
New Animal
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $19.95
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Maddy Withington
-
By:
-
Ella Baxter
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 HowesListeners also enjoyed...
-
Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
-
-
A modern American psycho but British
- By sofia on 09-23-21
By: Eliza Clark
-
Cleopatra and Frankenstein
- By: Coco Mellors
- Narrated by: Kit Griffiths
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint and the opportunity to apply for a green card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.
-
-
Refreshing
- By Sadz on 11-22-22
By: Coco Mellors
-
A Certain Hunger
- By: Chelsea G. Summers
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eat Pray Love meets American Psycho in a seductive and sinister debut literary thriller. Food critic Dorothy Daniels indulges in her homicidal urges by murdering her lovers and devouring their organs in this intense, visceral, and lushly told tale of food, sex, power, and the pursuit of a very particular taste set between New York and Italy. Please Note: A Certain Hunger contains adult language and depictions of violence. Discretion is advised.
-
-
Ugh.
- By Kimberly on 02-03-20
-
Jillian
- A Novel
- By: Halle Butler
- Narrated by: Halle Butler
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-four-year-old Megan may have her whole life ahead of her, but it already feels like a dead end, thanks to her dreadful job as a gastroenterologist's receptionist and her heart-clogging resentment of the success and happiness of everyone around her. But no one stokes Megan's bitterness quite like her coworker, Jillian, a grotesquely optimistic, 35-year-old single mother whose chirpy positivity obscures her mounting struggles.
-
-
Nobody Writes (or Performs) Like Halle Butler
- By Aaron S. Berman on 07-25-22
By: Halle Butler
-
Our Wives Under the Sea
- By: Julia Armfield
- Narrated by: Annabel Baldwin, Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leah is changed. Months earlier, she left for a routine expedition, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp.
-
-
Has stayed with me…
- By Maryanne T. on 10-05-22
By: Julia Armfield
-
Acts of Desperation
- By: Megan Nolan
- Narrated by: Lauren Coe
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first scene of this provocative gut-punch of a novel, our unnamed narrator meets a magnetic writer named Ciaran and falls, against her better judgment, completely in his power. After a brief, all-consuming romance, he abruptly rejects her, sending her into a tailspin of jealous obsession and longing. If he ever comes back to her, she resolves to hang onto him and his love at all costs, even if it destroys her.
-
-
Wonderful and tortured
- By Dr Sophie Henshaw on 05-01-21
By: Megan Nolan
-
Boy Parts
- By: Eliza Clark
- Narrated by: Eliza Clark
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....
-
-
A modern American psycho but British
- By sofia on 09-23-21
By: Eliza Clark
-
Cleopatra and Frankenstein
- By: Coco Mellors
- Narrated by: Kit Griffiths
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank’s life is full of all the excesses Cleo’s lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint and the opportunity to apply for a green card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could’ve predicted.
-
-
Refreshing
- By Sadz on 11-22-22
By: Coco Mellors
-
A Certain Hunger
- By: Chelsea G. Summers
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Eat Pray Love meets American Psycho in a seductive and sinister debut literary thriller. Food critic Dorothy Daniels indulges in her homicidal urges by murdering her lovers and devouring their organs in this intense, visceral, and lushly told tale of food, sex, power, and the pursuit of a very particular taste set between New York and Italy. Please Note: A Certain Hunger contains adult language and depictions of violence. Discretion is advised.
-
-
Ugh.
- By Kimberly on 02-03-20
-
Jillian
- A Novel
- By: Halle Butler
- Narrated by: Halle Butler
- Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty-four-year-old Megan may have her whole life ahead of her, but it already feels like a dead end, thanks to her dreadful job as a gastroenterologist's receptionist and her heart-clogging resentment of the success and happiness of everyone around her. But no one stokes Megan's bitterness quite like her coworker, Jillian, a grotesquely optimistic, 35-year-old single mother whose chirpy positivity obscures her mounting struggles.
