Pigs are a source of comfort for Valentina, helping her calm her mind when overwhelmed by listing different breeds. She thrives on order and relies on the notes her flatmate, Clara, pins on the fridge to dictate her daily routine, including what to wear and eat. Though occasionally invited out by her colleagues, Vale avoids socializing, knowing Clara disapproves and values her company for her quirky pig facts. However, a chance encounter at the bookshop offers Vale a new opportunity, pushing her into unfamiliar social territory. Meanwhile, Clara grows more possessive, reluctant to let go of her control over Vale.

I really liked the concept of this book. Something new and weird and different. However, the execution did not live up to the concept at all sadly. It felt repetitive, overdone, and dull. It was a difficult book to get through.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for this ARC and I'm sad it wasn't for me!

I wanted to like this. I was hooked in the beginning, and I enjoyed Part II. But overall, I was disappointed. After so much build up, I felt that we deserved a less abrupt ending. The book just kind of stops. In terms of characters, Clara basically has no redeeming qualities—it seems as though she did something nice one time and Vale is indebted permanently. I would have liked to have known more about Edo’s journey. Vale herself is underdeveloped. It seems as though Ollie and Kai see positive qualities in her, but honestly, through her narration, she’s mostly sad and frustrating. I’m ambivalent about the ending—I’m glad she started to see things more clearly, but I’m not sure it’s fair or reasonable to expect that everyone she cut off will (or, in Ollie’s case, could) just be waiting for her. Maybe this is why the book ends so abruptly.

Valentia feels awkward and anxious around people, for this reason she finds it difficult to maintain relationships and friendships. Clara is her only friend, she is cruel, controlling, and abusive towards Valentina.The only thing that really makes Vale happy and calm is her fascination with pigs. A chance meeting with a publisher in a book shop slowly changes the way that Vale sees herself, her self worth, her value, her self esteem, her position in the world, is it enough to escape the toxic environment of her one and only friend. A story about female friendship, mental ill health, and neuro divergence, ....Read it!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I loved this so much. The main protagonist was so relatable, and I think the exploration of toxic friendships were so accurate.

I would highly recommend this!

In Pig, Matilde Pratesi does a great job of making you question the main character and her best friend over and over and over again. Her ability to make a character insidious through anticipation alone is outstanding.

I found myself both rooting for and disappointed by Vale, hating and fearing Clara.

Definitely pick this book up if you see it however I would not recommend going into it without checking the content warnings beforehand. It can be tough in parts.

I appreciate part two for the context it provides, though it wasn't as engaging to me - I found myself wondering what would happen in the storyline told in part one rather than always being fully engaged in part two.

This was an interesting book, exploring the toxic and controlling friendship between two young women.

Vale is clearly neurodivergent, although that’s never explicitly stated, but at times it almost felt like a caricature. She lacks social skills, doesn’t understand social cues or relate well to other people. She has an obsessive interest with pigs. Her character also seems emotionally immature, although perhaps that can be explained by her relationship with Clara.

The toxicity of their friendship is immediately obvious. This was a frustrating read, in many ways, because Vale can’t see how controlling and abusive Clara is. I did find I lacked empathy as the book went on, especially when Vale began to see that she could have friends and the kind of life she wanted, but then started to throw it all away.

It did feel repetitive after a while, although I enjoyed the flashback to Vale and Clara’s teenage years. The ending felt abrupt and odd, a little out of place with the rest of the book.

3.75 stars, rounded up.

A beautiful and disturbing story of love and the desperate need for connection that can blind some people from the reality of their situation.

Vale is a wonderful character with a core of vulnerability running through her. It's a terrifying tale of how abusers can take advantage of someone's innocence and naivety especially if they are neurodiverse. It made me so scared for Vale's Future and well being.

Well observed prose and fully fledged characters- this was a beautifully explored book.

Pig

I recently read Roisin O’Donnell’s Nesting which was all about a marriage under coercive control and this book felt similar in a lot of ways with Clara controlling Vale’s abilities to function as a normal human being by telling Vale what to wear, what to eat, and forcing those bizarre bathing rituals… but these two books are completely different in the way that they portray that control with Pig relaying it in an almost dark comedic way..

