By day, Amelia Aurelia does mortuary make-up at her family's funeral parlour. By night, she manages her feelings by having meaningless sex. The book takes place over the period of a few days, just before and in the aftermath of a devastating and sudden life-changing loss.

In the first couple of paragraphs, I wasn't sure whether this book was for me, or at least for me at the moment. It opens with a slightly depressing-feeling sex scene, and I've read a number of books about messy 20/30-year-old girls recently that were OK but not setting my world alight, so wasn't really feeling another one. But it didn't take long for me to realise that New Animal is a very special book and soon I'd whizzed through it.

Written beautifully and powerfully, New Animal is about life and death and our relationships with ourselves and others (sexual and non-sexual). I was fascinated by the insight into working in the funeral parlour and the character's perspective on it, as well as the glimpse into the BDSM world. I also love how Baxter gradually peals off layers of Amelia, who goes from someone seeming like she knows what she wants and is good at to someone more naive and less secure. Some of the threads and characters aren't explored fully and are left loose at the end, but that felt right for a book that is supposed to be just a snippet in time.

Powerfully written, I'd highly recommend New Animal to those who enjoy books about people (particularly young women) who don't have it all together, with insightful and interesting observations of the world around them.

Amelia works as an embalmer in her family’s mortuary business. She lives with her loving family but suddenly has to face her own loss.
This is a powerful novel of grief, rage, love, sex and death.
It is a tale of a mind and body in despair, trying to outrun loss.
It’s hard to read at times - it is so gritty and raw as we watch Amelia fall apart in her grief. There are descriptions of BDSM which are graphic but I felt necessary, however this part of the work won’t be for everyone.
The prose is clever and beautiful - funny and vulnerable. Her depiction of grief is spot on.
I loved it.
Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC. All views are my own.

New Animal is a book filled with overwhelming emotion and visceral grief. Amelia thinks she understands death and grief - she couldn't be closer to it after all, her job being make-up artist to the departed.

But when her mother dies suddenly, she is undone. Unable to face her funeral, she flees to Tasmania and embarks on a journey of exploration into the world of BDSM. Wanting to be someone else, to suppress her feelings by the physical act of being hurt or hurting, she discovers that you cannot forever suppress grief.

A short but powerful exploration of life and death, this is unlike anything I've read before.

Grief is a strange beast. It affects us all uniquely and Amelia is no different. You’d have thought that by being surrounded by death and grieving strangers all day would prepare this young woman but you’re never prepared for a sudden loss.

Amelia is seriously grieving but also trying to avoid it and as the two sides collide, this young woman heads on a path of no destination. Will she hit the self destruct button as she tries to come to terms with her feelings? I feared how far Amelia’s grief would take her.

New Animal is a provocative read from the cover and the opening paragraphs through to the unnerving trip to a sex club, The reach out to the BDSM community as a total newbie and going in hard and fast felt to me like a cry for help. Amelia came across as very lost and vulnerable as the story went on.

For me, the ending was a little philosophical and was left a tad open ended. I wanted things wrapped up for Amelia and personally I didn’t feel they were. Saying that, I enjoyed the thought provoking journey I’d been on with this emotionally charged young woman that I’d devoured over the course of a day. New Animal is a read that shouldn’t be taken lightly; it’s emotional and it’s unexpected.

This short novel covered an abundance of emotion and for that, I can really praise Baxter. I enjoyed the exploration of grief and death in many forms and the final scene really tugged on my heartstrings, as it felt a fitting ending considering the story that had come before and Amelia’s personal journey. The introduction of kink sessions seemed rushed and mainly, bizarrely unnecessary, based on the build up of the protagonist that I had read so far; the theme of turning to sex to dissociate could have been incredibly interesting but unfortunately it came apart for me following this. The domme session added no meaning for me, other than a cheap attempt at shocking the reader.

Overall an okay, quick read - my only wish was that the powerful unravelling of grief wasn’t overshadowed by the strange sex scenes in the middle, without exploring disassociation or self-harm fully.

Raw is the word that springs to mind when I think of New Animal. This is a raw read that deals with a young woman’s grief. It cuts right through to the base level of human nature and so eloquently explores such a sensitive emotion. Grief is unique to everyone and the reason New Animal was such a high-impact read for me was the way it nailed that super-personal take on the situation.

The lyrically named Amelia Aurelia is our lead character. Her job is pretty unique: she does mortuary make-up at her family’s funeral home (there were definitely Six Feet Under vibes, I loved that show back in the day).

