Well that epigraph sure set the tone.

What I loved:
The beauty of this book is in the details, like the diner that attracts “a disproportionate number of people in berets.” Same with the quirky specificity of each character, like Joan, “who has never confidently traversed a crosswalk in her life and profoundly distrusts people who claim they dislike bread.”

What I didn’t love:
Was there a plot? Maybe that’s a little harsh, I did see the connection between each chapter by the time I was 20% into it and it did start to flow smoothly toward the middle. The descriptions were so rich that I almost didn’t miss having some more action. But the story jumped around more that I would’ve liked - I felt like the scene changed just as I was getting interested in each chapter.

Also, if you’re a mood reader you’ll want to pick this up on a grey day because. The characters are angry, sad, despondent, and the city they live in is a depressing backdrop to it all. It’s beautifully written but for sure a downer.

We hear this a lot about books--this one is unlike other novels, but in many ways, this novel is unlike other novels because it takes place over three days, mainly centering on one character, Tiffany/Blandine, and a few others who live in the same apartment complex. At times, the novel has very funny scenes, then it takes turns to the dark side. It's mainly about four teens who have just left foster care and move into an apartment together. We get introduced to other characters in the novel, but they remain more or less on the peripheral. I rather missed hearing from some of them, especially the neighbor obsessed with her husband putting a dead mouse by a neighbor's door. It's a compelling novel filled with zest and wit.

The Rabbit Hutch is an enjoyable quirky cast of characters book that delves into rural America, identity, and faith (but not in the traditional sense). In the failing city of Vacca Vale, Indiana, residents of the La Lapinière Apartment Complex grapple with questions of who they are, what their life has led up to so far, and where they are going. This book is very ambitious in the breadth of subjects it covers. Urban revitalization is contrasted with studies of ancient mystics and martyrs, relationships of all stages and power dynamics are explored alongside rare mental health conditions. This book interestingly weaves past, present, and future together through the individual perspectives of these characters, as well as incorporating a non-linear storyline.

I don't believe the description of the book that I had going in was accurate. The story is not simply about four teenagers who aged out of the foster care system - in fact, I think it is about them the least (with the exception of Blandine). The three boys seemed flat when compared with Hope, Moses Robert Blitz, and Joan Kowalski. Overall, the book is very smart and has great sentences, however, it fails to keep the suspense building as the reader nears the end. The final discussion between James and Blandine was one of the slowest parts of the book, and I felt it was both unnecessarily complicated and reduced the impact of the climax.

This book is very strange and hard to follow. I like the concept and that is why I requested the galley but ultimately I was not grabbed by the characters or the convoluted storyline. I think that books like this do help build empathy and that is why I will purchase it for our collection but I did not enjoy reading it personally. It seemed to be weird for the sake of being weird and I'm not sure how many readers will connect with the narrator. There was so much hype around this title, especially as a debut, but I do not think that it lived up to that.

blandine wants to exit her body.

and she achieves just that inside the rabbit hutch, an apartment complex where very different people share the small, crowded space. with paper thin walls everyone living in there is aware of each other, there’s C2 where joan kowalski, who’s career consists of monitoring obituary comments online, C6 an old couple who seems to have fallen out of love, C8 where a new woman new to motherhood is deathly afraid of her son’s eyes and finally there’s apartment C4 where four former foster care teenagers live. those teenagers are called blandine, todd, malik and jack and those three boys are her ticket to exiting out of her body.

i loved this weird assemble of characters, loved getting to know them and their quirks, likes and dislikes, theirs fears and wants but ironically this was also what hindered the potencial of the book. tess gunty spends a lot of time with secondary characters and subplots that are in no way related to the blandine and her story, it’s also selective on which characters get a complete backstory or not. for example a 50yr old man who’s the son of a famous actress who died, the obituary overseen by joan kowalski in C2 and idol of the woman in C8, are given an extensive backstory and importance. while the three teenagers who blandine lives with are not, we don’t know much about them or what drives them to do what they do at the end of the novel.

i did get what gunty was trying to say, something about a group of strangers being connected even if it is by a very very very loose string but it feel a bit flat as a casual reader and also gave the novel an air of a collection of short stories instead.

that is not to say that i didn’t enjoy it at all because i did, gunty’s writing was a delight and a sort of saving feature of her debut novel and makes up from the fact that she more than often deviated from the plot.

I really enjoyed the author's exploration of all the characters that live in Vacca Vale at this "rabbit hutch" apartment complex. Her writing was quirky and funny at times too.

I loved getting to know all of these characters and all of their weird quirks, what makes them them. I have seen this book be compared to more of a short story collection with the characters connected and I have to agree. I think i would have liked it more if it was a bit more cohesive.