-
-
Nobody Writes (or Performs) Like Halle Butler
- By Aaron S. Berman on 07-25-22
By: Halle Butler
-
Our Wives Under the Sea
- By: Julia Armfield
- Narrated by: Annabel Baldwin, Robyn Holdaway
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Leah is changed. Months earlier, she left for a routine expedition, only this time her submarine sank to the sea floor. When she finally surfaces and returns home, her wife Miri knows that something is wrong. Barely eating and lost in her thoughts, Leah rotates between rooms in their apartment, running the taps morning and night. As Miri searches for answers, desperate to understand what happened below the water, she must face the possibility that the woman she loves is slipping from her grasp.
-
-
Has stayed with me…
- By Maryanne T. on 10-05-22
By: Julia Armfield
-
Acts of Desperation
- By: Megan Nolan
- Narrated by: Lauren Coe
- Length: 6 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the first scene of this provocative gut-punch of a novel, our unnamed narrator meets a magnetic writer named Ciaran and falls, against her better judgment, completely in his power. After a brief, all-consuming romance, he abruptly rejects her, sending her into a tailspin of jealous obsession and longing. If he ever comes back to her, she resolves to hang onto him and his love at all costs, even if it destroys her.
-
-
Wonderful and tortured
- By Dr Sophie Henshaw on 05-01-21
By: Megan Nolan
-
Detransition, Baby
- A Novel
- By: Torrey Peters
- Narrated by: Renata Friedman
- Length: 12 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Reese almost had it all: a loving relationship with Amy, an apartment in New York City, a job she didn't hate. She had scraped together what previous generations of trans women could only dream of: a life of mundane, bourgeois comforts. The only thing missing was a child. But then her girlfriend, Amy, detransitioned and became Ames, and everything fell apart. Now Reese is caught in a self-destructive pattern: avoiding her loneliness by sleeping with married men.
-
-
Emotional Torture
- By Teh Micha on 04-27-21
By: Torrey Peters
-
Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
- A Novel
- By: Olga Tokarczuk, Antonia Lloyd-Jones
- Narrated by: Beata Pozniak
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a remote Polish village, Janina devotes the dark winter days to studying astrology, translating the poetry of William Blake, and taking care of the summer homes of wealthy Warsaw residents. Her reputation as a crank and a recluse is amplified by her not-so-secret preference for the company of animals over humans. Then, a neighbor, Big Foot, turns up dead. Soon, other bodies are discovered, in increasingly strange circumstances. As suspicions mount, Janina inserts herself into the investigation, certain that she knows whodunit. If only anyone would pay her mind....
-
-
Narrator - Authentic as it can get!
- By Chris on 09-03-19
By: Olga Tokarczuk, and others
-
Tender Is the Flesh
- By: Agustina Bazterrica
- Narrated by: Joseph Balderrama
- Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Working at the local processing plant, Marcos is in the business of slaughtering humans - though no one calls them that anymore. His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the "Transition". Now, eating human meat - "special meat" - is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing.
-
-
Uhhhhhhh....
- By Josh E. on 12-05-20
-
Lapvona
- A Novel
- By: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Narrated by: Ottessa Moshfegh
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Little Marek, the abused and delusional son of the village shepherd, believes his mother died giving birth to him. One of Marek’s few consolations is his enduring bond with the blind village midwife, Ina, who suckled him when he was a baby. For some people, Ina’s ability to receive transmissions of sacred knowledge from the natural world is a godsend. For others, Ina’s home in the woods is a godless place.
-
-
uncomfortable
- By Stetson on 07-04-22
By: Ottessa Moshfegh
-
The Dangers of Smoking in Bed
- Stories
- By: Mariana Enriquez, Megan McDowell - translator
- Narrated by: Rebecca Soler
- Length: 5 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Written against the backdrop of contemporary Argentina, and with a resounding tenderness toward those in pain, in fear, and in limbo, The Dangers of Smoking in Bed is Mariana Enriquez at her most sophisticated, and most chilling.
-
-
Just not my style?