Whilst the book doesn’t explicitly state so, you get the impression that Vale is on the autistic spectrum in some capacity, so could do with help in some capacity and Clara obviously helps her in that capacity but as shown in the way that Vale interacts with the other characters in the books illustrates that Vale only needs a modicum of help to be an upstanding member of the public…

Vale obviously over-obsesses with her interests, especially with Pigs, and this benefits her hugely throughout her life and is almost like a comfort blanket at times of stresses.. which fits in with her adhd / autism nature and it was certainly an interesting topic of the book which I knew very little about and I certainly learnt a thing or two!

BUT Clara is a bully, a persecutor, a tormentor who loves nothing better than controlling everything that Vale does and gets incredibly upset when Vale does anything out of turn and/or interferes with her own routines and her behaviour in this book just made you pent up with anger at her getting away with it time and time again with Vale actually justifying those actions even though she knew it was wrong and made her not enjoy life as she could – and to go back to allow this to happen again and again just frustrated you so much…

I liked this book – it was quite heavy and intense at times and deeply frustrating (because of the inability for Vale to see what was happening to herself), and there were elements that you had to suspend – namely the odd chance of bumping into an editor who just so happened to be into “new farming” and suddenly having a book published with no evidence of being capable of such beforehand.. but it was a very enjoyable read… especially learning all the pig facts along the way!

Many thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC

I was intrigued by the title, cover and premise of Matilde Pratesi's Pig but unfortunately, I thought it was full of issues.

Pig follows Vale, an Italian bookseller in London living with her 'best friend' Clara. It becomes clear fairly early on that Clara is no friend at all; she is an abuser who has taken advantage of and manipulated our narrator, who is clearly autistic.

On the face of things, I would expect to get a lot out of a book exploring this dynamic. However, I felt that the characters in this book were one-dimensional and the depiction of ASD/neurodivergence was at best a caricature and at worst relied on dangerous and offensive stereotypes.

I found Pig overly long, repetitive, and in desperate need of a good edit. I also think there is a structural issue in the middle of the novel, when we go back to Vale's childhood and explore the origin of her relationship with Clara. In my opinion, it would be better to intersperse these 'flashbacks' throughout the narrative rather than clunkily dropping them in just as the reader has become invested in the present-day narrative.

Lastly, I found it impossible to suspend my disbelief surrounding Vale's book. Everything about the publication process was absurd.

Thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A difficult novel to read as this is a very dysfunctional and toxic relationship between someone with ASD and an old friend who sees her chance. Loved the pig bits, found some parts too long but lots to talk about.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book.
I really enjoyed living briefly in Vale’s world, I loved it so much. Clara was a horrible toxic character. I loved learning about pigs courtesy of Valentina. I loved her, she was very relatable in the way she described her hyper fixation on pigs.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for a digital copy of Pig by Matilde Pratesi in return for an honest review.

I was intrigued and gripped from the first chapter of this book about a toxic female friendship. Basically, Vale is a bit of an oddball with her obsession with pigs and her lack of social skills and she is so grateful for her friendship with Clara and she is also so scared of losing her. Clara is fully aware of this and uses this power to control, manipulate and abuse Vale to the extreme.

This book is dark and disturbing and I found it quite suspenseful. I did want to shake Vale many times while reading this book, but this is how people are groomed and manipulated; slowly, insidiously and with passive aggression and emotional explosions.

An Interesting fact that I learnt is that we share 98% of our DNA with pigs!

The blurb: “Pigs are Valentina's safe place. When she's feeling overwhelmed, she lists the breeds until her mind becomes quiet again.

Vale struggles to live life without order. Every morning, she reads the note that her flatmate Clara has pinned on the fridge telling her what to wear and what to eat, before leaving for her job at a bookshop.

Sometimes Vale's colleagues invite her to drinks, but she never goes. She knows that Clara wouldn't be happy if Vale socialised with others. As Clara's told her plenty of times - who else would put up with her weird pig facts?

But a chance encounter at the bookshop leads to an exciting opportunity. As Vale steps into the world of other people, Clara tightens her grip: she isn't yet ready to let go of her favourite prey.”

Reviewed on NetGalley and Fable.

i could sob, this was brilliant😭 i relate to vale so deeply & the people she’s found in ollie and kai. heaaaaaavy fuck clara🤨

actual perfection, the ending had me tearing up🥹

if you read & adored eleanor oliphant is completely fine, or my year of rest and relaxation THIS is the read for you

A really sad story of coercive control inflicted on a young woman who appears to register on the autistic spectrum. Her tormentor claims to be her friend, but is ruining her life. You become invested in Vale and want her to escape her tormentor.