As you can imagine, this novel caught my eye at the mere mention of a run-down Indiana town. Having grown up in a town of exactly 315 residents (according to the 2010 census, at least) in middle-Indiana, surrounded by failing factories and struggling blue-collar families, I was both intrigued by this premise, and admittedly, eager to judge it. And, tldr; it did not fall short of my expectations.

Vacca Vale, though fictional, is a setting that's apt to look incredibly familiar to Midwestern natives, particularly those in crumbling towns that were once minor industrial hubs. Personally, it was refreshing to read a work that hit so close to home, especially when the next best thing is watching "Stranger Things", which, though set in Indiana, was filmed in Atlanta and feels like nothing familiar. I could picture Vacca Vale with an intense accuracy beyond what was simply being described in this already visceral work, and because the physical setting is so vital, this made for an incredibly enthralling read.

<i>The Rabbit Hutch</i> is a very cyclical work, to its (at least in my opinion) great credit. It almost prepares the audience for a sadness that never quite occurs, allowing the light tinge of melancholy to simply linger untouched, as it does for most of fictional Vacca Vale's residents and for the reader, too, long after the book itself is closed.

This work is also very self-referential, returning again and again to certain points in a way that shadows them just enough to keep from making these references startlingly obvious, and has a Station Eleven-esque way of flitting from character to character, seemingly unconnected, before letting the audience in on the joke: they were all intertwined all along. Time is very fluid here, too, and while there are days and times mentioned, they are nearly irrelevant to the story as a whole and leaves the reader with the sense of walking through a strange and never-ending dream. To be clear, I fully mean this as a high compliment. While none of this is exactly a new concept in literary fiction, it is a concept I enjoy when done well, as it was here.

One of the major themes of the novel is the idea that there is no such thing as a moral activity, and the subsequent contemplations of moral vs. immoral actions. Again, not a new consideration, but I enjoyed the author's take on it throughout the narrative's journey. The main character strives to right injustice to consider her own existence ethical. A jilted son attempts to validate his hatred of his mother, and the person it has turned him into. A crew of teenage boys lack communication skills in any way that isn't violence, which feels both unsettling and familiar. Nothing is justified, and yet everything is explained, even if the explanation is the very true-to-life result of emotional instability that occurs as the negative emotions build uninhibited and unexamined over time. It is a very human and very relatable way of approaching the existence of this town and its inhabitants.

My one qualm with this work is that it truly isn't anything new. Tess Gunty is an extremely talented writer with a flair for landscape, setting, ambience, moral considerations, and generally weaving together a compelling tale of life and death and everything in-between, but there were some repeated tropes here that felt recycled. Blandine's character, while intriguing, is a textbook manic pixie dream girl archetype. I could have done without the teacher-student relationship, and the idea of paying more attention to one another and the ways our stories intersect has been a hot topic in literary fiction lately as well. Again, I was enthralled with this work from start to finish and read it nearly in a single sitting, but this is entirely due to Gunty's storytelling and encompassing lyricism and not anything to do with the narrative itself.

That said, this is a debut novel and I am excited to see what else Gunty will produce in the future! Thank you to NetGalley and Knopf for providing an ARC (though I read it post-release, oops) in exchange for an honest review, and to Tess Gunty for putting more honest literature about the strange and shadowed world that is small-town Indiana into the world! I would recommend this for fans of The Secret History by Donna Tartt, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel, and Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng, as it strikes somewhere in the dead center of where those three oddly intersect. I will definitely be purchasing this title for the store, and recommending it to our customers!

This is the brand of the off-the-walls bizarre cast of characters weird lit I am into, in the vein of Moshfegh, Kushner, and other sad-girl fleabag writers who are very "in" right now. I enjoyed the characters and was intrigued by their backstories, and felt like, as an ensemble, they each complemented one another very well.

overall i really enjoyed this debut, and Gunty is definitely an author to keep an eye out for as the writing is the highlight of the book. the reason i didn’t LOVE this one as much as i wanted to was that i wish it focused more on Blandine, I was really captivated by her character and found myself sighing everytime the next chapter would focus on a different character because I wanted more of her!

A novel about a girl and other residents of an apartment complex ("The Rabbit Hutch") in a Rust Belt town. Blandine is an 18 year-old former foster kid obsessed with the she-mystics who wants to save the local nature preserve from development. She lives amongst a cast of other broken characters living in a town whose glory days are long past. It is a messy sprawl of a novel that highlights the costs of living in a city that feels abandoned. Maybe it's the rabbit connection, but the prose reminded me of Mona Awad's Bunny. It has a similar propulsive, ebullient, almost absurdist quality to it, although the ending in this one is less bonkers. Not all the sub-stories hung together for me, but I admired the ambition of this novel and came to care about the fates of the residents of The Rabbit Hutch and the town of Vacca Vale.

