Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Animal Instinct
Animal Instinct | Amy Shearn
2 posts | 2 read | 4 to read
The world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started Its spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomsteinmother of three, recent divorce, and Brooklyniteis 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 dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and 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 hearts content, she begins to realize she cant reprogram her ex-husband, her children, her friends, or the roster of paramours thats grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
review
Hooked_on_books
Animal Instinct | Amy Shearn
post image
Mehso-so

This one was a bit muddled for me. I feel like it had too many subplots and the characterization of the main character was inconsistent. At times it felt like it wanted to be All Fours (no thanks!), but then would pull back on that. I think the topic of divorce in midlife, then exploring aspects of the self as a woman that felt suppressed by marriage is a good one. And I mostly enjoyed reading it. But not quite a pick. #TOBlonglist

CaitlinR It,s always helpful to be warned away. Thanks for the review. 3d
squirrelbrain Hmmm….I can get this on Everand audio but it‘s a ‘no‘ to the All Fours comparison. I‘ve also just re-read the blurb and it feels like there may be too many sex scenes for an audiobook - can‘t skip ‘em on audio! 3d
See All 7 Comments
Hooked_on_books @squirrelbrain There are a lot of sex scenes, but they are short and nothing like the weirdness of AF, if that helps. 3d
Hooked_on_books @squirrelbrain I also should have mentioned in my review that it has some very funny lines throughout. 3d
sarahbarnes Good to know. I wasn‘t sold on this one before reading your review. 3d
merelybookish My IRL TOB friend bailed on it so I had pretty much decided not to read. 3d
40 likes7 comments
review
Chelsea.Poole
Animal Instinct | Amy Shearn
post image
Pickpick

If you have an All Fours hole in your reading life, this is for you. I went in rather uninformed on this one, but it‘s another look at a perimenopausal woman exploring options available to her. Takes place during Covid which I didn‘t love. Weirdly though, I didn‘t hate the reading experience even if these topics don‘t sound appealing to me as a reader. Lottttzzss of sex. Some AI weirdness. Mostly a story of a woman who‘s unapologetically herself.

Chelsea.Poole #tob26 long list 3w
BarbaraBB I just voted for this book for #WintercampLitsy… maybe should have chosen another. More All Fours is not what we want in Camp I think, remembering the discussion about that one 😉😀 (edited) 3w
Chelsea.Poole lol. I‘ve just come off a string of books about middle-aged people‘s sexual reawakenings. I am a bit over it but when I had to choose between “pick” and “so-so” I obviously chose “pick” for this one. It was entertaining and a nice audio. @barbarabb (edited) 3w
squirrelbrain Hmmm, I‘m not so sure about the All Fours comparisons either! 3w
66 likes2 stack adds4 comments