Praise for A Real Animal
“A young woman navigates her desires in the wake of a sexual assault in the propulsive and stunning debut from Atwood…Readers will be held captive by Lucy’s exciting voice”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Emeline Atwood's A Real Animal is a strange and astonishing and entirely original book, full of darkness shot through with light, wild and tender. Atwood writes brilliantly about our interior, personal wildernesses, the snarling, wounded animal at the heart of any person. Lucy is an unforgettable narrator: compelling, terrifying, lovable, surprising, human. She, and this book, are extraordinary.”
—Elizabeth McCracken, author of The Hero of This Book
“Emeline Atwood's Lucy is a marvelous, maddening, monstrous creation, and A Real Animal is an irresistible whirlpool of a novel.”
—Joy Williams, author of The Quick and The Dead
“This book knocked my socks off with an unreliable (but weirdly relatable) narrator who keeps making bad decisions, but you root for nonetheless”
—Jillian Quint, PureWow
"Stunning . . . A Real Animal depicts violence and trauma in a refreshing, often surprising way—a captivating, remarkable debut."
—Sam Franzini, Our Culture
Pre-order now: Catapult or Penguin Random House
"In a moment when we often find ourselves numb and distracted, Emeline Atwood has given us an enlivening and powerful novel about what it means to dwell and be changed. It gets under your skin. Atwood is an ambitious writer, as at home in the colloquial as she is in the lyrical. A tremendous accomplishment."
—Stephanie Wambugu, author of Lonely Crowds
"The gorgeous writing in A Real Animal makes its protagonist's risky behavior all the more harrowing-Lucy's intelligence does not necessarily protect her. I feared for the young woman with the extravagant sense of what intimacy looks like, creating near-constant suspense in this powerful debut."
—Amy Hempel, author of Reasons to Live
“Emeline Atwood’s debut novel stirs with edgy sex, anger, and transcendence.”
—Hamilton Cain, TIME
"Emeline Atwood is a breathtaking writer, and her first novel is a lithe, muscular, and beautifully dangerous tour de force."
—Bret Anthony Johnston, author of Encounters with Unexpected Animals
“Lucy’s human life is painted in exquisite detail, relatable for all, which grounds the magical realism without missing a beat, making for a cathartic and innovative construction.”
— Booklist
“An exceptionally rare talent- more, please! I think Emeline Atwood is a genius. In fact, I know she is. You’ll know, too, once you’re about 5 pages into A Real Animal. This is The Big One, folks.”
—Cristin Stickles, Strand Book Store (New York, NY)
“A powerhouse. Atwood’s book is simply one of the best books I’ve read since I started covering books. She perfectly writes the turbulent time when one finishes college and enters “adulthood” – whatever that means.”
—Debutiful
"This is a book that is a caliber above and beyond what we have come to expect from the young-twenties-girl-bildungsroman. There’s men, yes, and sex, a lot of it, and yearning to be understood, and for power and a place in the world, but A Real Animal is about the wild, deep, feral core of those themes . . . The book has this feeling about it, like there’s so much within the pages that’s just bursting to get out: a violent and powerful urge for something, for more survival, for more agency, to express one’s pain, to feel better. A Real Animal is as raw and visceral as an open-mouthed scream: you hear it in your bones. You can see its teeth."
—Julia Hass, Literary Hub
“Atwood’s debut is a refreshing take on what it means to come of age in a world that feels both unpredictable and stagnant.”
—Library Journal (starred review)