This story describes the coming and goings of a handful of different characters that live in the same building complex, nicknamed The Rabbit Hutch.

This was a difficult read for me. I couldn’t get into the writing as it felt way too sophisticated for me to understand what it was trying to convey. I didn’t appreciate any of the side characters for there were bouts of stories I didn’t care to hear about. The main character had a spark of something I was starting to like, but it never manifested. I didn’t understand the ending. I didn’t understand what the author wanted to tell me. Although, I did appreciate the uniqness of her writing technique expressing the true realities humans face daily.

I hate to say it, but this one just wasn’t for me.

The Rabbit Hutch is a strange, meandering novel that will definitely hit the mark for a niche group of readers. Luckily for me, I am in that group!

There is not a straightforward plot. Rather, there are many stories spanning a handful of characters that don’t necessarily have to do with each other. The novel wants us to consider how strange it is to live in close proximity with so many people, while often knowing very little about those around us. Gunty accomplished this by utilizing a small, rundown apartment complex - the titular Rabbit Hutch - as home base for an eclectic cast of characters who are all living their own lives in the dying city of Vacca Vale, Indiana.

The character with the most focus is Blandine, an 18-year-old girl who has just aged out of the foster system. At first glance, Blandine might seem more like a manic pixie dream girl than a full character - however, as I learned more about her, it became obvious that that was more of an armor to combat the deep insecurities within her. I honestly loved her character, and felt deeply for her as she processed her experiences. I felt like Gunther perfectly captured the angst & frustration of a brilliant young woman stuck in systems that actively work to hold her back.

My only critique is that some parts began to feel entirely disconnected to the novel’s core; I think some expansion on the other characters in the story would have helped tighten the thread, and made it even more compelling. Overall, though, an excellent book!

Thank you to the author & publisher for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review. This review will be shared on my Instagram account (@bookish.901) by August 28.

I loved the first third of this novel until it was evident that it was not a precursor to something great but the beginning of a disparate cast of characters and a listing of their anxieties. This book observes different people at different stages of life all plagued by fear, anxiety, mental illness and depression. The fact that it is a revolving list of maladies for every one of these people shouldn’t preclude it from being interesting or having a plot but sadly, in this instance, it does.

It’s a special treat when the right book comes at just the right time. Tess Gunty’s debut novel “The Rabbit Hutch” is just that for me. Gunty is most comfortable operating in the thin zone that separates The American Dream from The American Nightmare. Through an interleaving of the lives of several disparate individuals and groups she touches on multiple hot button issues that all too many households struggle with today.

It is difficult to capture exactly how Gunty manages these themes. Existential and seemingly intractable challenges such as Climate Change, homelessness and the lack of affordable housing, corporate greed, outsourcing, industrial pollution, addiction, the dark side of social media, and male domination are focused upon. But “The Rabbit Hutch” is anything but a polemic. Each theme is handled in a seamless, matter-of-fact manner, often combined with some of the slyest, most clever, and smartest humor that always arrives at just the right time.

The social challenge that receives the widest lens is the tragedy of child welfare in the United States. Way too many children drift between abusive parents to state-funded, and not too closely monitored, Foster Care to emancipation without sufficient supports. What could go wrong?

Note that there are some themes in “The Rabbit Hutch” that may be discomforting including abuse of animals, inappropriate and abusive relationships, and some violence. None is gratuitous, but certain passages could disturb sensitive readers.

“The Rabbit Hutch” is simultaneously exuberant and anarchistic. Just the right book at just the right time.

Thanks to Knopf and Netgalley for the eARC.

The Rabbit Hutch is an entirely original tale about a post-industrial town in the Midwest: Vacca Vale, Indiana. It floods, it's polluted, and it's covered in rabbits. In other words, Vacca Vale is peak Midwest-core (coming from a lifelong Midwesterner).

The novel follows Blandine Watkins, an 18-year-old girl who desperately wants to exit her body. She's obsessed with female mystics and finding out the humanity in those around her. Her roommates, three teenage boys, all met when attending a class for kids aging out of the foster care system. Their neighbor, Joan, is a single 40-something who moderates comments on a obituary website. Their other neighbor, Hope, is a new mom slightly terrified of her own baby. Together they live in the Rabbit Hutch, an affordable housing complex in Vacca Vale.

The Rabbit Hutch is a haunting, complex, and darkly funny story about finding beauty, solace, and peace in grim realities. Highly recommended. If the reader reviews tell me anything, it's that this is going to be a very divisive bookclub title, but great fodder for discussion!

Gorgeous writing couldn’t overcome the very depressing characters and lack of hope in this book. It may simply be it wasn’t the right time for me to read this book.

