Monstrosity as Rescue: Challenging the Institution of Motherhood in Rachel Yoder's Nightbitch

This article examines Rachel Yoder’s contemporary novel Nightbitch (2021) –a literary debut about a mother who evolves from a miserable, anxious, lonely stay-at-home mom to a furious, howling monster, expressing motherhood’s injustices by metamorphosing at night into a wild dog–. In the pages that follow, after briefly exposing the connection between the patriarchal institution of motherhood (Rich, 1986) and maternal mental health and introducing the recent feminist use of the fantastic genre, the article explores how the transformation of the protagonist influences her recovery. Additionally, it examines the development of a way of mothering that is rebellious against patriarchal power.