A Grotesque Animal

“Amy Lee Lillard’s A Grotesque Animal is a book that bares both teeth and soul. A bold and unabashed call to name our stories and ourselves, to take off the masks we’ve been taught to wear and to live without shame. In a collection of essays both searching and searing, Lillard explores the possibilities of womanhood, weirdness, selfhood, and home, interrogating the stories and silences we inherit, those we tell ourselves, and those we cast off. This is a book for the weird women—the queer women, the disabled women, the childfree and witchy women, who resist and refuse the narratives they’re given about what their bodies should be, who write their own stories, and who claim a new language for their lives.”—Melissa Faliveno, author, Tomboyland

“This striking memoir sheds light on a topic that has been hidden for too long: the challenges and triumphs of girls and women with autism. At a time when growing numbers of women are receiving this diagnosis at mid-life, Lillard offers clarity, hope, and companionship to those faced with relearning who they are and what matters most to them.”—Kaitlin Ugolik Phillips, author, The Future of Feeling: Building Empathy in a Tech-Obsessed World