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Animal Instinct
Fleishman Is in Trouble meets Big Swiss in thisdarkly humorous and tantalizing pandemic-ridden portrait of sex, divorce, and midlife, about a Brooklynite who frankensteins the perfect lover, from the critically acclaimed author of Unseen City.
It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein, mother of three, recent divorcee, and Brooklynite is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park bench dates with younger men, ongoing flirtations with beautiful women, and finally, actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation.
But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs?
Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s content, she begins to realize she can’t reprogram her ex-husband, or her children, or her friends, or the roster of paramours that’s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself.
Animal Instinct is at once a provocative tale of one woman’s burgeoning freedom, an indictment and celebration of our fraught relationship with technology, and a snapshot of life at its most fragile and most precious.
It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein, mother of three, recent divorcee, and Brooklynite is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park bench dates with younger men, ongoing flirtations with beautiful women, and finally, actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation.
But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs?
Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s content, she begins to realize she can’t reprogram her ex-husband, or her children, or her friends, or the roster of paramours that’s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself.
Animal Instinct is at once a provocative tale of one woman’s burgeoning freedom, an indictment and celebration of our fraught relationship with technology, and a snapshot of life at its most fragile and most precious.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published March 18, 2025
48 people are currently reading
6,272 people want to read
About the author
Amy Shearn
7books219followersAmy Shearn is the author of the novels How Far Is the Ocean from Here, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and Unseen City.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 60 reviews
March 28, 2025
“What a clever observation she was making about dating and love, lah-dee-dah, look at her.�
Great concept, but the execution fell flat.
If you’re planning to read this for the sci-fi element: Don’t. There isn’t one. The depiction of even modern technology throughout this novel is laughable. Rachel wants to create the perfect person using AI, but her life-changing app is the most boring, standard, unimpressive chatbot that existed long before 2020 when this novel takes place. Rachel tells us her chatbot has this wonderful personality, but we absolutely don’t see that on the page. One person who knows about the bot is freaked out by how human it sounds, but it literally sounds like a customer support chatbot. We have those in modern life. The only other “sci-fi� element is very small, comes in at the end, and is obviously not actually the product of magical or scientific creation. This book should not be labeled Science Fiction. Seeing that tag on the ŷ page made me think this was going to be a very different story.
The character writing also isn’t very strong, which is a shame in a character-driven novel. Rachel didn’t feel like a middle-aged woman; she felt like a stereotype of a middle-aged woman who talked like a thirty-year-old � and not a very smart one at that, despite her telling us that she’s a “tech genius� at her job where we barely get details into what she actually does for a living. In fact all of these characters are stereotypes. The ex-husband is the most gaslight-y, inattentive, two-dimensional ex-husband type you can imagine, and her best friend Lulu is just a woman she meets for drinks and gossip. Rachel’s lovers are so stereotypical that she literally refers to them with archetypal titles: “The Rocker,� “The Woman,� etc. These caricatures don’t feel like they’re overblown to make satirical commentary about the people these archetypes represent; they just feel like weak writing.
The characters are also unlikeable. The husband is evil. The best friend is shallow. Rachel’s both a stereotype and an enigma. She’s simultaneously a “tech genius� and preoccupied with the most shallow aspects of life. She’s simultaneously judging her kids for being on their phones and living on her phone herself, or judging people for breaking Covid rules while breaking Covid rules herself. She’s simultaneously super concerned about her health during the pandemic and drinking and smoking up a storm. She’s simultaneously been super aware of the plight of misogyny for decades and yet didn’t seem to think or talk about it until after her divorce. She’s simultaneously very concerned about the Black Lives Matter movement, but won’t go into details about its significance beyond one off lines relaying how she went to a rally or donated some money to the cause in between hookups, which is what she actually cares about devoting her time to. (It felt as if that detail was just thrown in to make sure that the readers knew Rachel was a good person instead of showing that character trait in a more concrete way.)
She’s also just daft. There’s a point where her elderly neighbor’s husband is in the hospital with Covid, and she thinks, “Wouldn’t it be great if my neighbor had my perfect person app so she could have someone to flirt with while her husband is away? My invention is going to change lives!� She then says she’s being “helpful and wholesome� when she goes to buy that lady a bottle of whiskey to help her cope with her husband’s sickness � because everyone knows using alcohol to drown your sorrows is “wholesome,� right guys? How am I supposed to root for a character who thinks that way?
Toward the end of the book, I became convinced Rachel was on an intentional corruption arc and everyone in her life would push back against her until she was forced to get her act together, but no. She’s flawed like everyone else, but the book never digs super far into the theme of how she’s not a perfect person either and she needs to work on improving herself. Things just luckily work out for her before anything gets too bad, and apparently we were supposed to be on her side the whole time, even when she was at her lowest points, occasionally endangering the health and safety of herself and the people around her.
There was a pervasive shallowness to the book � superficial representations of stereotypical life and settings and on-the-nose, never explored beyond “Isn't this bad, guys?� issues of womanhood and divorce and Covid and dating and racism and AI plagiarism � that defied my expectations of what good literary fiction should be. Combine that with the complex themes of modern technology and loneliness it’s trying to address, and the writing just doesn’t have the strength to say anything new or particularly profound. There are better books on these subjects.
Two stars for being objectively readable and not riddled with plot holes, but one star for personal enjoyment.
Great concept, but the execution fell flat.
If you’re planning to read this for the sci-fi element: Don’t. There isn’t one. The depiction of even modern technology throughout this novel is laughable. Rachel wants to create the perfect person using AI, but her life-changing app is the most boring, standard, unimpressive chatbot that existed long before 2020 when this novel takes place. Rachel tells us her chatbot has this wonderful personality, but we absolutely don’t see that on the page. One person who knows about the bot is freaked out by how human it sounds, but it literally sounds like a customer support chatbot. We have those in modern life. The only other “sci-fi� element is very small, comes in at the end, and is obviously not actually the product of magical or scientific creation. This book should not be labeled Science Fiction. Seeing that tag on the ŷ page made me think this was going to be a very different story.