Amelia’s take on why she loves her job was really interesting to read and puts a new perspective for me on what many would view as a grim topic: 'The deceased are beyond beautiful, but only because they are so emptied of worry.'

Work and real-life collide for her when her mother suddenly dies. This then leads her to both learn what makes her tick, how to manage her own grief and how to deal with her family’s grief.

Through sex and exploring BDSM she tries to substitute her internal pain for physical pain, with varying results. This book absolutely does not hold back in describing some graphic scenes but they were all relevant and needed for Amelia to go through her grieving process.

Amelia is such a wonderfully crafted character. Her nuances and the way she copes with the hugely upsetting situation she finds herself in was so well written. She became a real, rounded woman who I just wanted to be OK.

One thing I wasn’t expecting was how dry and funny a lot of New Animal would be. Its deadpan tone was seamlessly blended with stark, raw emotion and the effect was so fresh, exciting and heart-felt. I feel like this novel came out of the blue for me and knocked me for six. This is Australian author Ella Baxter‘s debut novel and I just loved it.

As time goes by I am getting increasingly "over" the sad twenty-something and/or unhinged female trope, or feeling that the market for these narrators is becoming increasingly saturated.
However, thanks to strong recommendations from the gals at "What page are you on?" podcast I requested to read this in advance of publication.
And boy does this live up to the hype! We meet Amelia Aurelia, a young woman working as a funeral home cosmetician - the family business. As such Amelia feels that she knows a lot about grief, death, and ways for those left behind to find meaning in life.
However when Amelia's own mother suddenly passes away none of her prior experience can help her and instead she just nopes out of there, skipping the funeral to visit her estranged biological father instead. From the outset of the novel Amelia is no stranger to casual hookups via app, but she takes it up a notch or ten
and starts making some very questionable decisions - I was reminded a little of Vanessa Wye/My Dark Vanessa - Amelia almost appears to be a third-party observer during her trysts, seemingly deriving very little pleasure from them, in fact seeking to scratch some other type of itch.
While all this may sound pretty heavy going, I found the prose to be blackly comic, at times having me cackling over Amelia's deadpan descriptions.
I feel that this might be a strong contender for a fave for 2022 already

With a make-up artist of corpses as the protagonist who comes from a family of undertakers and spends most of her time on Tinder, New Animal feels like a millennial Addams family. A lot of fun and grief and pain, basically. If I was being greedy, I’d have liked more of this novel, but then I wouldn’t have been able to finish it in a few big gulps.

New Animal was a much more frank and raw book than I expected it to be. Two of the biggest central themes of the book are considered an awkward topic to approach: funerals - and the people involved in the day to day process of them; and sex. Two things that shouldn't go in hand, and yet in New Animal do merge together in a beautiful, but strange, way.

The book approaches these topics (as well as the other plot lines which I won't spoil) without any fear. Baxter takes them by the horns: no mollycoddling, just raw, direct, and heartbreaking emotions. Which, in return, feel entirely accurate and relatable, and allow you to connect with the characters whether you can relate to their specific journey or not.

A brilliant read which tackles taboo excellently and puts forth perfectly damaged characters, which feels like a real breath of fresh air.

I really enjoyed this frank and moving debut novel which follows our protagonist Amelia as she comes to terms with a sudden and tragic loss.

Amelia works in her family's funeral home doing make-up on the deceased ready for funerals and viewings. Until this sudden loss, Amelia is used to being surrounded by death and grief and feels fairly unaffected by it. Therefore, when she loses someone very close to her, she is unprepared for the power and depth of her grief and struggles to cope. She makes the decision to skip the funeral and travels to her distanced father's home in Tasmania. Already a frequent user of dating apps, Amelia seeks an escape in the BDSM scene where she can replace her emotional pain with physical pain and avoid confronting her grief.

I loved the writing in this book and the very honest and explicit portrayal of human emotion. The parallels between the animalistic behaviours in sex and the uncontrollable emotions in grief were described very well and really took me on that journey with Amelia. A very impressive debut and an author I will be looking forward to seeing what they release next.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC.

Very hard to pin down. Sex-grief connections, graphic content.

I'm finding it very hard to pin down how I feel about this short novel. Graphic sex scenes don't bother me (note: they will for some!). Reading this at the same time as losing a loved one might be either a little too upsetting or cathartic.

