Animal Instinct

By: Amy Shearn

Narrated by: Allyson Ryan

An NPR Books We Love 2025

One of Brooklyn Public Library’s Books We Love 2025

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.

The concept was cool and timely.

I thought the narrator was strong and a good match for the character and her inner concerns and recent awakenings.

Horrible!

Really bad storyline. Poorly written and narrator. Couldn’t finish not finish. Bookclub consensus was the same.