“It’s a wonder that any woman ever agrees to be a mother, when the fruits of motherhood are inevitably conflict and remorse, to be followed by death and disembowelment.”

"Chouette" is not for the faint of motherhood. Or for those with weak stomachs.

The book is bizarre. Claire Oshetsky’s debut novel about a woman who gives birth to an owl-baby is one of the oddest – yet most captivating – books I’ve ever read. It’s dark, unnerving, and gruesome. And it’s an incisive, provocative exploration of what it REALLY means to be a mother. The blood, sweat, and tears of it.

"Chouette" is meant to be read as a parable. (I think.) But some may read it either as a tale of fantasy and magical realism or as an examination of a woman’s fragile mental state.

To me, "Chouette" is one big metaphor for motherhood. It’s motherhood from the perspective of a woman who sees the world differently, as she views it from her somewhat skewed reality.

And Oshetsky NAILS it:

The fierceness of mother-love;
The self-sacrifice;
The utter devotion;
The inability to see a child’s flaws;
The isolation of being left home with a baby;
The longing for a child to not grow up;
The grief felt when a child leaves home.

I could go on.

Yet there’s still more. For not only is the novel a tale of the trials of motherhood, but it’s also a story of acceptance and authenticity. It’s about how to live a true life.

"Chouette" is thoughtful and raw. Humorous and horrific. Poignant and disquieting.

Validating, too. As a mother, I feel understood.


My sincerest appreciation to Claire Oshetsky, Ecco, and NetGalley for the electronic Advance Review Copy. All opinions included herein are my own.

This book was surreal, magical, twisted...totally captivating. I couldn't look away. I was confused about *how* I was supposed to read things...literal? Metaphorical? Fantastical? I'm still not exactly sure. But I enjoyed the reading experience very much. Very dark, and yet at times heartwarming and relatable.

This book is not easy to rate honestly. I like weird and quirky novels, and this one should've grabbed hold of me right away, but I was more confused than anything else. The writing is sparse and lyrical, but the plot is muddled and perplexing to say the least. I couldn't figure out if I was supposed to take the plot seriously, or metaphorically. Or is it about a woman's descent into a psychotic break? Or all three? In the end, I still didn't have a clear answer so that is why I'm rating this book 3 stars. "Chouette" is unique, I'll give it that, but I can't say it was impactful either.

Thank you, Netgalley and Ecco for the digital ARC.

This was a fascinating story and one I will be thinking about for some time to come. The story was compulsively readable and very engaging. I am not going to provide a synopsis as you can read up on that and this isn't an easy one to sum up neatly as it is not a neat and tidy story. It is one that takes your imagination into dark and wild places. It is never completely clear whether the main character is mentally ill (postpartum psychosis?) or if this is meant to be a fable/fairy tale of sorts. The lack of clarity both fascinates me but also makes me desperately wish the author had included a note to let us know or provide some thoughts on this.

Another thing I found interesting is that the main character's "otherness" and culture is referred to in an unspecified way many times. The author has done the reverse of what is typically done in most books. In most books it is only the non-white characters that are physically described in great deal (particularly in relation to skin tone and ethnic background). In Chouette all the other characters are described in detail and their paleness and white skin often referenced by the main character.

We never do discover the ethnicity and culture of the main character we only know she is other than the rest. I both love this and am frustrated by it. I love it because it turns a very ethnocentric practice on its head and defies an implicitly racist convention. This made me want to cheer and laugh at the same time. However, given that this story did have a fable or fairy tale quality I actually was really interested to know if there were any real cultural references and if the "owl baby" idea comes from any legends/fair tales etc. and what culture if so or if it was loosely based on any? I would have love to see a note from the author included that dives into all of this.

A few trigger warnings: If you are squeamish in regards to violence there could be a trigger for you. If you have experienced postpartum depression, anxiety, psychosis, etc it could be triggering. If you have issues with gas lighting or emotional abuse it could be triggering.

All of that said I loved this book. I fully recommend this strange, dark, and delightful tale. And if Claire Oshetsky happens to read this I would love to hear your thoughts on my lingering questions.