Amelia could be either seen to be ridiculously self-obsessed or suffering intense shock and grief when she hears about the sudden death of her mother. Surrounded by death constantly, as a make-up artist in her family's funeral business, she takes great care over the bodies of other's loved ones. But confronted with her own much-loved parent, she cannot cope and walks away.

Already a controversial character, who uses sex with stranger to 'feel', we watch, with discomfort and worry, as she continues on this journey... more than a little concerned as to what will happen to Amelia.

But here the author pulls more to the Family side of the possible turns, and Amelia and her grief vent, have time to speak to us, and don't allow this to turn into outright Dark Sex Tale.

She's hard to fully empathise with, the risks she takes with her person, the extremes of emotion Amelia exemplifies, they are hard to understand. The worlds she shows us are quite eye-opening though, and there is dark humour in there at times.

So this is a hard one to discuss. I didn't hate it. I didn't love it. I really really wanted to know that Amelia was going to be alright.

There are some interesting moments considering her two fathers, and some complicated feelings regarding parents that were some of the most interesting of the book. I also enjoyed the scenes of her at work with corpses and how she detached herself while simultaneously immersing herself in their body and 'life' to create the perfect coffin look for the family. Research has clearly been done.

It's disturbing, but one you won't forget. Definitely not for everyone though.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing a sample reading copy.

A book that is about sex, death and BSDM is obviously going to grab your attention but the amazing thing about New Animal is that it is attention seeking yet also quite captivating. Within the first few opening lines I was immediately gripped and felt and instant connection to Amelia. There are so many layers of emotions within this book that it's easy to get swept up and consumed by Amelia's apparent damaged self. Her job as a cosmetician/embalmer is handled with such beauty and tenderness and really gives an interesting insight into the one part of herself that is holding it together. This contrasted with how Amelia is using sex to just simply survive, numbing herself while simultaneously trying to feel something, makes for a truly powerful read.

Unfortunately the BDSM section left this book down for me, while clearly the author put huge effort into researching the topic, sadly this hasn't translated into the book content. These sections feel a little forced, almost gratuitous and completely ignore the whole concept of safe, sane and consensual which underpins the BDSM community. The concept of Amelia using BDSM to feel a sense of power, sense of self and indeed any feeling at all after she lost her mother is an interesting one but just didn't reach it's full potential.

This is a raw, fascinating, punchy and visceral debut from Ella Baxter and I am very excited to see what more is to come.

This exploration of grief plays with kink dynamics and physicality, as the narrator tries to grapple with the hugeness of her loss. The characters and their relationships are well drawn, and Amelia's emotions are keenly felt and often heartbreaking. The book's real strength, though, is in its portrayal of the parent-child relationship - however they may look. An often funny, bruising snapshot of a pivotal moment in one young woman's life.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

New Animal follows Amelia Auriella , a make up artist in her family’s funeral parlour .

However being in the business of death does nothing to mitigate the shock of a sudden personal loss for Amelia and her free thinking family.
We follow AA as she uses casual sexual encounters as a means to feel nothing and everything .

A quirky clever and authentic piece of writing. Although some scene may be shocking to some what is the point of literature if it not to shock you once in a while .

When I think of this book the one word which screams out to me is TALENT . @mouthcake has it in abundance and I’m glad she’s sharing it with the rest of us .

A ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ read for me and a new author to add to my automatic read list .

Thank you to @netgalley , @picadorbooks and @mouthcake for the E-ARC,by far the best one yet !

‘New Animal’ is a deceptively short and compulsively readable book that dares to go to some quite dark places.

Sex and death are inextricably linked in this book, with sex giving our main character Amelia a potential route to obliterate herself and feel empty, even disembodied, all to deal with the death around her.

And death permeates every element of her life- she works at her family’s business: a funeral parlour. A death in her family leads to her seeking even further distance from the trauma of it all, which ultimately ends up with her placing herself in the way of further trauma. Kink, especially BDSM, forms a backbone of this, with quite interesting discussions on the role of trauma, pain and fantasy in daily life.

I received an advanced copy of the book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have to be completely honest I really struggled to read this, but I would like to make it clear it wasn’t the writing as that is very well done. Parts of the book I thought ok this is getting better, but then I just found the subject matter very difficult to read and even believe.