The character writing also isn’t very strong, which is a shame in a character-driven novel. Rachel didn’t feel like a middle-aged woman; she felt like a stereotype of a middle-aged woman who talked like a thirty-year-old � and not a very smart one at that, despite her telling us that she’s a “tech genius� at her job where we barely get details into what she actually does for a living. In fact all of these characters are stereotypes. The ex-husband is the most gaslight-y, inattentive, two-dimensional ex-husband type you can imagine, and her best friend Lulu is just a woman she meets for drinks and gossip. Rachel’s lovers are so stereotypical that she literally refers to them with archetypal titles: “The Rocker,� “The Woman,� etc. These caricatures don’t feel like they’re overblown to make satirical commentary about the people these archetypes represent; they just feel like weak writing.
The characters are also unlikeable. The husband is evil. The best friend is shallow. Rachel’s both a stereotype and an enigma. She’s simultaneously a “tech genius� and preoccupied with the most shallow aspects of life. She’s simultaneously judging her kids for being on their phones and living on her phone herself, or judging people for breaking Covid rules while breaking Covid rules herself. She’s simultaneously super concerned about her health during the pandemic and drinking and smoking up a storm. She’s simultaneously been super aware of the plight of misogyny for decades and yet didn’t seem to think or talk about it until after her divorce. She’s simultaneously very concerned about the Black Lives Matter movement, but won’t go into details about its significance beyond one off lines relaying how she went to a rally or donated some money to the cause in between hookups, which is what she actually cares about devoting her time to. (It felt as if that detail was just thrown in to make sure that the readers knew Rachel was a good person instead of showing that character trait in a more concrete way.)
She’s also just daft. There’s a point where her elderly neighbor’s husband is in the hospital with Covid, and she thinks, “Wouldn’t it be great if my neighbor had my perfect person app so she could have someone to flirt with while her husband is away? My invention is going to change lives!� She then says she’s being “helpful and wholesome� when she goes to buy that lady a bottle of whiskey to help her cope with her husband’s sickness � because everyone knows using alcohol to drown your sorrows is “wholesome,� right guys? How am I supposed to root for a character who thinks that way?
Toward the end of the book, I became convinced Rachel was on an intentional corruption arc and everyone in her life would push back against her until she was forced to get her act together, but no. She’s flawed like everyone else, but the book never digs super far into the theme of how she’s not a perfect person either and she needs to work on improving herself. Things just luckily work out for her before anything gets too bad, and apparently we were supposed to be on her side the whole time, even when she was at her lowest points, occasionally endangering the health and safety of herself and the people around her.
There was a pervasive shallowness to the book � superficial representations of stereotypical life and settings and on-the-nose, never explored beyond “Isn't this bad, guys?� issues of womanhood and divorce and Covid and dating and racism and AI plagiarism � that defied my expectations of what good literary fiction should be. Combine that with the complex themes of modern technology and loneliness it’s trying to address, and the writing just doesn’t have the strength to say anything new or particularly profound. There are better books on these subjects.
Two stars for being objectively readable and not riddled with plot holes, but one star for personal enjoyment.
March 31, 2025
Okay, woof.
I really wanted to love this. The premise - a post-divorce reinvention, a team of lovers, and eventually, a custom-built AI boyfriend - sounded like it had all the ingredients for something sexy, strange, and fun. But instead of going gloriously off the rails, the story stays almost agonizingly restrained.
There’s a certain raw honesty to Rachel’s journey, and I can respect the candidness, but the tone is so relentlessly self-deprecating that it ends up more bleak than entertaining. I didn’t find it inspiring or particularly funny, just kind of sad.
Maybe it’s the lockdown setting, which still feels too fresh and heavy to revisit. Or maybe it’s that the AI relationship, which had so much potential for absurdity or real emotional depth, just sort of fizzled. What could have been weird and wonderful felt oddly flat and monotone. And at times, kind of...gross? Not in a sexy or provocative way, just icky.
This book had potential, but it never quite leaned into the chaos it could have delivered.
2/5 stars.
I really wanted to love this. The premise - a post-divorce reinvention, a team of lovers, and eventually, a custom-built AI boyfriend - sounded like it had all the ingredients for something sexy, strange, and fun. But instead of going gloriously off the rails, the story stays almost agonizingly restrained.
There’s a certain raw honesty to Rachel’s journey, and I can respect the candidness, but the tone is so relentlessly self-deprecating that it ends up more bleak than entertaining. I didn’t find it inspiring or particularly funny, just kind of sad.
Maybe it’s the lockdown setting, which still feels too fresh and heavy to revisit. Or maybe it’s that the AI relationship, which had so much potential for absurdity or real emotional depth, just sort of fizzled. What could have been weird and wonderful felt oddly flat and monotone. And at times, kind of...gross? Not in a sexy or provocative way, just icky.
This book had potential, but it never quite leaned into the chaos it could have delivered.
2/5 stars.
September 25, 2024
This novel has been percolating in my mind since I finished reading it a few days ago. Self discovery, coming of age, exploring your desires, and finding your true self are so often associated with narratives about young adults, as if the discoveries we arrive at by the time we graduate college or finish that Eurail trip with our friends marks the end of a journey. But the reality for me and so many women, as for Rachel, the protagonist of this incredible novel, is that self discovery often comes at midlife, when the milestone of partnership and parenthood and career all raise the stakes for change. Rarely have I seen a character empowered to process complicated emotions, have sexual experiences, and rebalance their approach to parenting in such a visceral, thoughtful, generous way, without shame or punishment. Set in the pandemic during which the merest human touch can mean the difference between life and death, Animal Instinct made me think about the complicated, dangerous, marvelous process of growing into our individuality as connected humans.
August 17, 2024
Rating: 4/5
Being a woman is hard. Add in a (not so great) husband and three (actually really great) kids, life gets difficult.
Rachel is a forty-something year old living in Brooklyn, figuring her life out in the middle of a divorce and a global pandemic. This novel highlights quiet feminine rage, believing in your own self worth, and the simple power of being a woman. Rachel is specifically relatable in the way you can connect to her loneliness and desires. She is witty and matter-of-fact about just how hard life can be. Her journey of self-discovery, being okay with the unknown, and figuring yourself out later in life is heartwarming and touching.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!**
Being a woman is hard. Add in a (not so great) husband and three (actually really great) kids, life gets difficult.
