Circle of Animals

When her hippie mother Edi goes missing the same week Sky Richard is assaulted at work—Sky wants to run away from everything. Instead, Sky goes looking for her mother and finds an estranged grandmother, the cult she was born in, and an unlikely ally. But the most important thing she discovers in her mother’s past is the strength she needs to face her own life. 

Circle of Animals tells the story of a woman, Sky, grappling with a sexual assault in her workplace and the disappearance of her troubled “hippie” mother the same week. As she searches for and uncovers her mother’s story, she also discovers the larger story of the historically situated and gendered bodies of her mother and estranged grandmother. Drawing on ancient myth (the title refers to the zodiac), California counterculture of the last century, and current conversations about sexual violence, this novel asks us to think about how the inability to communicate violence done unto the body is not just a symptom but also a means through which violence spreads collaterally between women as silence and estrangement. As Sky looks for her mother, she must also find her own voice and courage to claim her agency.

ADVANCE PRAISE

“At its heart, Circle of Animals grapples with the archaic shame of female desire, exploring how the trauma of sexual violence ripples through generations. Hoagland writes with deep empathy for her beautifully drawn characters in all their complexity; Sky and Edi are flawed, but resilient, and find in themselves and in each other a capacity for forgiveness and redemption. With the plot twists and page-turning buzz of a thriller, shimmering prose, and restrained style, Circle of Animals sinks its teeth into your bones and doesn’t let you go.”

—Lara Ehrlich, author of Animal Wife, host of podcast Writer, Mother, Monster

“A compelling drama that deftly weaves a woman’s childhood memories with the sinister dangers of cult life. Sadie Hoagland reveals a singular mother/daughter relationship in this courageous story of survival.”

—Robin Yeatman, author of Bookworm