-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
When Lumen Fowler looks back on her childhood, she wouldn't have guessed she would become a kind suburban wife, a devoted mother. In fact, she never thought she would escape her small and peculiar hometown. When We Were Animals is Lumen's confessional: as a well-behaved and over-achieving teenager, she fell beneath the sway of her community's darkest, strangest secret. For one year, beginning at puberty, every resident "breaches" during the full moon. On these nights, adolescents run wild, destroying everything in their path.
Lumen resists. Promising her father she will never breach, she investigates the mystery of her community's traditions and the stories erased from the town record. But the more we learn about the town's past, the more we realize that Lumen's memories are harboring secrets of their own.
A gothic coming-of-age tale for modern times, When We Were Animals is a dark, provocative journey into the American heartland.
"Starred Review. Working both as a contemporary coming-of-age gothic novel and as a metaphorical exploration of the importance and cost of exploring one's instinctual side, this book deserves a breakout success like that of Jeffrey Eugenides's first novel, The Virgin Suicides." - Library Journal
"In the end, some readers may regret that Lumen appears to accept that humanity is "a shameful and secret nastiness," while she misses the honest simplicity of genuine human emotion, too deep for logical explanation." - Publishers Weekly
"Lumen herself is not necessarily cruel, but her actions often seem arbitrary and unmotivated, a failing in a novel that is, nevertheless, saved by its moody atmosphere." - Booklist
"[A] coming-of-age tale with a gory twist ... There's no stopping this bizarrely fascinating journey of dark self-discovery." - Kirkus
"This is a dark, inventive and absorbing story, fittingly theatrical. It disturbs and entertains in equal measure." - Benjamin Wood, author of the Costa-shortlisted The Bellwether Revivals
"Admit it: you remember an animal time in your own life. And if you think you don't, Joshua Gaylord and his book will lash you with it. When We Were Animals has the power to creep you out and, yes, turn you on." - John Griesemer, author of Signal & Noise
This information about When We Were Animals was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Joshua Gaylord grew up in Anaheim, California, and currently resides in New York City. He's the author of one previous novel, and under the pen name Alden Bell, two horror novels, including The Reapers are the Angels. He received his Ph.D. in 20th century American and British literature from NYU, and has taught both at NYU and the New School.
If you liked When We Were Animals, try these:
by Lucy Cooke
Published 2023
A fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom.
by Esther Woolfson
Published 2022
A landmark examination of the fraught relationship between humans and animals, taking the reader from Genesis to climate change.
by Sohn Won-pyung
Published 2021
The Emissary meets The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime in this poignant and triumphant story about how love, friendship, and persistence can change a life forever.
There is no science without fancy and no art without fact
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
Can you name the title?
Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
