Human/Animal

Amie Souza Reilly bought an old house in the suburbs. She

had just gotten remarried and was looking forward to a new start with her new

husband and her six-year-old son. But immediately after moving in, the

next-door neighbors began a crusade to push them out. These two brothers

followed her, peered in her windows, stood in her yard, trapped her inside her

car. As they broke boundary after suburban boundary, she found herself

implicated in their violence.

Human/Animal merges personal narrative and cultural

criticism to unleash the complicated relationship between instinct and action,

violence and regret. This bestiary-in-essays wrestles American colonialism,

horror films, feminism, and gender studies to confront the intrusive neighbors

the author could not. Ultimately, this book asks larger questions about

proximity, care, and the line between human and animal.

Human/Animal:

A Bestiary in Essays grapples not only with Reilly's place in her

neighborhood, but with America's past and current political climate.