This is about a woman who gives birth to a baby owl. Who has a very active imagination that supplants the real with familiar, but very dark (at times), undertones. When she learns she is pregnant she fears at a primordial level, what might be growing and subsuming her from within. But, given the assurances of the husband, a good provider, they Solider on, going on a very unique birthing experience.

But there is a lot more to it than just that.

What a roller coaster ride this is. Big Fish coupled with Tim Burton in terms of surrealism, colour palette, and horror. But make it feminist, unhinged, and feral.

I’m not sure you ever really “know” what is real and what isn’t. Dialogue from the outside of Tiny mother’s mind seems faithfully recreated at times, while other moments are cardboard cut outs or abbreviated approximations that ring so false, it’d be laughable, if it wasn’t usually so intensely emotionally charged.

The abstractions in this book as it pertains to nature and what is “natural” is wonderfully nuanced here. Had there been a definitive answer that defined or codified reality, I’d have liked this less. The allegory and metaphors instead are able to humanize aspects that do not fit into society, while assigning them time and space and agency in the realm of the natural, which culture continually reveres, even as it chooses not to take any lessons from it, and most often, opts to destroy it entirely. It also makes space for trauma and escapism. For divergences from the normal and accepted.

It also does not allow the reader to feel completely aligned with one parent or the other, amazingly. Both have their failings and both interpret what’s occurring differently. We discredit both at different times, for different reasons. And judge them because of it, as intended by the author. I found this far thought provoking than expected and about more than an alteration of identity due to the new role of motherhood.

And the specificity and diction that build the ecosystem in the book is simply fantastic. Atmosphere drips from every page. It’s engaging and fast-paced. It respects the intelligence of the reader to come to their own conclusions, no handholding, or little of it, when it comes to theme and intent. And on top of that, queer themes are interwoven and become pertinent in, again, a complex way that was very satisfying. Absolutely loved the reading experience and I think it will stay with me for some time.