By Rachel Yoder
This was neither my normal lane nor a book club suggestion. A coworker mentioned it, it sounded amusing, and I had just finished my previous audio book. I was underwhelmed. I see some reviews call it weird, messed up, or are revolted by the animal violence. I didn’t find it that far out at all. I’m not a gore or violence enthusiast, but it was a werewolf story. Monsters are gonna kill, right? It was really less a monster story than a story about a whiny stay at home mom who didn’t feel a sense of agency in her life and didn’t communicate her own needs. Eventually, her frustration with her life caused her to snap. In finding her sense of agency, she identified as a wolf, inspired by an author about some magical women creatures. She began to enforce boundaries, look out for her own needs, and make art again. The end. None of the characters had much of a personality. The child was very annoying.
This might’ve hit harder if I was a stay at home mom, my wife was a stay at home mom, or my mom was a stay at home mom. I have no real connection to that plight. I don’t think it’s a life that I would want for myself. My wife doesn’t want it either. So we don’t do that.
I tried to cultivate empathy for the character. I’m told that’s the benefit of reading fiction: increased empathy. I tried to suppress the thought of “if you don’t like the way things are… do it differently.” I know there’s more to it than that. The descriptions of the husband’s work and leisure time reminded me of Lean In which highlighted the lack of progress in domestic responsibility sharing. Women have gained grown in the workplace, but they haven’t exchanged any of the new work responsibility for less household responsibility. Men haven’t picked up more work at home to balance the work that women are doing outside of the home. This character wasn’t working, but the gender role challenges still apply. I try to be conscious of that in my life. I don’t think I’ve fully escaped it, but I don’t want my wife to get stuck with all of the household chores because she lost the gender coinflip.