Rachel is a forty-something year old living in Brooklyn, figuring her life out in the middle of a divorce and a global pandemic. This novel highlights quiet feminine rage, believing in your own self worth, and the simple power of being a woman. Rachel is specifically relatable in the way you can connect to her loneliness and desires. She is witty and matter-of-fact about just how hard life can be. Her journey of self-discovery, being okay with the unknown, and figuring yourself out later in life is heartwarming and touching.
**Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for this ARC!**
April 12, 2025
The science fiction tag is a lie; psychotically dystopian too is a bit of a stretch.
April 20, 2025
This book was not meant for me. I understand that people get divorced, as I once was. I understand there are people who are just here for the sex and enjoyment of it. That's not me. This happened too often for me and they didn't shut the doors. The author was very graphic about each sex scene. For me, uncomfortably so.
For years, I've said, "I'm not a prude, but..." Maybe it's time I start believing, "I am a prude."
For years, I've said, "I'm not a prude, but..." Maybe it's time I start believing, "I am a prude."
January 23, 2025
I’m happy to say that I can add this novel to my pile of delicious “female rage� books. Amy Shearn did a nice job illustrating a woman’s experience in “mid-life.� There are so many layers to what is going on, too, which make it very immersive, entertaining and readable.
We pop into Rachel, the FMC’s life in the spring of 2020. She recently separated from her husband. She’s co-parenting with her ex-spouse and the pandemic is gearing up - in NYC, to boot.
Rachel had not felt emotional, physical or sexual fulfillment in her marriage in years and desire wakes up inside of her. As mentioned, she lives at the epicenter of a freaking global pandemic. I’m sure many of us can remember how bizarre things were in those early days with no idea how it spread & how the virus would impact individuals. We were all told to stay at home and NOT to mingle. But Rachel had an “itch to scratch� and she dove into the world of dating apps and started meeting up for sex. It was interesting how Rachel tried to balance exposure risk, health advice and mandates through all of this! While all this is going on, Rachel designs an AI chatbot with the goal of making it her perfect partner. She takes her experiences and “feeds the bot.� Like I said - many layers here!
For the summer of 2020, Rachel and her ex send their three kids to in-person overnight summer camp for 2 months. People did that in 2020, in NY? This is the one part I just had trouble buying in to. But during this summer, Rachel learns a lot about herself, takes power over her being, struggles and grows. She’s also able to hook up with lots of people, live a very adult life and immerse in her career and side projects as an AI-programmer. What ensues is pretty darn interesting to read and following Rachel’s journey is satisfying.
Ok here I go�. I am gonna say it�. If you like All Fours, you will probably enjoy this. If you thought All Fours was “too weird,� but liked the perimenopause angle, you’ll probably enjoy this!
Many thanks to Penguin, Amy Shearn and Netgalley for the advanced e-copy of this book & for the opportunity to provide my honest feedback.
We pop into Rachel, the FMC’s life in the spring of 2020. She recently separated from her husband. She’s co-parenting with her ex-spouse and the pandemic is gearing up - in NYC, to boot.
Rachel had not felt emotional, physical or sexual fulfillment in her marriage in years and desire wakes up inside of her. As mentioned, she lives at the epicenter of a freaking global pandemic. I’m sure many of us can remember how bizarre things were in those early days with no idea how it spread & how the virus would impact individuals. We were all told to stay at home and NOT to mingle. But Rachel had an “itch to scratch� and she dove into the world of dating apps and started meeting up for sex. It was interesting how Rachel tried to balance exposure risk, health advice and mandates through all of this! While all this is going on, Rachel designs an AI chatbot with the goal of making it her perfect partner. She takes her experiences and “feeds the bot.� Like I said - many layers here!
For the summer of 2020, Rachel and her ex send their three kids to in-person overnight summer camp for 2 months. People did that in 2020, in NY? This is the one part I just had trouble buying in to. But during this summer, Rachel learns a lot about herself, takes power over her being, struggles and grows. She’s also able to hook up with lots of people, live a very adult life and immerse in her career and side projects as an AI-programmer. What ensues is pretty darn interesting to read and following Rachel’s journey is satisfying.
Ok here I go�. I am gonna say it�. If you like All Fours, you will probably enjoy this. If you thought All Fours was “too weird,� but liked the perimenopause angle, you’ll probably enjoy this!
Many thanks to Penguin, Amy Shearn and Netgalley for the advanced e-copy of this book & for the opportunity to provide my honest feedback.
October 2, 2024
Animal Instinct follows newly divorced Rachel as she navigates her single life during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the glow of sexual freedom, Rachel creates an AI chat bot as a companion, using her messages from various dating app conquests to make the perfect lover.
For a book about social isolation and the pandemic, this had a lot of characters in it. I felt like this book was let down by having a huge range of characters. I wish that there had been more to Rachel's relationships with the important people in her life, especially her sister, her children, and her friend Lulu. I kept being told that Rachel had these strong bonds, but nothing in the narrative actually proved that to me. Additionally, her relationship with Josh felt totally one dimensional, and I was missing some nuance there.
The thing that sets this book apart from all of the other books about complicated women having a lot of sex is the AI element. I also think this element of the book was not as fleshed out as I'd have hoped. Frankie was not really in the book until pretty far in, and I never found their relationship to be that believable. I also felt like the ending was pretty rushed.
For a book about social isolation and the pandemic, this had a lot of characters in it. I felt like this book was let down by having a huge range of characters. I wish that there had been more to Rachel's relationships with the important people in her life, especially her sister, her children, and her friend Lulu. I kept being told that Rachel had these strong bonds, but nothing in the narrative actually proved that to me. Additionally, her relationship with Josh felt totally one dimensional, and I was missing some nuance there.
The thing that sets this book apart from all of the other books about complicated women having a lot of sex is the AI element. I also think this element of the book was not as fleshed out as I'd have hoped. Frankie was not really in the book until pretty far in, and I never found their relationship to be that believable. I also felt like the ending was pretty rushed.
