Summary

In Chapter 1, the mother began calling herself Nightbitch as a joke (3). Yet “in the days following,” she noticed a patch of “black hair sprouting from the base of her neck” (3). Wondering if she was becoming a dog, she showed her husband. He teased her.

Yet Nightbitch had become more doglike in other ways too. She had more hair on her face and body and her teeth were sharper. She started doing research, then wondered if she was losing her mind.

When she again noted her new appearance to her husband, he was unfazed. He “was an engineer,” and thus had “little time for feelings” (5).

Nightbitch had also become angrier. On her husband’s “twenty-second weeklong absence that year,” Nightbitch became “quite suddenly something else” (6). Her son had an ear infection and Nightbitch had PMS. She felt irritated by her son’s inability to sleep...