A Whole Lot of Issues to Unpack

 

TITLE: The Hitch

AUTHOR: Sara Levine

PUBLISHER: Roxanne Gay Books

PUBLISHING DATE: January 13, 2026

PAGES: 304   

SOURCE: ARC

FROM GOODREADS: Rose Cutler defines herself by her exacting standards. As an anti-racist, Jewish secular feminist eco-warrior, she is convinced she knows the right way to do everything, including parent her six-year-old nephew Nathan. When Rose offers to look after him while his parents visit Mexico for a week, her brother and sister-in-law reluctantly agree, provided she understands the rules—routine, bedtime, homework—and doesn’t overstep. But when Rose’s Newfoundland attacks and kills a corgi at the park, Nathan starts acting barking, overeating, talking to himself. Rose mistakes this behavior as repressed grief over the corgi’s death, but Nathan insists he isn’t grieving, and the dog isn’t dead. Her soul leaped into his body, and now she’s living inside him. Now Rose must banish the corgi from her nephew before the week ends and his parents return to collect their child.

MY THOUGHTS: I really anticipated this to be a DNF when I started.  I wasn't sure I could stomach the dog attack and subsequent death.  However, for those like me who are sensitive to this stuff, it's pretty much one paragraph and the end of a chapter is it isn't overly detailed, bloody or for lack of a better word, savage.  

Rose lives alone and owns a frozen yogurt company.  However, she is averse to all things dairy and is trying to sell it.  She is also obsessed with her six-year-old nephew, Nathan. His parents only allow her two hours a week with him on Saturdays, but a trip to Mexico means Rose will get to watch him for a full week.  She plans everything, right down to the icky food she expects a child that young to eat and the activities they will participate in such as lengthy chess games. All this goes out the window when a trip to the dog park leads to a Corgi named Hazel dying and then her soul inhabiting Nathan's body. Rose goes on a journey to hide what is happening from her brother and his wife all the while trying to convince Nathan he is imagining the whole thing.  When that doesn't work, despite her better judgement, she turns to a spiritual healer and ends up experiencing her own exorcism.

As I said, I liked this book more than I expected to.  Rose was a piece of work though, and I can't find the words to describe her although neurotic came to mind more than once while reading it.  Nathan was a sweetheart and I felt badly for him because he only wants to be a kid.  Also, reading this book felt a little like ADHD.  Rose would be describing something and all of a sudden break into a recipe for some health-related menu planning and then hop back to why Nathan didn't like his antique chess set.

While I would recommend this book, I will say it probably isn't for everyone.  I'm not sure if there really was a Corgi soul inhabiting Nathan or if Rose was just projecting a lot of her own issues on others.  The ending is just rather blunt as well, but I fully understand the decisions that were made.  

MY RATING: 4 PAWS