An unhesitant Five stars.
#Chouette #NetGalley

"Chouette" by Claire Oshetsky is an oddly compelling read!

What the heck did I just read? Wow! This story is over-the-top! So why couldn't I put it down? Why do I keep thinking about it?

Could it be the beautiful writing or the intermittent humor that makes me smile and laugh unexpectedly? Or, is it the creativeness of the story, referring to a non-conforming child as an owl-baby and everyone else as dog-people?

Is it the resilience of this mother and child relationship through their journey together? Or, is it the father's obsession as his mission to fix Chouette becomes scary?

Chouette is born demanding, wild, violent and strange. Her mother, wants her to be her true self. Her father desperately wants to find a cure for her.

A story that's a bit different, it holds me, then it captures me! It's a story that makes my brain bop around in my head like a pinball machine! Yep! It's that crazy!

For most, this may seem like a strange and dark read. What it is though is a beautifully written and unique story about being different than the expected norm. It's about how a mother's love for her child sustains her. How her selflessness and unwavering commitment to her daughter's well-being keeps her whole and completes her.

This novel is a brilliant piece of fiction that I highly recommend to all who enjoy quirky, different reads. Ones that make you think and continue to long after you're finished. Think so hard that your head feels like it might blow-off and your eyeballs might pop-out. That's exactly how I feel and I simply love this story!

All the stars!

Thank you to NetGalley, Ecco, and Claire Oshetsky for a free ARC of this book. It has been an honor to give my honest and voluntary review. This book is available now.

This is sort of a quirky little book. It's told as a fable. But it's basically a giant metaphor for what it's like to be the mother of a child with special needs. Or, I should say, what it must be like, not having first hand experience with that myself. The thing that stuck out to me the most was how isolated the main character (Tiny) felt throughout the entire book. This caught my attention because of the name (which means owl in French). It's unusual and I'm definitely glad that I read it.

You can't find my interest in the Cult of Mother with a scanning electron microscope. I dislike the smugness of Mothers who define themselves by the fruits of their uterus. I am routinely revolted and infuriated by the seemingly inevitable bad, lazy, underinvolved fathers these Noble Mothers are saddled with. (Who chose him? Could it just possibly be you, your behavior, your expectations are at fault, Mother?)

Why in the hell did I ask for, then read this book?!

Because we're not on the rails leading to Vajayjayville by way of Labor Creek, that's why. This book posits a half-owl, half-human baby born of lesbian bestiality committed in a dream. (Not a spoiler, that's literally the first page of the read.)
<blockquote>I dream I’m making tender love with an owl. The next morning I see talon marks across my chest that trace the path of my owl-lover’s embrace. Two weeks later I learn that I’m pregnant.

You may wonder: How could such a thing come to pass between woman and owl?

I, too, am astounded, because my owl-lover was a woman.
* * *
As for you, owl-baby, let’s lay out the facts. Your owlness is with you from the very beginning. It’s there when a first cell becomes two, four, eight. It’s there when you sleep too much, and crawl too late, and when you bite when you aren’t supposed to bite, and shriek when you aren’t supposed to shriek; and on the day that you are born—on the day when I first look down on your pinched-red, tiny-clawed, outraged little body lying naked and intubated in a box—I won’t have the slightest idea about who you are, or what I will become.

But there you will be, and you will be of me.</blockquote>
Right there, that voice makes my readar ping like it's locked onto an approaching asteroid. This? This is weird trip and I am here to take it.

What doesn't make me coo with delight is the rather stark presentation of her husband and his family. I did, however, get many evil-hearted chuckles at their expense:
<blockquote>My mother-in-law sees right over me. She is six feet tall and never looks down. She looks out toward the horizon instead, with an expression on her face as if she is thinking the same thought all the time, and that thought has something to do with the pioneer spirit.</blockquote>
Still, the way Author Oshetsky treats the poor bewildered father of this owl-baby is the reason I don't give this book five stars, why I won't be mentioning it for my annual six-stars-of-five "this book...it merged itself into me"; women get to whinge about the male writers treating them as cardboard cutouts, so I have done the same.