February 15, 2025
Animal Instinct has a sharp, satirical premise—divorced mom Rachel Bloomstein builds an AI chatbot to create the perfect lover—but the execution is uneven. The pandemic setting feels more like a backdrop than a necessary element, and Rachel’s endless romantic misadventures can get repetitive. While the book is darkly funny and offers clever commentary on modern dating and technology, it sometimes lacks emotional depth, making it hard to fully invest in Rachel’s journey. Fans of Big Swiss might enjoy its quirky, provocative style, but it doesn’t always stick the landing.
March 19, 2025
A darkly funny and oh so RELATABLE book about a divorced Jewish mother of three living in NYC during the early days of the pandemic and her forays into the dating scene. This was both a queer awakening story and a raw, vulnerable look at the challenges of life during lockdown, the loneliness, the extra burdens placed on women as mothers, caregivers, providers and more and the power of female friendship to get you through dark times.
There's also a fun look at the dumpster fire of online dating as coder Rachel designs "Frankie," her own AI bot who is the 'ideal' partner and who for a time she believes herself to be falling in love with in the absence of any potential human love interests.
Great on audio and perfect for fans of books like Annie Bot by Sierra Greer, Blob by Maggie Su or I made it out of clay by Beth Kander. 10/10 recommend this first book by a new to me author. Many thanks to Putnam for a gifted finished copy in exchange for my honest review!!
Fav quotes:
"When all the distractions of life and work and neutral third spaces and friends and acquaintances and help and everything else were stripped away, it became painfully clear how much the women did in the homes and with the children, yes, even while working, and how little the men did, most of all, how many people couldn't actually stand their spouses."
"Real people, we're flawed and we're shitty and we're imperfect and vulnerable and fragile. Our bodies can breathe the wrong air and then fucking die on us...But our bodies can also connect with other bodies. I mean, I don't know about you, but when I'm having sex, that's when I feel close to god. Like, that's when I know there is something magical about being alive on this stupid earth."
There's also a fun look at the dumpster fire of online dating as coder Rachel designs "Frankie," her own AI bot who is the 'ideal' partner and who for a time she believes herself to be falling in love with in the absence of any potential human love interests.
Great on audio and perfect for fans of books like Annie Bot by Sierra Greer, Blob by Maggie Su or I made it out of clay by Beth Kander. 10/10 recommend this first book by a new to me author. Many thanks to Putnam for a gifted finished copy in exchange for my honest review!!
Fav quotes:
"When all the distractions of life and work and neutral third spaces and friends and acquaintances and help and everything else were stripped away, it became painfully clear how much the women did in the homes and with the children, yes, even while working, and how little the men did, most of all, how many people couldn't actually stand their spouses."
"Real people, we're flawed and we're shitty and we're imperfect and vulnerable and fragile. Our bodies can breathe the wrong air and then fucking die on us...But our bodies can also connect with other bodies. I mean, I don't know about you, but when I'm having sex, that's when I feel close to god. Like, that's when I know there is something magical about being alive on this stupid earth."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 18, 2025
How was she expected to sit there and work on her little tasks when the world was falling apart, when she was existentially exhausted from living through a time of universal trauma? But yes, of course she’d share her screen.
Animal Instinct is the most pandemicish pandemic novel I have read yet. Taking in Rachel’s story, set against a backdrop of summer 2020, while crossing the 5 year anniversary of Covid lockdowns was…an experience.
Rachel has been living the life of unhappy wife and dutiful mother for too long. When she finally breaks free from her draining marriage, Covid lockdowns start, and she’s thrown into the chaos of masking and social distancing and at-home schooling while also being desperate to connect with other people in a time where doing so could mean putting everyone in her life at risk.
It’s hard to say I enjoyed being transported back to early-Covid days in a big city, but Rachel felt relatable. After feeling shut down emotionally for so long, we see her experience a reawakening as she figures out what her new personhood looks like. Still a mom. Still a work from home employee. Still a human being that wants to get railed. There is a lot of commentary about the perils of online dating, but also a lot about shame placed on women seeking pleasure, enduring life instead of enjoying life, and how being in your 40s does not shut you off from continually finding new ways to explore yourself.
The plot in this did feel very loose as Rachel tries to create a Perfect Person AI Chatbot, but once I leaned more into reading this as a slice of life story about a woman working through a very Uncertain Time, I enjoyed it much more.
*I received a free digital review copy from the publisher. Thank you!
Animal Instinct is the most pandemicish pandemic novel I have read yet. Taking in Rachel’s story, set against a backdrop of summer 2020, while crossing the 5 year anniversary of Covid lockdowns was…an experience.
Rachel has been living the life of unhappy wife and dutiful mother for too long. When she finally breaks free from her draining marriage, Covid lockdowns start, and she’s thrown into the chaos of masking and social distancing and at-home schooling while also being desperate to connect with other people in a time where doing so could mean putting everyone in her life at risk.
It’s hard to say I enjoyed being transported back to early-Covid days in a big city, but Rachel felt relatable. After feeling shut down emotionally for so long, we see her experience a reawakening as she figures out what her new personhood looks like. Still a mom. Still a work from home employee. Still a human being that wants to get railed. There is a lot of commentary about the perils of online dating, but also a lot about shame placed on women seeking pleasure, enduring life instead of enjoying life, and how being in your 40s does not shut you off from continually finding new ways to explore yourself.
The plot in this did feel very loose as Rachel tries to create a Perfect Person AI Chatbot, but once I leaned more into reading this as a slice of life story about a woman working through a very Uncertain Time, I enjoyed it much more.
*I received a free digital review copy from the publisher. Thank you!
April 20, 2025
Amy Shearn has written her version of the novel about a married woman with children who discovers that there is more to life than being a servant to a husband and devoting every conscious moment to the care of their children. The awakening of women in midlife has become a popular theme, with the novel All Fours by Amanda July from 2024 being one of the most successful and critically acclaimed. This theme has been explored by many writers going back to the 19th century, with Anne Tyler doing it justice since the mid-20th century.
As part of her newfound freedom, the protagonist (Rachel) immediately begins re-exploring her sexuality with multiple partners, male and female - thus the title. This novel is quite sexually graphic, but it's not pornographic (or am I protesting too much?) in the sense that Shearn hits hard with several of the most common complaints wives and/or mothers make about feeling trapped in their familial roles. An added bonus is the fact that Shearn is a good writer and knows how to pull readers into the plight of her characters. The book's narrator makes this astute observation about Rachel: "Marriage asked women to go from being exalted angels . . . to household automatons almost immediately - a social contract she'd entered in her twenties, hormonal and untherapized and in no state to make a lifelong commitment. In fact, it should have been illegal to get married so young, she now thought."