A chillingly brilliant depiction of a toxic relationship and the ease of losing oneself in the process. I loved the interweaving of pig imagery and information running throughout, I found myself desperate to save the protagonist from her situation, her ‘friend’ and herself and read the last half in one sitting, gripped to the end.

Creepy and unsettling in the best possible way I really enjoyed this slow burner look at toxic friendship with nods to mean girls mets death of book seller I laughed out loud with the dark humour and the dark nature of this books. There is something really stand out ish about it that I can express in words, all I can say is I read it quick but didn't want it to end...solid 4.5 stars

Valentina is a sweet and lovely character. Her brain is a busy place, she gets confused easily and choices, decisions and change distress her.

Step up superhero Clara, a childhood friend from Italy who's happy to take control, leaving little notes telling her what to wear, what to eat and organising her spare time for her. Poor Clara also has terrible ailments that means she can't work and Valentina rushes home every evening to care for her poor friend.

But Valentina has a safe space...pigs. Since childhood she's had an undeniable love and appreciation of them and whenever she's feeling stressed she calms herself by reciting the breeds to herself. She also has friends and family who are looking out for her and willing to support her if only she'll let them.

This book really got under my skin, it angered, infuriated but ultimately was an uplifting and inspirational read. I loved it.

I requested this book because pigs are my favourite animal and I instantly knew I’d relate to the main character Valentine-which I did. I enjoyed when she chatted about pigs and named the pigs. This book was well thought out and the small amount of characters had a lot of detail to them and actually had me caring about them. I enjoyed the writing style of this book and think the author has a talent and the book flowed very nicely. I enjoyed the side characters and the bookshop scenes. Although there was lots about this book I loved some things that happened in this book frustrated me. I wanted better for the main character and it had me sad every time Clara would say something bad to her and it just kept happening constantly with no traits I could sympathise with. This lead me to just being slightly frustrated with the plot more so than anything else but the end did redeem itself. Overall, I would read more by this author, adored the cover and liked that it was a bit different with pig content in there!

Okay, so I loved this! It was one of my first books of this year and I could immediately tell it would be on my 2025 favourites list.

Vale is obsessed with pigs, lives with a controlling and abusive friend, and works in a bookshop. She has an abundance of weird pig facts that she brings into conversation, which some people find off-putting or strange, something which her friend Clara regularly mocks her for, using this to exert more control on Vale’s life. However, this knowledge results in her being approached by a publisher to write her very own book about pigs, finally getting the chance to share her interest widely.

Everything about this was so brilliant, from the pig facts strewn throughout the novel, to the cosy bookshop setting, to the way it tackled an abusive friendship and isolation. I loved how it showed Vale taking solace in her interests, even when people told her these were strange or obsessive, and enjoyed finding out more about where her love of pigs stemmed from. It made me think a lot about what interests are acceptable/unacceptable in society, and how people only value interests which can be of use or monetised in some way. It also had fantastic commentary around feeling like an outsider and struggling to fit in, with Vale’s isolation putting her in a situation which severely affected her wellbeing.

I’ve never seen toxic friendship explored so closely, with one friend exerting so much control on the other. It was incredibly heartbreaking to read, especially when Vale defended Clara despite everything that was happening. Vale’s supportive and positive workplace provided a stark contrast to the intense and claustrophobic atmosphere of her home life, making this feel all the more horrifying. However, there was lots of lightness throughout, with Vale’s bookshop found-family, positive friendships and vibrant pig facts creating a prevailing feeling of hopefulness.

If you’ve ever felt misunderstood, struggled to connect with others, or just love a heartwarming story about relationships and belonging, then I’d highly recommend picking this up.

Thank you to Little Brown Book Group and NetGalley for the chance to read this early.

*I was gifted a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Pig focuses on the toxic dynamic between two friends, Vale and Clara, and follows Vale’s painful realization that their friendship is abusive. Throughout the book, I found myself frustrated and saddened by Vale’s choices, constantly hoping she would finally see Clara for who she really is and start helping herself.

I loved this book and look forward to reading more from the author!