Animals Eat Each Other is Elle Nash’s debut novel, a story of a sadomasochistic throuple published in the United States by Dzanc Books in 2018 and in the United Kingdom by 404 Ink in 2019. The action sits in early 2005. An unnamed narrator — later nicknamed Lilith — slides into a violent sexual arrangement with Frankie and Matt, a couple her own age who have just become parents. Nash’s 2022 novel Gag Reflex is a prequel. For readers who want SM fiction that does not tidy itself into a dungeon-etiquette manual, this is the book: trailer-park work, Radio Shack fluorescent light, and sex that is watched as much as it is done.
Trailer, Radio Shack, and the name Lilith
After high school the narrator lives in a trailer with her mother and takes a job at a Radio Shack. A co-worker introduces her to Frankie and Matt. Frankie gives her the nickname Lilith, after Adam’s first wife. That is the name the book then uses. Lilith starts sleeping with the couple. Most of the sex is violent and happens with Matt while Frankie watches. After a few months she develops a crush on Matt. The two of them start seeing each other in private, which is already a breach of the arrangement that brought her in.
Other beds, a breakup, and a last condom
While she is still involved with Matt and Frankie, Lilith is also sleeping with other people, including her boss and her co-worker. She starts a flirtation with Matt’s friend Patrick. When Patrick’s girlfriend finds out, she tells Frankie, and Frankie orders Matt to break it off with Lilith. After the split Lilith mourns the relationship with Matt and has sex with Jenny. Three months later Matt contacts her again: Frankie has been arrested for domestic violence. Lilith has sex with him for the first time without Frankie in the room. The condom they are using breaks. She feels a coldness between them, takes the morning-after pill to avoid a pregnancy, and then gets calls from both Frankie and Matt. They use derogatory names and end the relationship for good.
Reviews and the later prequel
The novel was received well. The Masters Review called Nash “a voice on the rise.” Zyzzyva praised the book’s “rich details.” Publishers Weekly named her a writer to watch in spring 2018 and, in a starred review, called the book “a complex, impressive exploration of obsession and desire.” O, The Oprah Magazine put it on a top-ten list of 2018 summer reads. Autostraddle listed it among 33 books with the “best lesbian sex scenes.” Gag Reflex, the 2022 prequel, sends readers back into the same orbit before the Radio Shack job and the throuple. The debut itself stays locked on that early-2005 stretch: a girl from a trailer, two new parents, and a sadomasochistic triangle that eats itself.
