told from the perspective of a dog who’s ingested parasites - and the worms living inside her? i was hooked instantly. there’s heart, there’s science, and there are plenty of “what the hell am i reading” moments (in the best way).

this book is delightfully weird - sharp, funny, and surprisingly tender. the alternating perspectives between the dog and the parasites were done so well. as a dog owner, it definitely unlocked a new fear; as a reader, it unlocked an entirely new world. i loved every bit of it.

the fact that this is a debut? unreal. also the cover is just absolutely stunning.

this book is very funny. i enjoyed how disturbing the beginning was and really felt invested in the charracters, of aaaaalll species!

A sharp, tender, wonderfully bizarre tale told by a dog and her parasites—funny, unsettling, and brilliantly unique for a debut.

Four stars for audaciousness! A bold and bizarro setup featuring an aged bulldog, her architect pet parents, and some craaaazy worms living inside her.

Pretty cool ecological-philosophical-domestic novel—the title made me expect something edgy, but it’s much more philosophically sincere (refreshing!) than vulgarities would have you believe.

The voice feels very different from other contemporary novels—sometimes trenchant and clinical, sometimes philosophical and lyrically grandiloquent (when we hear from those worms.) Very funny throughout. Sometimes I found the philosophical flights of fancy repetitive in a good way, like Clarice Lispector, and sometimes I got a bit lost or tired. SMALL PRICE TO PAY for a UNIQUE entry into the world of contemporary fiction!

This book sure is a little oddball, and a cool one at that.

There's a mountain range, and in those mountains there's a lake, and on that lake there's a glass house, and in that house there's a couple, and with that couple is a small, aging French bulldog: Gelsomina.

There are no big adventures for Gelsomina. She's limited by glass walls and her traitorous collar. No rubbing her butt when she's itchy! No jumping and licking wherever she wants! Gelsomina can't act on her own will, because she's a pet: contained, spayed and bound by human will.

But that's not all. Two parasitic worms have started living within Gelsomina. Not only is she subjected to two big creatures who shape her external world, but also two tiny creatures that are changing her internal one. Can Gelsomina get a break? Not really, because there's Zampanò, the couple's newest, young French bulldog. He's nice enough, but just in a different phase of life.

Seeing all this play out through the dog's eyes, but also through the worms', and sometimes through others', was a trip. It's confusing, but fascinating once you learn to just roll with it. I really enjoyed my reading experience.

My only complaint, oddly enough, is that sometimes I wish I could have reveled more in that unknown, in the vagueness of it all. I love looking up terms, coming up with my own ideas, spending the evening on Wikipedia because something I read in a book sparked curiosity in me. I felt like this book wanted me, as the reader, to be like that, and in that desire, pushed it a little with trying to direct me to certain knowledge in a few chapters. Like a little quest marker in a game.

There's reflections on architecture and design woven throughout the novel too, which I liked. The glass house, so open and light, trying to blend into the nature surrounding it, comes to feel like nothing more than a prison. The descriptions made me think back to when I was in university. We had to do a group project in pairs. I had to work together with a 30-something millionaire. She refused to meet at my place (too poor) and didn't want to work in the library or a different public space (too gross). She lived in a glass villa and demanded we work on our project there. My first time there she was mortified that I drank water from the tap. Visiting her filled me with dread, being in her home made me feel like I was locked in an aquarium. She was a narrow-minded bully, but thought of herself as progressive and sophisticated. It's fitting. I can't help but link all of these big, silly, glass houses to her now, haha.

Overall, I thought this was a special book. It makes me excited that little weirdos (affectionately) like this one are getting published. Would very much recommend if you like experimental fiction, or have any interest in design, animal rights, being absorbed into the universe only to find out you were part of it all along, what it means to be free, cute dogs, biology. If all that fails, I'm sure the title will draw your attention!

i don't know what I was expecting from this book about an aging bulldog and the worms who live within her, but it turned out even weirder than I could have imagined, and I found it mesmerising. 5 stars. tysm for the arc.

This novel's editor likens it to "waking up inside Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights," or "Ulysses, but for dogs," and I do think that this is the rare contemporary novel that can bear the comparison to such works of art, if only in terms of ambition. Are there other contemporary novelists investigating the mystery of consciousness with such playfulness? I did not *like* this novel, not exactly, but I admired it; in that sense, maybe it was, for me, more like Finnegans Wake, but for dogs...all the same, I am delighted that it was written, let alone published.

This book was strange, philosophical, and surprising. I have never read anything like it and really enjoyed it.

Told from the perspective of Gelsomina, an elderly French bulldog, and the parasitic worms inside of her. I am, as a rule, disgusted by worms and I was worried that would make this a difficult read but that actually wasn't a big concern while reading. I loved the character of Gelsomina and I have been thinking a lot more about the perspective of my own cat and dog.

I am left wondering, if speciesism is real, is this book its antidote?

Review will be posted on @ninaschoicebookawards instagram closer to publication date.

This surprised me in the best way. It's a bold, strange, and deeply thoughtful debut about an aging French bulldog named Gelsomina and the tiny parasitic worms that change her inner and outer world. Through quirky, philosophical lenses on life, love, freedom, and consciousness, the story is funny, unsettling, and beautifully unusual. A true wild, meditative read, last chunk of this was a weird ride.

Thank you Astra Publishing House, the author and NetGallery for this ARC.

3.75

This was an absolutely oddball of a read, the second that I read the synopsis I knew that I had to get my hands on it and luckily I did! I won't lie, this book made me feel pretty stupid at times, this is one of those novels that revels in the non-answer and once I got used to that I had a great time. This was deep, philosophical, moving and all together funny. It was weird, sharp and more than a little confusing but I just could not put it down.

What a bizarre world that Day crafts within this novel!

This book does not give you a moment to catch your breath; it is unabashedly weird and absurd from the very first pages. I found the narrative choices in the novel to be incredibly bold, and sometimes even off-putting, but overall well-chosen. Day's writing is enticingly strange, managing to feel both dreamy and uncanny at the same time.

The world is also beautifully fleshed out, with a full and atmospheric setting that switches between mirroring and executing the stifling limitedness of Gelsomina's life. I also found myself impressed by Day's ability to capture how lonely it is to simply exist sometimes. Although there is definitely a lot happening in this novel, how alone we are in this world was a sentiment that was showcased in a meaningful way throughout the story.

Obviously, with bold strokes, there are bound to be flaws. While the majority of this book surprised me or had me anxious to find out what was going to happen, I still had critiques. The first was that I spent a fair bit of time just confused about what perspective we were taking, where exactly we were in the timeline, or if what was happening was real or not. However, my main criticism of the novel lies in the ending, which I think had the potential to wrap the story up satisfyingly and interestingly, but did not manage to completely achieve it. Although I loved the very end of the novel, the lead-up was too muddled and disjointed for it to feel like it really stuck the landing for me.

However, I did find myself really enjoying this novel, and I was incredibly impressed to discover it was a debut. I look forward to seeing what else this author writes. For all the freaks (or philosophy majors) in your life, have them try this one out.

Thank you to NetGalley and Astra Publishing House for the arc.