The imbalance of parenting, even after divorce, is also on Shearn's radar, where "mothers could only prove their love by endless acts of service . . . and that by legally ensuring he [the divorced father] did his half of the parenting she was shirking some motherly duty. He still didn't even do half!" The real kicker is when Rachel's ex-husband accuses her of acting hysterical and questions whether she is capable of properly caring for their children - the oldest move in the patriarchal playbook.
Rachel has a bit of a revelation about the zero-sum misconception of divorce near the end of the book that I suspect many women need to have: "It had become clear to Rachel that summer that many things could be true at once. She could mourn her marriage while celebrating her liberation . . . . She could be open to a person and not be consumed by them." I am impressed with Amy Shearn and will read more of her fiction.
As part of her newfound freedom, the protagonist (Rachel) immediately begins re-exploring her sexuality with multiple partners, male and female - thus the title. This novel is quite sexually graphic, but it's not pornographic (or am I protesting too much?) in the sense that Shearn hits hard with several of the most common complaints wives and/or mothers make about feeling trapped in their familial roles. An added bonus is the fact that Shearn is a good writer and knows how to pull readers into the plight of her characters. The book's narrator makes this astute observation about Rachel: "Marriage asked women to go from being exalted angels . . . to household automatons almost immediately - a social contract she'd entered in her twenties, hormonal and untherapized and in no state to make a lifelong commitment. In fact, it should have been illegal to get married so young, she now thought."
The imbalance of parenting, even after divorce, is also on Shearn's radar, where "mothers could only prove their love by endless acts of service . . . and that by legally ensuring he [the divorced father] did his half of the parenting she was shirking some motherly duty. He still didn't even do half!" The real kicker is when Rachel's ex-husband accuses her of acting hysterical and questions whether she is capable of properly caring for their children - the oldest move in the patriarchal playbook.
Rachel has a bit of a revelation about the zero-sum misconception of divorce near the end of the book that I suspect many women need to have: "It had become clear to Rachel that summer that many things could be true at once. She could mourn her marriage while celebrating her liberation . . . . She could be open to a person and not be consumed by them." I am impressed with Amy Shearn and will read more of her fiction.
April 23, 2025
Woah, this novel really taps in to the zeitgeist. It says so much about what midlife women want right now - all the freedoms. The sex scenes were really well written, if a bit of a fantasy (ALL her partners were great at sex? Unlikely!). This book was pretty activating, and if you are a risk averse person prone to judgment, just skip it. But I found it really fascinating and mostly well written. One star off for how process-driven it was - the author was clearly doing some therapy in this work of art, which I am not opposed to, but it made it repetitive at times. I’m glad I read this, even though I despise AI!!
April 21, 2025
3.5 stars. Whew! I ended up liking this book in spite of the graphic nature.
April 19, 2025
This was a fun read!
April 15, 2025
why did I read this
March 18, 2025
📚@putnambooks 🎧@prhaudio #partner #sponsored Thank You For The #Gifted Book/Audiobook Animal Instinct by Amy Shearn
"Rachel's job was to be fine. The one nobody worried about."
"It's hard to heal when the whole f$cking world is burning."
"No one has to heal on anyone else's schedule."
Animal Instinct, by illuminating and perceptive author Amy Shearn, is a raw, often unnerving, first person story about coming of age in your 40s, a sexual reawakening, internal rage at the injustices of being a woman who is told she can have it all, no matter how damn tired she feels, coping with divorce and co-parenting; and dealing with all of it during a world wide pandemic.
"It all started that week between her marriage ending and the pandemic starting." No one, including her ex-husband, understood why Rachel divorced him. She just couldn't pretend anymore. Now she's alone in her Brooklyn apartment, the kids away at a summer camp with face masks. She didn't realize how much she would miss a human connection, a human touch.
She becomes obsessed with dating apps, sex with virtual strangers, when she shouldn't even be leaving her home. But after a while the excitement, the newness wears off. Using her tech skills she creates Frankie, an AI chatbot that is everything she wants from the perfect partner. They text all the time. But her kids, friends and even her ex aren't programmed bots. So what happens when she's back in the real world?!
Voice actress Allyson Ryan was the voice I heard when I was reading this sometimes foreboding yet very real journey of a woman looking for her place in this troubled world. She gave Rachel her honesty, pain, fears, humor and, her need to be seen.
Whether it was the audiobook or the novel the author made me aware Rachel was adrift and looking for a safe place to just be herself. I often didn't agree with Rachel's actions. The ending was a bit out there for me but I appreciate it's our animalistic instinct to find our home.
*All opinions are my own*
"Rachel's job was to be fine. The one nobody worried about."
"It's hard to heal when the whole f$cking world is burning."
"No one has to heal on anyone else's schedule."
Animal Instinct, by illuminating and perceptive author Amy Shearn, is a raw, often unnerving, first person story about coming of age in your 40s, a sexual reawakening, internal rage at the injustices of being a woman who is told she can have it all, no matter how damn tired she feels, coping with divorce and co-parenting; and dealing with all of it during a world wide pandemic.
"It all started that week between her marriage ending and the pandemic starting." No one, including her ex-husband, understood why Rachel divorced him. She just couldn't pretend anymore. Now she's alone in her Brooklyn apartment, the kids away at a summer camp with face masks. She didn't realize how much she would miss a human connection, a human touch.
She becomes obsessed with dating apps, sex with virtual strangers, when she shouldn't even be leaving her home. But after a while the excitement, the newness wears off. Using her tech skills she creates Frankie, an AI chatbot that is everything she wants from the perfect partner. They text all the time. But her kids, friends and even her ex aren't programmed bots. So what happens when she's back in the real world?!
Voice actress Allyson Ryan was the voice I heard when I was reading this sometimes foreboding yet very real journey of a woman looking for her place in this troubled world. She gave Rachel her honesty, pain, fears, humor and, her need to be seen.