This is far from a laugh a minute as it does deal with some heavy subjects death of a loved one, which was handled well, but when the main character sort of goes off the rails and goes to a BDSM place with someone she had never ever met. I just found that not necessary to go to that depth. I know that the character used sex as a valve to let off steam that was her way of dealing with things. I felt some of the things she did were just added for shock value as it didn’t really add to the story. I know others may feel different to me, and it’s not as if I am against it at the end of the day it’s each to their own.

Amelia Aurelia, works in the family's funeral parlour business, she is trained to do the make up on the bodies for family to pay their last respects. She seems to enjoy her work, but when surrounded by death all day, in the evening she looks on dating apps and finds random men and meets up with them purely for sex. As you get to know Amelia it seems to be clear that it’s herself she doesn’t like. Her brother Simon is in a throuple with Hugh and Carmen. Their mother had met and married their dad Jack at a young age, but the marriage hadn’t lasted when she met and left Jack for Vincent. Jack had never really got over it.

When Amelia gets a call to say her mum has had an accident she dashes to the hospital, a short time later she is declared dead. Amelia can’t deal with it, she can’t go to her mum’s funeral so goes to her dad’s house in Tasmania. Again her struggle to cope with not having her mum there is well depicted, the trauma and grief as she tries to deal with it. But then she does the same as she does at home but the random guy she gets this time is into kink and asks if she is interested, off she goes. She does think at one stage he could be taking her anywhere and selling her. Now this is just one of the parts I found a little odd I just don’t think that someone would just think ok I will go along with this because she has lost her mum. If she had got drunk maybe taken a drug or something to blank it out. But what she subjects herself to just doesn’t ring true to life. To then go to a place the following day to have lessons on how to become a domm or a sub I just don’t know, before she’s been given some clear guidance she is thrown in with a man and I just found this part difficult to read. Later when she is with Vlad at least she gets advice and is listened too.

But as I say others may find this great, I really wanted to believe in it but I just couldn’t. I felt for Amelia although at times she did come cross as a little bit selfish because she felt she had no one, because Vincent was dealing with his grief, Jack was dealing with his. Simon had Hugh and Carmen for support. I felt Amelia’s pain but I think it was more that it was close to home having lost a family member.

I would like to thank #netgalley and #picador for an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest, fair and unbiased review. All thoughts and opinions are my own and not influenced in any way.

Raw, visceral, disturbing and deeply emotional examination of grief.

Amelia is working as a make-up artist at her family's funeral parlour, she prepares the deceased for a final viewing at their funeral and she loves her job. She also enjoys having sex with random men, because it makes her feel powerful. But then one day her mother suddenly and unexpectedly dies and Amelia's life is turned upside down. She runs away from her family and from her mother's funeral to her biological father, living in a remote house in Tasmania. Here, she grapples with her feelings, experimenting with kink and BDSM to find release from the crushing pain of grief.

This novel is written in a first-person narrative, so it feels like Amelia is telling the story herself, letting us in on her inner thoughts and emotions - I really appreciated this structure, it worked very well for the intimate and emotional themes running through Ella Baxter's book. What's more, I really enjoyed being in Amelia's head, her comments and impressions were very relatable (sometimes wry and almost satirical) and having that insight helped me connect with her and what she's going through. I found the juxtaposition of grief and sex in 'New Animal' truly provocative and compelling, while the language felt almost lyrical. All these aspects put together, adding a cast of unusual characters full of quirks and vices, got me hooked, disconcerted and dazzled from the first page.

New Animal by Ella Baxter is a darkly funny and poignant meditation on the body, grief, sex, family and what it means to be human. Protagonist Emilia is by turns awkward and endearing as she attempts to deal with loss, careering between the (sometimes suffocating) embrace of her odd family, anonymous sex and BDSM as she connects with her body in an attempt to escape what’s in her head. There’s beautiful writing here and some emotional gut-punches too. I’ll be thinking about New Animal for some time.

This was a bit of a miss for me. I enjoyed the first third a lot, but then it all fell apart.

In a way, the great beginning probably set up some too-high expectations. I just didn't enjoy the rest or feel like I got anything out of it... Other than being a bit disturbed.... I should also say that the blurb didn't make me interested, it just got good reviews and I decided to give it a try. She can definitely write, but this wasn't the book for me - I would be interested to see what she does next.

My thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

This book was definitely an eye-opener! Funny, sad and brutal in places, I found it easy to read despite some of the disturbing content. I felt this was ultimately an exploration of grief, loss and how we make sense of ourselves and who we are. I really enjoyed it, but did find it a hard read in places.