New Animal Audiobook By Ella Baxter cover art

New Animal

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New Animal

By: Ella Baxter
Narrated by: Maddy Withington
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About this listen

Readings Prize for New Australian Fiction, Shortlist.

Harpers BAZAAR UK Best Books of 2022.

Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2022.

The Millions Most Anticipated: The Great First-Half 2022 Book Preview.

New Animal is a poignant, darkly comedic look at human connection from a biting and original new voice in Ella Baxter.

Amelia Aurelia is approaching 30 and her closest relationships - other than her mother - are through her dating apps. She works at the family mortuary business as a cosmetic mortician with her eccentric step-father and older brother, whose throuple’s current preoccupation is with what type of snake to adopt. When Amelia’s affectionate mother passes away without warning, she is left without anchor. Fleeing the funeral, she seeks solace with her birth-father in Tasmania and stumbles into the local BDSM community, where her riotous attempts to belong are met with confusion, shock, and empathy.

Hilarious and heartfelt, New Animal reveals hard-won truths as Amelia struggles to find her place in the world without her mother, with the help of her two well-intentioned fathers and adventures at the kink club.

©2021 Ella Baxter (P)2021 W F Howes
Literature & Fiction
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What listeners say about New Animal

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Not a classic but not terrible

I was recommended this book and was told it was “shocking” at times. It had some interesting or unorthodox moments for sure, but nothing too shocking. It’s an easy read, kept my attention well enough but not something I’d give a prize too.

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    5 out of 5 stars

Solid story about dealing with grief

“New Animal” by Ella Baxter could have been called “she’s come undone!” Poor Amelia Aurelia finds herself in a tailspin when her mother unexpectedly dies. Amelia is stunned and more than confused as she has worked in her family’s funeral home business for years. She is a cosmetic mortician, and she takes her job very seriously. She asks the body, “how do you want to be seen?”, and the body tells her how to dress them and freshen them up. Amelia’s mother, Josie, is expert at helping the bereaved process their emotions. Josie is Amelia’s rock, her anker.

Amelia is a forthright narrator. I think it is this attribute that kept me reading. Amelia is so obliterated with the news of her mother’s passing that she runs away before the funeral. What transpires is a bit shocking, but everyone processes grief differently. Author Ella Baxter expertly writes about grief and the free-fall feeling that happens after the shock of absorbing the news. In Amelia’s case, she runs away to Tasmania to be with her biological father.

Amelia has used sex before to deal with her job as a cosmetic mortician. She wanted the raw sexual feeling of being alive. Unfortunately, she inadvertently gets mixed up in a BDSM community. Well, I’ve never been interested in “kink” nor would I have read this book if I had known how much “kink” info is garnered in this story! In fact, I had to do some sluicing to find out why I’m reading this, who recommended this? Well, it’s received an abundance of press, promising “a poignant, darkly comedic look at the human connection from a biting and original new voice, Ella Baxter.” Thus, I soldiered on.

What happened is that I learned more about S&M, or kink, than I ever wanted to know. But it was through Amelia’s eyes, and she was earnestly trying to work through her emotions. In fact, I am surprised I kept reading which shows how brilliantly Baxter wrote this into her story. What I liked about that message is that grief can make one do crazy and unexpected things, to go easy on ourselves when grieving, to be more compassionate with ourselves or anyone going through that process. Baxter also added some dark comedy which was helpful in absorbing the story. Did you know that you can get kicked out of an S&M place for being too strange?

This is to say that there is an Amelia in all of us. When we lose a person who is a bedrock to our existence, we come undone. Amelia struggled in a unique way, and we all will struggle in our own unique way. This is one of the best stories I’ve read about the extreme burden of grief. Baxter told it in such a crazy way that I shall remember this story for a long time!

I listened to the audio narrated by Maddy Withington. I enjoyed her voice.

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Very Contrived

I don’t know what enticed me to purchase and listen to this book. All of the kinky sex not appreciated or necessary, the story contrived and the narrator has a flat, boring tone and voice.

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