- By Nate on 01-04-22
By: Mariana Enriquez, and others
-
The Hating Game
- A Novel
- By: Sally Thorne
- Narrated by: Katie Schorr
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lucy Hutton has always been certain that the nice girl can get the corner office. She's charming and accommodating and prides herself on being loved by everyone at Bexley & Gamin. Everyone except for coldly efficient, impeccably attired, physically intimidating Joshua Templeman. And the feeling is mutual. Trapped in a shared office together 40 (ok, 50 or 60) hours a week, they've become entrenched in an addictive, ridiculous never-ending game of one-upmanship.
-
-
Slow Burn!
- By ❤️Cyndi Marie❤️🎧Audiobook Addicts🎧 on 04-07-17
By: Sally Thorne
-
Earthlings
- A Novel
- By: Sayaka Murata
- Narrated by: Nancy Wu
- Length: 7 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As a child, Natsuki doesn’t fit into her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut who has explained to her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth.
-
-
Intriguing but disturbing
- By C. Parham on 01-01-21
By: Sayaka Murata
-
A Dowry of Blood
- By: S.T. Gibson
- Narrated by: Abby Craden
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A lyrical and dreamy reimagining of Dracula's brides, A Dowry of Blood is a story of desire, obsession, and emancipation. Saved from the brink of death by a mysterious stranger, Constanta is transformed from a medieval peasant into a bride fit for an undying king. But when Dracula draws a cunning aristocrat and a starving artist into his web of passion and deceit, Constanta realizes that her beloved is capable of terrible things. Finding comfort in the arms of her rival consorts, she begins to unravel their husband's dark secrets.
-
-
heartbreakingly beautiful
- By Rebecca Rodriguez on 06-19-21
By: S.T. Gibson
-
Lost & Found
- By: Brooke Davis
- Narrated by: Nigel Carrington, Nicolette McKenzie, Helen Walsh
- Length: 7 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Millie Bird, seven years old and ever hopeful, always wears red gumboots to match her curly hair. Her struggling mother, grieving the death of Millie's father, leaves her in the big ladies' underwear department of a local store and never returns. Agatha Pantha, 82, has not left her house - or spoken to another human being - since she was widowed seven years ago. She fills the silence by yelling at passersby, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule.
-
-
Lovely Cute story !
- By Sarah j on 10-19-16
By: Brooke Davis
-
Nightbitch
- A Novel
- By: Rachel Yoder
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An ambitious mother puts her art career on hold to stay at home with her newborn son, but the experience does not match her imagination. Two years later, she steps into the bathroom for a break from her toddler's demands, only to discover a dense patch of hair on the back of her neck. In the mirror, her canines suddenly look sharper than she remembers. Her husband, who travels for work five days a week, casually dismisses her fears from faraway hotel rooms.
-
-
If you don’t get it just say so
- By Stephanie Rzonca on 02-19-22
By: Rachel Yoder
-
Mary
- An Awakening of Terror
- By: Nat Cassidy
- Narrated by: Susan Bennett
- Length: 15 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mary is a quiet middle-aged woman doing her best to blend into the background. Unremarkable. Invisible. Unknown even to herself. But lately, things have been changing inside Mary. Along with the hot flashes and body aches, she can’t look in a mirror without passing out, and the voices in her head have been urging her to do unspeakable things. Fired from her job in New York, she moves back to her hometown hoping to reconnect with her past and inner self. What she finds instead are visions of terrifying mutilated specters that come with increasing regularity.
-
-
Stunning!
- By Damien TerraFina on 09-12-22
By: Nat Cassidy
-
The Air We Breathe
- By: Christa Parrish
- Narrated by: Carol Monda
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Seventeen-year-old Molly Fisk does not go outside. She's ruled by anxiety and only feels safe in the tiny tourist-town museum she and her mother run and call home. Yearning to live free but unable to overcome deep wounds from her past, she stays hidden away. Then the chance arrival of a woman Molly knew six years ago changes everything.
-
-
Unique and complex story
- By Bill Wad on 07-05-13
By: Christa Parrish
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.
Solid story about dealing with grief
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not a classic but not terrible
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Very Contrived
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.