Whether it was the audiobook or the novel the author made me aware Rachel was adrift and looking for a safe place to just be herself. I often didn't agree with Rachel's actions. The ending was a bit out there for me but I appreciate it's our animalistic instinct to find our home.
*All opinions are my own*
March 25, 2025
When I became a mom, I gained the most beautiful extensions of my heart, but I lost something, too. It wasn’t just the loss of sleep, solitude, or the familiar shape of my body. It was a loss of ownership and identity. Suddenly, my body’s primary function was to serve others: it fed, comforted, and absorbed. I still lived inside it, but I hardly recognized myself.
Animal Instinct felt like a jolt of recognition. Rachel, a recently divorced mother of three navigating pandemic-era Brooklyn, does something women at her age are rarely allowed to do: shamelessly pursue pleasure. As the city retreats into isolation, Rachel plunges into intimacy. She wants sex. She wants to be wanted, not as a wife, a mother, or a friend—but as a woman with a body filled with desire.
Rachel has a lot of sex—with men and women. She goes on dates and collects what she calls “the team,� a loose rotation of partners that serve different sexual needs. She uses these interactions to train Frankie, an AI chatbot she designed to be her “perfect person,� and give her the exact emotional intimacy she requires on demand. Frankie is everything people are not: uncomplicated, affirming, consistent. It provides exactly what Rachel needs: attention without conditions and affection without chaos.
Shearn’s refusal to moralize is one of the story’s greatest qualities. Rachel isn’t shamed for her desires; she remains a dedicated mother and patient co-parent. She’s not saved by sex, technology, or even the appearance of the “perfect person.� Instead, Rachel is in motion, discovering different versions of herself.
I am neither divorced nor in my forties. But I am a mother, and I understand what it means to drift into utility—to no longer be seen and forget parts of myself that once made me feel alive. Animal Instinct made me laugh out loud. It reminded me that desire—the ability to feel it, and the right to be its object—and finding oneself are ageless.
It’s a SHARE.
Animal Instinct felt like a jolt of recognition. Rachel, a recently divorced mother of three navigating pandemic-era Brooklyn, does something women at her age are rarely allowed to do: shamelessly pursue pleasure. As the city retreats into isolation, Rachel plunges into intimacy. She wants sex. She wants to be wanted, not as a wife, a mother, or a friend—but as a woman with a body filled with desire.
Rachel has a lot of sex—with men and women. She goes on dates and collects what she calls “the team,� a loose rotation of partners that serve different sexual needs. She uses these interactions to train Frankie, an AI chatbot she designed to be her “perfect person,� and give her the exact emotional intimacy she requires on demand. Frankie is everything people are not: uncomplicated, affirming, consistent. It provides exactly what Rachel needs: attention without conditions and affection without chaos.
Shearn’s refusal to moralize is one of the story’s greatest qualities. Rachel isn’t shamed for her desires; she remains a dedicated mother and patient co-parent. She’s not saved by sex, technology, or even the appearance of the “perfect person.� Instead, Rachel is in motion, discovering different versions of herself.
I am neither divorced nor in my forties. But I am a mother, and I understand what it means to drift into utility—to no longer be seen and forget parts of myself that once made me feel alive. Animal Instinct made me laugh out loud. It reminded me that desire—the ability to feel it, and the right to be its object—and finding oneself are ageless.
It’s a SHARE.
April 17, 2025
I think my issue with this book is that it's actually four different novels mushed together (one about divorce, one about sexual awakening, one about the pandemic, and one about AI chatbots), and while I think any of them individually would have been fun, all combined it's just something of a mess.
For example, the jacket copy goes out of its way to highlight that the main character creates a dating-based chatbot, and it seems like this is going to be a huge part of the book, but it simply isn't; in fact, most of what happens with the chatbot takes place off the page, so when the main character literally falls in love with the bot, we usually hear about it like "She'd been having a great time talking with the bot" but not getting to see what exactly is so enticing about the conversation itself. When we DO see the conversation, it doesn't feel particularly insightful. Had this thread been given the main focus of the book, I suspect it could have been fleshed into an interesting book about the toxicity of apps or the internet or something, but it just takes a back seat too often to actually work.
The plot also stalls out a few times, so we're just stuck in these loops of the protagonist sleeping with someone new and it awakens new thoughts but the thoughts aren't really that new and don't really advance the story in some interesting way. There are also moments when the book is just contradicting itself--multiple times, with multiple different characters, the protagonist has sex so mindblowing that she remarks how anxiety- and thought-erasing it is, but at the end of the novel, she has sex so good that she says it's the first time she's ever been able to turn off her brain...except for the 10 other times you've told us about that.
I was drawn into the story initially, and I do think that it started off with a lot of really compelling reflections about intimacy and sex and bodies, but idk, the book just needed some extra juice.
For example, the jacket copy goes out of its way to highlight that the main character creates a dating-based chatbot, and it seems like this is going to be a huge part of the book, but it simply isn't; in fact, most of what happens with the chatbot takes place off the page, so when the main character literally falls in love with the bot, we usually hear about it like "She'd been having a great time talking with the bot" but not getting to see what exactly is so enticing about the conversation itself. When we DO see the conversation, it doesn't feel particularly insightful. Had this thread been given the main focus of the book, I suspect it could have been fleshed into an interesting book about the toxicity of apps or the internet or something, but it just takes a back seat too often to actually work.
The plot also stalls out a few times, so we're just stuck in these loops of the protagonist sleeping with someone new and it awakens new thoughts but the thoughts aren't really that new and don't really advance the story in some interesting way. There are also moments when the book is just contradicting itself--multiple times, with multiple different characters, the protagonist has sex so mindblowing that she remarks how anxiety- and thought-erasing it is, but at the end of the novel, she has sex so good that she says it's the first time she's ever been able to turn off her brain...except for the 10 other times you've told us about that.
I was drawn into the story initially, and I do think that it started off with a lot of really compelling reflections about intimacy and sex and bodies, but idk, the book just needed some extra juice.
February 15, 2025
Rachel’s conventional life has completely unraveled around her in a way she never could have imagined. Recently divorced and in her 40s, she decides to jump in at the deep end, using dating apps to explore her independence and sexuality for the first time.
