Animal Instinct bookcover

Animal Instinct

Amy Shearn 

(Author)

This title will be released on

calendar iconMarch 18, 2025

4.9/5.0
21,000+ Reviews
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Description

The world has stopped. But Rachel is just getting started…

It’s spring of 2020 and Rachel Bloomstein—mother of three, recent divorcée, and Brooklynite—is stuck inside. But her newly awakened sexual desire and lust for a new life refuse to be contained. Leaning on her best friend Lulu to show her the ropes, Rachel dips a toe in the online dating world, leading to park dates with younger men, flirtations with beautiful women, and actual, in-person sex. None of them, individually, are perfect . . . hence her rotation.

But what if one person could perfectly cater to all her emotional needs? 
Driven by this possibility, Rachel creates Frankie, the AI chatbot she programs with all the good parts of dating in middle age . . . and some of the bad. But as Rachel plays with her fantasy to her heart’s content, she begins to realize she can’t reprogram her ex-husband, her children, her friends, or the roster of paramours that’s grown unwieldy. Perhaps real life has more in store for Rachel than she could ever program for herself.

Product Details

PublisherG.P. Putnam's Sons
Publish DateMarch 18, 2025
Pages288
LanguageEnglish
TypeBook iconHardback
EAN/UPC9780593718339
Dimensions9.3 X 6.3 X 1.1 inches | 0.9 pounds

About the Author

Amy Shearn is the award-winning author of the critically-acclaimed novels Dear Edna Sloane, Unseen City, The Mermaid of Brooklyn, and How Far Is the Ocean from Here. She has worked as an editor for Medium, JSTOR, and Condé Nast, among other organizations, and her work has appeared in the New York Times, "Modern Love" column, Slate, Real Simple, Martha Stewart Living, O, The Oprah Magazine, Poets & Writers Magazine, Literary Hub,The Millions, The Rumpus, and other publications. Amy Shearn has an MFA from the University of Minnesota, and lives in Brooklyn with her two children.

Reviews

One of LGBTQ Reads's Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Books of 2025

"[A] sexy novel." —Marie Claire

"Shearn's inventive novel offers snappy dialogue that feels like eavesdropping on close friends, captures the scary early-pandemic days of isolation and digital connection, and ultimately celebrates the unpredictability of love." —Booklist

"Delightful and hilarious . . . [Shearn] relates to the reader a series of wry and cutting observations about traditional marriage. . . . [and] transcends typical divorce novel . . . This scintillating story of reinvention will excite Shearn’s fans and win new ones." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Animal Instinct is almost mysteriously kind and hot and funny—like Grace Paley crossed with Miranda July, crossed with, like, Tina Fey. I loved it so much. A joyful pandemic sex novel that's also a scathing critique of marriage? It's the book I didn't know I needed." —Catherine Newman, New York Times bestselling author of Sandwich

"A juicy novel exploring what it means to start again at midlife, Animal Instinct is a refreshingly funny, devastatingly horny, and very human look at feminine desire and self-determination. A delicious read that’s like the greatest gab session with your best friend." —Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch

"Shearn’s Animal Instinct is the whole wild ride: honest, smart, deep, and so very funny! I loved it." —Sierra Greer, author of Annie Bot

"Incisive, hot, and heartbreaking, this sizzling novel is as much about the emotional and physical acrobatics women go through to survive straight marriages as it is a siren call for women of all persuasions to forge lives on their own terms. Animal Instinct is the manifesto for self-love and liberation that we need this year." —Courtney Maum, author of I Am Having So Much Fun Here Without You and The Year of the Horses

"Animal Instinct is sexy, bitingly funny, and wise. Although it's set in the very specific, perfectly rendered world of Brooklyn during the pandemic, Shearn's compulsively readable exploration of what it means to start over will resonate with women everywhere." —Rowan Beaird, author of The Divorcées

"Animal Instinct
is a laugh-out-loud funny, clear-eyed appraisal of desire reawakened after divorce, as well as a tender, unflinching look at a modern marriage, what's expected of women, and what we expect of ourselves—and what it means to let go of all that." —Kirsten Bakis, author of King Nyx

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