Whenever I picked up <i>The Rabbit Hutch</i>, I was immersed in it and couldn’t put it down. The characters were so engaging, and I took so many notes of quotes that hit me.
<blockquote>She felt like a demanding and ill-fated houseplant, one that needs light in every season but will die in direct sun, one whose soil requires daily water but will drown if it receives too much, one that takes a fertilizer only sold at a store that’s open three hours a day, one that thrives in neither dry nor humid climates, one that is prone to every pest and disease. What kind of attention would make Joan feel at home? Who would ever work that hard to administer it? She will never own live houseplants.</blockquote>
<i>The Rabbit Hutch</i> reminded me of college. Blandine had a large part in this – her existential thinking and general energy brought me back and reminded me of classroom discussions. I can’t quite put it into words, but the whole book had “college energy.” I think that says more about me and how I thought/felt during that time - <i>The Rabbit Hutch</i> just evoked similar feelings.
Complaint: I did not understand how the apartments were numbered. Not essential, but every time an apartment number was mentioned, I sat there and tried to figure it out.
<i>The Rabbit Hutch</i> stressed me out. In a good way? I don’t know if I’d recommend it to my patrons simply because I feel like I’d have to know them really well to feel comfortable putting this in their hands. My book club members, however, will be hearing about this.
<i>Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

2.5 stars rounded up because I feel bad rounding down even though I kind of want to.

This started off so well. I was immediately intrigued by Blandine, I loved the initial world-building Gunty was doing and the bizarre cast of characters she was introducing, and I had very high hopes. Unfortunately, the further I got into the book, the more they evaporated and I ended up ultimately underwhelmed and pretty disappointed.

I've noticed many other reviews mentioning that this book was just too weird for them, but it wasn't for me. It was a book that was trying to be weird, that seemed desperate to be quirky and "out there" in an attempt to seem more interesting and literary without much real purpose. In that way, I think Gunty has a bit of maturing to do as a writer, though there's clearly enough skill and voice there that I do think by book two or three, that self-conscious, try-hard approach to fiction could be sorta wrung out of her so that she could hone in on something a bit more genuine. Because she's not quite there yet, this seemed to really lack nuance and finesse and reminded me of the kind of work you'd see in a college creative writing workshop.

On the flip side of the obtusely weird, there was the eye rollingly cliche. Blandine, in many ways, was a manic pixie dream girl x 10,000. Gunty handed this character all the damage one could imagine as well as a preternatural intelligence and obsession with the mystic. You know the kind of character I mean and how exhausting it can be. I don't think I need to say anything else in that regard.

The secondary characters ended up being way less interesting than I first thought as well, with most being completely unnecessary and their presence a bit confusing. I feel like Gunty used them as a distraction from the rickety nature of the main narrative and I was just... not feeling it.

I wish I could say the ending was surprising, dramatic, meaningful, or anything at all, but by that point, I was so desperate for the whole thing to be over that any effect it could have had was well gone.

Again, this review really pains me - there are definitely glimmers of something special in Gunty's writing, hence the generous rounding up of my rating, but it ended up being a very big miss in the end. That being said, I would definitely read another book from her in the future - Google tells me she signed a two-book deal, so I'm sure I'll get that chance.

Thank you to the Publisher and NetGalley for the advanced copy.

TW: Murder, Animal Cruelty, Religious Abuse, Parental Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Harassment, Student-Teacher Abuse, Addiction, Stalking, Drug Use, Mental Illness.

This is the kind of book I am always looking for. This year has been a fairly disappointing reading year especially when it comes to galley's I've been sent and new releases. However, The Rabbit Hutch is anything but disappointing. Following multiple POVs of different residents of an affordable house complex, in a dying mid western town still trying to cling to its former automobile glory days. The main storyline focuses on Blandine Watkins, an orphan recently graduated from the foster system living in the La Lapenniere apartments together with three other former foster kids. Blandine is obsessed with Catholic mysticism, and dabbles in some light eco-terrorism whenever she is not serving pies at the local dinner. The other cast of characters one more impossibly wonderful than the next, include the son of a former silver screen diva, a content moderator for an obituary website, and a young mother who is terrified by her infants's eyes.

Everything here borders on the surreal on the almost otherworldly, but yet it shows such beautful snapshot of a terrible time of one community in such a real way. All of the characters are extremely interesting in unexpected ways, and the more you get to know them they more complex they become. Like real people you feel like you never fully understand or know them, but you never lose interest.

The only reason this isn't a full five stars for me is that towards the end some of the dialogue became a bit heavy handed like it belonged more within the inner thoughts of the characters rather than the dialogue. I do recommend this for anyone who is even slightly interested in the premise. The writing is magnificent and the world so deeply wonderful!