Chouette's birth, her entry into a world not meant or designed for her, is a trauma; her mother is the only one who champions her. Naturally enough; she's got the owl-baby she expected. No one around her took her seriously when she told them, "this baby is half-owl," because who in their right mind would? Then...Chouette.

From that point on, the beautiful language...the beautiful Satanic Second Person language...goes into the full monty crazytime of a human woman raising an owl-baby, a creature she simply isn't like, but she keeps slugging. She does what mothers across the globe have always done: She learns, adapts, improvises. She makes do and she feeds, raises her child, meeting her owl-baby's needs for raw meat, for training in how to catch prey; she tussles with her owl-baby to accomplish the simplest of daily tasks.

In the teeth of a word-gale of opposition and resistance from her dog-person husband ("When it comes to our little girl, can't is a dirty word"). And I don't mean "man who likes dogs," I mean she thinks her husband...all of the rest of us not her and Chouette, in fact...are like dogs.

She does not intend a compliment in it.

The rest of the narrative is a rehash of The Yellow Wallpaper meets Gaslight. The horrors build in frequency as the reviled dog-person father succeeds in making his Charlotte into a dog-baby. Then comes the day the dog-family meets Charlotte...and she reverts to Chouette. Violently. Horribly. The dog-person father comes to a bloody end; Chouette and mother go on the lam; but, as it inevitably must, Time has her way with us:
<blockquote>She is strong. She is monstrously individual. She is sister to the Titans. She is Ozymandias before the fall. She is the bird of omen, dark and foul; she is blood-wed; she is Strix; she is harbinger of war and bringer of death and slaughterer of armies, oh, my Polyphonte!—

She is the girl I raised her to be.</blockquote>
And that she is. This bizarre extended metaphorical trip through the awful, consuming process of being a mother ends as it must...in defeat, in triumph, in the hollowness of being finally ready...for the task, the life, just ended. The awful emptiness of realizing: Now it's just me I worry about, care for, be with. Now it's not You, it's just me.

All the stars I've rated this book are for that single, cruel, agonizing, slow-moving catastrophe of a realization.

“You think this baby is going to be like you, but it’s not like you at all,” she warns him. “This baby is an owl-baby.”

Motherhood. Motherly love. Protecting your child- even if your child is an owl baby.

Yes, this is a highly original and strange book. For most of the book I kept wondering "Am I the correct reader for this?" as well as "Is Tiny Mentally Ill?" or "is there something more going on here?"

When Chouette is born, Tiny works to take care of her child, to fulfill her needs while her husband works at finding a cure. He wants his daughter to be fixed while Tiny is committed to raising her to be her true self. Tiny is unwavering in her conviction that her daughter be raised to be herself. While her husband wants her to fit in. One could say that they are not on the same parenting page.

Again, unique, original but bizarre. This was a very creative way to tell a story. Plus, that cover! Many are enjoying it more than I did so please read their reviews as well. Plus, it comes with its own soundtrack.

Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley who provided me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All the thoughts and opinions are my own.

CHOUETTE
By Claire Oshetsky

This one is weird, wild, and fantastic.

Have you seen this cover? It's stunning!

I had the ebook version, kindly #gifted to me by Ecco and @netgalley

(🤗thanks)

But I waited until its release date so I could catch it on audiobook. Because one of my favorite narrators is narrating it, and I'm happy I did.

Julia Whelan, 🤌🏽🤌🏽 is a favorite of mine, and her performance in this audiobook is flawless. When I say the choice is perfection- I mean it!!

She creates an enticing atmosphere making it magical and memorable.

The book itself is a gem. It's quick, fast-paced, has a lilt to it, a sense of humor and is supremely invigorating.

Weird, know that!

Fantastical, accept that!

Magical, read it!


⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This novel both disturbed and excited me. Having never been a mother, I was constantly piqued by the main character's -- this tiny, birdlike mother's choices. But as the story progressed, I began to empathize with Tiny's plight. Tiny is a woman ever on the verge of flying free from the pigeonhole into which she's been thrust by her big lug of a savior husband. Her husband does not "get" her or her owl-baby, and it becomes increasingly clear that it's not in his nature to try to "get" Tiny or Chouette, whom he calls Charlotte. He's incapable of recognizing a name like Chouette, which in French is owl, but also slang for 'cool.' This underscores his incapability to recognize or appreciate Chouette's nature, or anyone's nature that does not conform. This is the heart of this weird, unsettling work of magical realism: our natures and the differences that our natures engender. How can we make space for those differences? How can someone like Tiny fly free?

[Thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for an opportunity to read an e-ARC of this book in exchange for my opinion.]

In this unsettling novel, we follow Tiny as she navigates mothering an owl-baby. Her baby is more predator and baby and in need of Tiny's unwavering commitment. As Tiny struggles with raising Chouette to be herself, her husband takes them down dangerous paths searching for a "cure". Tiny has to decide if Chouette has to fit in or deserves to stand out.

Thoughts: The positive here was that the writing was great; it was very descriptive with both the scenes and the emotional trials and tribulations of Tiny as she navigated mothering an owl-baby. There's commentary on different aspects of motherhood, like the dedicated love for your child, fighting with people who think they know the "right way" to parent, and how all consuming motherhood can be.

That consummation was amplified when Tiny mothered a child needing different attention/assistance/time than other children in her family. I enjoyed those conversations and the equivocation of owl-babies to any baby that doesn't fit a trumped up definition of "normal".

I partially enjoyed not fully knowing whether I could trust Tiny in her recollection of events or actions. But, I did leave the book with more questions than I would've like. It got to the point where I wasn't sure if I should trust Tiny's narrative or not. Once I accepted that this was a world where owl-babies wasn't a euphemism and dog-babies were the "norm", I still was unsure of her memories, conversations, or interactions.

Having said all this, I do think the ambiguity was intentional, but I'm just not a big fan of that. I would've liked more clarity on the setting, regardless of how fantastical it was. Without that anchor, I had too many questions, which left me unmotivated when it was time to pick it back up.

If metaphorical writing in fantastically settings dealing with dark topics is your thing, definitely check this one out. The writing is worth it.

I'm not even sure how to write a review for this book. It was such an odd little book and yet it was absolutely captivating and I couldn't let it go, or perhaps it wouldn't let me go. This was metaphor at its finest and I felt Tiny's fierce heart as she loved her Chouette with all her being and against all odds, she fought to help Chouette live to be her true self. I loved how much music played a role in this book and the author even includes a soundtrack that you can find on Spotify and I really enjoyed listening to it while reading this book, although I had to pause in my reading when I listened to Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for String Bass, since he speaks in that one! One of the most interesting things about reading this book is how many owls I've seen these past two days, including on the internet! One of the funniest things was the stuffed dog toy owl that I saw today, considering the role of dog-babies (the norm) vs. owl-babies in this book. The other interesting thing is that I just started the audiobook for [book:The Astonishing Color of After|35604686], where the main character believes her mother who just died did not really die but became a bird. I also have a wonderful artistic drawing of an owl that I've been contemplating lately, so I've been seeing owls everywhere!

But besides making me think of owls, what this book made me do was contemplate motherhood and how complex the relationship between mother and child can be and especially how challenging it can be when your child seems to be outside of what the world considers "normal". Yes, I know every child is different, but in my work as a tutor, I have worked with students with "extra" challenges and the one thing that they all have in common is that they have to fight the belief (either from others or from themselves) that they are somehow less than and that they need to be "fixed". This book was heartbreaking, breathtaking, inspiring and yes, gruesome, and it was one I had a hard time putting down, as odd as it was. At first, when I started, I thought it would be something like [book:The Gray House|32703696], which I have yet to finish, but thankfully, it was not at all like that. Yes, there is definitely the magical realism piece, but in my mind (and I readily admit I could be wrong), this book is much easier to understand, and of course, it's a fraction of the length.

If you're into quirky books that make you feel, you should definitely check out this book.

