“Some part of me found it pleasurable to be, at last, out of control.”
Sara Levine’s The Hitch (Roxane Gay Books 2026) is hilarious, outrageous, mad, quirky, and positively bizarre. And I enjoyed every bit of it. Rose Cutler, a self-described antiracist, secular Jewish feminist eco-warrior, is a bit of a lonely, know-it-all neurotic dog woman. (The best dog people tend to be neurotic. Trust me. I would know.) Her first-person narration in this novel is PERFECTION – with every moment perfectly in character (including word choice and internal monologue). I did get a bit concerned that Rose would change as we steamrolled toward the ending, but I shouldn’t have worried – there was no neatly packaged resolution here, just more welcomed chaos and more unapologetically Rose Rose. It was a fun novel.
Rose convinces her nephew’s parents to let her babysit him for a week while they go on vacation to fix their marriage. Long convinced she can parent Nathan better than them, Rose is eager for the time. But the day after they dropped him off, Rose’s Newfie, Walter, kills a corgi named Hazel while Rose, Nathan, and Hazel’s owner can only watch. (Hazel was on a flexi. This could have all been avoided had the dog been on a regular lead… perchance I saw a bit of myself in Rose. Ha) As horrific as that sounds, Hazel’s spirit jumps over into Nathan, delighting the young boy. He is so happy with his “inside dog,” and Rose hasn’t a clue how to proceed. He starts barking, talking to himself, telling horrible knock-knock jokes, and seems to know a lot of things. Rose realizes it is Hazel coming through. She encourages him to “be the alpha” while madly researching how to banish the dog’s spirit from her beloved nephew’s body before his parents get home.
At its quirky little heart, this is a novel about loneliness and the family we make. It’s about letting go and enjoying the ride. Not everyone will enjoy this one, but I found it fantastic palate cleanser of a hoot and a half.
A Girl Named Tommi 