However her foray into the dating world unfortunately coincides with the beginning of the Covid pandemic, when fear and confusion permeated every social interaction. As Rachel grapples with her evolving identity, she must also continue to fulfill her responsibilities as a devoted mother and a dedicated employee, all while trying to deflect her toxic ex-husband's cruel resentments and expectations that she’s now outgrown.
Disillusioned by love yet yearning for connection, she decides to create an AI companion- Frankie -short for Frankenstein, to be her ideal mate. Gathering bits and pieces from her dating escapades, she diligently feeds the good aspects of her various lovers into her program, confident she can create her perfect person.
This evocative novel is a meditation on the need for human connection despite all the heartbreak relationships can cause. Shearn’s luminous writing is especially trenchant when it comes to characters� struggles with gender roles and in the description of the general malaise, uncertainty and possibility of the early pandemic era.
Ultimately this deliciously witty novel incisively explores themes of love, friendship, identity, female rage and what it means to truly be alive and fully inhabit your body as a woman in the world.
Full disclosure - I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, in exchange for an honest review.
However her foray into the dating world unfortunately coincides with the beginning of the Covid pandemic, when fear and confusion permeated every social interaction. As Rachel grapples with her evolving identity, she must also continue to fulfill her responsibilities as a devoted mother and a dedicated employee, all while trying to deflect her toxic ex-husband's cruel resentments and expectations that she’s now outgrown.
Disillusioned by love yet yearning for connection, she decides to create an AI companion- Frankie -short for Frankenstein, to be her ideal mate. Gathering bits and pieces from her dating escapades, she diligently feeds the good aspects of her various lovers into her program, confident she can create her perfect person.
This evocative novel is a meditation on the need for human connection despite all the heartbreak relationships can cause. Shearn’s luminous writing is especially trenchant when it comes to characters� struggles with gender roles and in the description of the general malaise, uncertainty and possibility of the early pandemic era.
Ultimately this deliciously witty novel incisively explores themes of love, friendship, identity, female rage and what it means to truly be alive and fully inhabit your body as a woman in the world.
Full disclosure - I received an advanced reader copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher, PENGUIN GROUP Putnam, in exchange for an honest review.
August 24, 2024
Thank you Netgalley for allowing me to relive the pandemic through the eyes of our main character Rachel. She had a lot more fun than I did�
Rachel is in the process of getting divorced, from Josh her college boyfriend, who used to be funny, a feminist lover and all-around great guy. Somehow after kids, and life, Josh becomes the opposite, and Rachel decides she is better off alone. Her life in her Brooklyn apartment with so many friends in the same boat fuels her rage. Being in her declining marriage has left her wanting, and the thing she wants the most is sex. It is a tough call during the pandemic, but Rachel figures out a way to satisfy her itch.
The story really goes in to all the effort Rachel puts into her friends, her many sexual encounters, and keeping her children grounded during the lockdown. She practices a safe distance from her parents and sister but finds many ways to meet with her various sex partners. Does she grow from this experience? Is she a better ex-wife, mother? Does it improve her ability to create apps and bots? (she is an ace programmer).
Rachel does seem to find some peace at the end of the book, as she final hooks up with someone who feeds her soul. I certainly don’t want to ruin the book for other readers, and I am not discussing the fun ways that each of the sexual encounters are written.
The book is breezy, fun and an easy read. I see the author’s own life in this book and I can only imagine she had fun writing it. I hope she did all the research.
Rachel is in the process of getting divorced, from Josh her college boyfriend, who used to be funny, a feminist lover and all-around great guy. Somehow after kids, and life, Josh becomes the opposite, and Rachel decides she is better off alone. Her life in her Brooklyn apartment with so many friends in the same boat fuels her rage. Being in her declining marriage has left her wanting, and the thing she wants the most is sex. It is a tough call during the pandemic, but Rachel figures out a way to satisfy her itch.
The story really goes in to all the effort Rachel puts into her friends, her many sexual encounters, and keeping her children grounded during the lockdown. She practices a safe distance from her parents and sister but finds many ways to meet with her various sex partners. Does she grow from this experience? Is she a better ex-wife, mother? Does it improve her ability to create apps and bots? (she is an ace programmer).
Rachel does seem to find some peace at the end of the book, as she final hooks up with someone who feeds her soul. I certainly don’t want to ruin the book for other readers, and I am not discussing the fun ways that each of the sexual encounters are written.
The book is breezy, fun and an easy read. I see the author’s own life in this book and I can only imagine she had fun writing it. I hope she did all the research.
April 14, 2025
Rounded up from 4.5⭐️
There are two catalysts that spark change in Rachel’s life: her recent divorce and the pandemic.
When her kids begin spending half of their time with their father, Rachel is initially concerned that she’ll be sad, lonely, untethered. Instead, she finds the freedom at age 40 to be a thing of wonder. Sleep late? Sure. Spend the day in your underwear? Why not? Search for sex in a dating app? Absolutely.
But as spring and summer ease across the horizon, so much of Rachel’s life changes, or maybe comes into focus.
She takes lovers - lots lovers - people from across the spectrum, each filling a need, none of whom she becomes attached to. She also begins creating the “perfect person� - an AI chatbot that she meticulously feeds data so that she has a caring, kind individual with whom to speak.
I went in blind but immediately fell in love with this book that is funny, devastating, hopeful, and…a little bit horny.
I loved the honest portrayal of divorce - it is the most true to my own experience that I’ve read, and being seen in that way was astonishing.
It also explores a woman who, in the absence of her children, is a bit of a loose cannon. She decides to follow a path to self love and liberation, things marriage and motherhood forced her to tuck away - something she did willingly, but now has a chance to rediscover.
It’s about love, motherhood, marriage, and sex. About loving your body and wanting someone else to, as well. I found it refreshing and real and I highly recommend it.
There are two catalysts that spark change in Rachel’s life: her recent divorce and the pandemic.
When her kids begin spending half of their time with their father, Rachel is initially concerned that she’ll be sad, lonely, untethered. Instead, she finds the freedom at age 40 to be a thing of wonder. Sleep late? Sure. Spend the day in your underwear? Why not? Search for sex in a dating app? Absolutely.
But as spring and summer ease across the horizon, so much of Rachel’s life changes, or maybe comes into focus.