I received an advance review copy from NetGalley for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Chouette is a study in motherhood. Tiny births Chouette, part human, part owl. From the moment Chouette is born, Tiny is there to protect her. This book is a study in motherhood, and the things that mothers do to sacrifice for their children.

This book is lyrical, and full of beautiful metaphors and symbolism. This book, however, is not for the feint of heart. This book is a lot to digest, in a small package, but the bottom line is that if you are a mother, you can relate to the single minded focus that Tiny has for her child. This focus to protect and nurture is not present when she's pregnant, but kicks in when Chouette is born. This book is a love letter to motherhood, that all mothers can relate to.

Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This story was both bizarre and thought provoking. With honest raw emotion Oshetsky explores the full range of emotions that accompany motherhood and the parenting of unique child. The whole time I was reading this I wished that i had a book club to discuss this book because I feel like parts went over my head and I am struggling to make sense of this book. Despite my confusion this book was one I couldn't put down.

What a strange and enthralling read. Often, I felt as confused and out of sorts as Tiny, but then began to see the correlations between her life as a mother and the need to see your child as the unique being they are.

This would be fantastic to read with the music that gets mentioned/played/listened to within the text - I think it would provide a better understanding of all that's going on within the narrative.

The entire story is like nothing I have read before.

Chouette is a novel about Tiny, a young wife who is about to have a baby. Not a normal baby, but an owl-baby. Tiny is terrified. Once Chouette is born, the story follows Tiny's attempts to protect and foster her baby. This book was as much poetry as prose, and once you accept the premise, becomes an outstanding read. It touches on the entrapment of suburban life, body issues before, during, and after pregnancy, issues of relationship in and out of marriage, and the ability to express queerness in the guarded normality of the traditional family.

I found myself flying through the book and getting lost in Tiny's and Chouette's stories. I heartily recommend it.

In this wildly inventive and dark novel, we get a first-person account from Tiny, a married cellist who dreams she has made love with a female owl. After this arresting dream she is shocked to see scratch marks across her chest that look like they could have come from talons and she’s even more surprised when she finds herself pregnant with what she is sure is an owl baby. The owl baby germinating inside of her even causes Tiny to be able to see in the dark. Indeed, an owl baby is born. While Tiny’s husband recognizes something is off with his child, he will not acknowledge it is an owl baby, he doesn’t see her for who she is. The prose is clipped, terse and at times searing. Tiny struggles being home with her owl baby all day. This is a portrait of a family with a new baby and whether owl or not, how much upheaval this chance can cause and what happens to mothers who don’t get the proper support from their partners or communities. Thank you to Ecco and NetGalley for the advanced review copy.

This book is a little crazy. . This woman In this book And issues with yourself and your husband.. When she became pregnant with this I OWL. When the baby was born it was a child but it looked like an owl. And how this was really strange. As this owl kept growing it looked like a child but it acted like WINTWOL. This new marriage very difficult.. Father was trying everything to Make this Child Mom MUAL.. Mother just accepted it and loved this person deeply. And how nobody in his family could adjust to this child.. And the book has a lot of surprises At the ends

Thank you to NetGalley, Harper Collins, and Claire Oshetsky for the ARC of Chouette in return for an honest review.

Thought-provoking in an eerie, strange way. This book is well-written, but a challenge to read. Tiny, a pregnant mom, and her husband, are looking forward to the birth of their first child. The child is born small, with her own set of issues, causing her parents to disagree on how to raise her. The father researches and looks for answers to help the child become “normal”. Her mother disagrees, questioning what is really “normal” and should the child be allowed to just be herself. This is an age-old child rearing issue, so the reader will have to decide for themselves how Chouette should be raised.

Chouette is a truly bizarre and heartbreaking story of a mother's love, a father's hope, and how parents can want different things while still wanting the best for their child. I found the book both engrossing and confusing. Ultimately I tried to take the words on the page for what they were as I was reading and then spent time after finishing the book to explore the themes and possible interpretations. I think this will be a wonderful bookclub book for those who like deep conversations about motherhood and love.

4/5 Stars

Thank you to NetGalley and Ecco for providing me with an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.