What's THE HITCH?
Answer: A great new novel you should read
Sara Levine’s TREASURE ISLAND!!! is one of my favorite novels I’ve read in the last ten years. The book follows an aimless young woman who decides to live her life by the principles found in Robert Louis Stevenson’s pirate novel. That means, mostly, buying a parrot and plundering things from her friends and co-workers. It’s a quick read, full of messy characters trying their best to find meaning in the cacophony of life.
When Levine’s follow-up novel THE HITCH was announced last year, it immediately shot to the top of my most anticipated books list. Having freshly finished the novel, I’m excited to share that the self-created hype was most definitely real. THE HITCH is an incredibly funny, incredibly satisfying read, and, honestly, you should stop reading this post immediately and just pick up a copy.
Are you still here? You’ve made a mistake. Seriously. But that’s your problem.
THE HITCH follows Rose, a successful entrepreneur who hates the business she owns, drags behind her a cartful of anxieties and neuroses at all times, and has exactly one real love: Nathan, her nephew, whom she only gets to hang out with once a week due to a strained relationship with her brother and his wife. But suddenly fate smiles upon her, and Rose finds herself as Nathan’s guardian for a whole week when his parents decide to take a Mexican vacation. Fate has a wicked smile, though, because within a day of being under Rose’s care, Nathan is possessed by the spirit of a dead corgi, and Rose has to find a way to exorcise the dead dog from Nathan before the two souls bond forever.
Like TREASURE ISLAND!!!, THE HITCH is a novel about a flawed protagonist. Rose is a selfish control-freak with a severe inability to connect to other humans and a nasty habit of weaponizing her generosity. Thrown into the deep end of supernatural weirdness, Rose flounders to find a solution to her ward’s possession problem. Time’s ticking, and Rose might have to give up everything she believes in if she’s going to solve a problem her rational mind doesn’t allow her to believe is even possible in the first place.
The book is frequently laugh-out-loud funny, but - like TREASURE ISLAND!!! - features a meaty character study at its center about a fuck-up slowly attempting to un-fuck their life. There are moments heartbreakingly sincere, but then the author describes corgis as having “prostitute eyes,” and I’m snorting like a madman.
Seriously, pick up a copy of THE HITCH today at your local bookstore. The novel is incredible, and I selfishly just don’t want it to be another 15 years before Sara Levine writes another novel.