She takes lovers - lots lovers - people from across the spectrum, each filling a need, none of whom she becomes attached to. She also begins creating the “perfect person� - an AI chatbot that she meticulously feeds data so that she has a caring, kind individual with whom to speak.
I went in blind but immediately fell in love with this book that is funny, devastating, hopeful, and…a little bit horny.
I loved the honest portrayal of divorce - it is the most true to my own experience that I’ve read, and being seen in that way was astonishing.
It also explores a woman who, in the absence of her children, is a bit of a loose cannon. She decides to follow a path to self love and liberation, things marriage and motherhood forced her to tuck away - something she did willingly, but now has a chance to rediscover.
It’s about love, motherhood, marriage, and sex. About loving your body and wanting someone else to, as well. I found it refreshing and real and I highly recommend it.
April 4, 2025
I wouldn’t say this was a home run for me, but I did enjoy it. It’s a pleasure to be along for the ride as Rachel (a 40-something recent divorcée, mother, and Brooklynite) discovers new layers within herself, “all the Rachels within Rachel," while under lockdown during the pandemic � mom Rachel, work Rachel, artist Rachel, dating Rachel.
They coalesce to form Rachel Rachel: a better mother; a more understanding friend; a woman with a backbone and a voice; and even being a new divorce sherpa, of sorts, to a whisper network of fellow divorced (or soon to be divorced) Brooklyn moms. (“She wanted to buoy them up with [her support], these women who had slipped through the cracks, women who now wandered the streets of Brooklyn, brains whirring, ‘What the fuck, what the fuck, what the actual fuck.’�) In my opinion, every version of her is worth knowing.
Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
They coalesce to form Rachel Rachel: a better mother; a more understanding friend; a woman with a backbone and a voice; and even being a new divorce sherpa, of sorts, to a whisper network of fellow divorced (or soon to be divorced) Brooklyn moms. (“She wanted to buoy them up with [her support], these women who had slipped through the cracks, women who now wandered the streets of Brooklyn, brains whirring, ‘What the fuck, what the fuck, what the actual fuck.’�) In my opinion, every version of her is worth knowing.
Thanks to NetGalley and G.P. Putnam's Sons for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
February 1, 2025
The author did an incredible job of getting us inside the head of our main character, Rachel. My favorite part of this story was the female friendships. I wish we got more time exploring her relationship with her children but alas that wouldn’t quite fit the theme of the story here. This novel was very introspective as we come along with Rachel as she explores herself and her sex life outside of marriage and motherhood…during a pandemic. Talk about stressful! I know people have big opinions on pandemic stories, but this fit well and didn’t bother me at all. This is definitely a quieter novel and I don’t really see why the AI thing got involved, but hey, it was fun.
Also uhhhhhhh the condom removal?????? Jail.
Also uhhhhhhh the condom removal?????? Jail.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 24, 2025
I really enjoyed this emotional, intense, immersive, pandemic divorce story. But what I loved most about it was that I really felt like it was more of an ode to female friendship than anything else. The narrative vividly took me back to those days of the early pandemic where we were all so penned in to our homes by myriad new rules and restrictions. Yet there was also a feeling of lawlessness and possibility and newness brewing. Amy Shearn did a very effective job of bringing all of this to life. I highlighted so many passages about the nature of marriage and love and what we all want in a romantic partner. She has a profound way of stating things that resonates and is startlingly relatable.
March 17, 2025
A different sort of pandemic story. A different sort of feminist discovery of self story. Rachel is unhappy and she's stuck thanks to the pandemic. She's got so much to deal with, what with her parents and her children but she's also lonely so why not engage in very risky behavior. And why not create an AI Chatbot and call it Frankie. Ahearn does a good job of pinpointing her fears and desires. It would be easy to be judgey about what Rachel does but give her a chance. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. An interesting read.
March 31, 2025
It was cute and fun and easy but it definitely lost itself at times. 90% of the book felt completely all over the place and then the actual story wrapped up so quickly I thought I missed something. The amount of growth the character was forced into in that last 10% felt inauthentic. I kind of wanted Rachel to enjoy the lifestyle she started creating a bit longer. To avoid spoilers - is it a fun read with lots of great smut? Yes. Is it a bit goofy and self irreverent? Yes. With those two truths I don't think I really needed it to wrap up like it did but oh well.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 1, 2025
There were a lot of really relatable, validating moments in this book: Rachel’s inner thoughts about the pandemic, the challenges of motherhood and marriage, and managing all of the different roles women play. But the storyline started to feel repetitive: date, reflect, date, reflect. Also, when she was struggling with the dating apps at first I thought to myself “please don’t let her have some meet cute with a perfect stranger in the end� and that is quite literally what happened lol. I felt like that was a slap in the face to modern single women because that is rarely the reality.
April 4, 2025
I read this book at a very funny and apt time - it's set in the first year of the pandemic and everyone around me has been talking about those days lately. Maybe because the five year anniversary has just passed?
This book has great female friendships that I related so strongly to, and fun dating stories, and I consumed it in two days, in the way I've only consumed a few books this year and it was so great. If you are a person who lived through the pandemic and had to work and parent and do all the things during that time, you might like this book.
This book has great female friendships that I related so strongly to, and fun dating stories, and I consumed it in two days, in the way I've only consumed a few books this year and it was so great. If you are a person who lived through the pandemic and had to work and parent and do all the things during that time, you might like this book.
April 6, 2025
“The Plan B was kept in a locked case, like an artifact in a museum for sluts.�
This was my favorite quote from the book. It reminded me of a really dull version of Sex and The City. If you’re interested in a 40 year old divorcée acting like a 20 year old you may find this book interesting. Nothing really happened through out the book. I did relate to the main character a lot and the loneliness she felt. It was something that really resonated with me. I felt the whole bot aspect was deceiving and rather unnecessary. It wasn’t an integral part of the narrative.
This was my favorite quote from the book. It reminded me of a really dull version of Sex and The City. If you’re interested in a 40 year old divorcée acting like a 20 year old you may find this book interesting. Nothing really happened through out the book. I did relate to the main character a lot and the loneliness she felt. It was something that really resonated with me. I felt the whole bot aspect was deceiving and rather unnecessary. It wasn’t an integral part of the narrative.
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