting is unrealized potential. instead the author provides no description until the book is almost over. in the last pages there’s a few rich paragraphs about a mobile home. that the reader has already been in, like nash remembered imagery as she was finishing but didn’t want to go back and work it in.
an entry from an edgy, self-indulgent 20-year-old’s sexcapade blog. only it repeats itself for tens of thousands of words.
i do appreciate their drink of choice, cherry coke and vodka out of coffee mugs. very lana del rey.
1 & 1/2 stars
July 7, 2020
i disliked this book so much that i ENJOYED disliking it. apparently no one ever taught nash “show don’t tell” bc she really did just spoon feed us everything. even on the blurb, if the main character remains nameless throughout, at least let me work that out rather than introducing her as “a young woman with no name”. give me some credit please.
also no more terrible representations of unhealthy polyamorous relationships that are unhealthy because they’re polyamorous please. society has progressed past the need.
also no more terrible representations of unhealthy polyamorous relationships that are unhealthy because they’re polyamorous please. society has progressed past the need.
June 25, 2021
Lilith, in this story, either disgusts and repels readers, according to reviews here, or fascinates and resonates with us. I fall in the second category. I read the book in a few hours. I knew that if it were not for the parents and privileges I had, I could have been her. There is darkness in us all.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 445 reviews