In Kate Brody's debut novel, the main character, Teddy Angstrom, is pulled into the abyss of Reddit, trying to put the pieces together in hopes of discovering what happened to her older missing sister. The reader is pulled right along with her. You will feel sympathy for Teddy but also cringe at the poor choices she makes. An exploration of grief, desperation, and denial, Rabbit Hole is a dark and gritty slow burn novel.

Overall, I thought it was a decent debut novel. A few minor things detracted from the story. I was a bit put off with the format of the book. Essentially, it was a long conscious stream of thought without breaks or chapters. We were stuck in Teddy's head, and honestly, at times, she was insufferable. The words twisty and page-turner were used to describe the book, and my expectation was for more of a thriller, but this was more of a dark mystery.

I was provided a complementary digital copy through netgalley and the publisher in trade for an honest review.

Rabbit Hole by Kate Brody
★★★ 3/5 stars

First Book of 2024 & a Debut Pub Day review!

✦ Synopsis
10 years ago, Teddy's older sister, Angie, went missing. Her case remains unsolved. Now Teddy's father has killed himself. Unbeknownst to his family, he had been active in a Reddit community fixated on Angie, & Teddy can't help but fall down the same rabbit hole. Conspiracy theories from Reddit seduce a disaster-prone woman into an obsession with solving her older sister's cold-case disappearance.


✦ My Thoughts
The netgalley tagline “A twisty debut exploring the dark side of true crime fandom-perfect for fans of Gillian Flynn & My Favorite Murder” got me, but it was a bit misleading. This book didn’t read as a thriller to me, I would say it’s more of a slow-burn character study about grief, loss, & searching for answers.

Written in a stream of consciousness style, it was interesting, but confusing at times. You really stay inside of the MCs head exploring her grief, spiraling mental health & destructive coping strategies. The ending left me wanting more answers, but the tension was high, & the emotions were raw. I definitely felt like I had gone down the rabbit hole with her.

✦ Read if you like:
- cold cases
- unreliable narrators
- true crime + internet sleuthing
- doggie best pals

*be sure to check trigger warnings before you read this one, it’s very heavy*

Thank you to Netgalley, Kate Brody, RB Media, + SoHo Press for the opportunity to read + listen to this ARC ◡̈

3.5/5

Rabbit Hole was a challenging read for me. I'm not quite sure what I was expecting, but I don't think it was this. I think I went into the book expecting a fast-paced, twisty-turny thriller. Instead, this was more like a slow, dark character study that follows a protagonist who begins to unravel as she uses social media and new social connections to investigate her sister's decade-old disappearance.

I would absolutely recommend checking the content warnings for this book. I found the writing to be fairly anxiety inducing, and there were multiple scenes that made me feel gross and uncomfortable. But this is honestly a testament to Kate Brody's strong writing. She successfully wrote an unlikeable (self-described "revolting") protagonist who made some truly infuriating decisions, and as a result I spent most of the book feeling either horrified or stressed out.

This last paragraph isn't necessarily a spoiler, but you might want to skip it if you want to go into the book with no knowledge or expectations. I personally found the ending to be frustrating. I expected more resolution, and the fact that the mystery remained mostly unsolved was unsatisfying. I also didn't love the way Teddy (protagonist) began to question her own memory and reliability right at the end of the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for my advanced copy.

Wow.

I fell down a Rabbit Hole of such reading this book. Absolutely ignored all I was supposed to be doing for NYE and finished this book is 4 hours.

This story felt so vaguely familiar? Perhaps the reddit thread section reminded me of so many other murder mystery books I’ve read recently, or maybe I was reminded of the very real world we live in today, where crimes go unsolved constantly.

Besides feeling like I’ve read the story before, I was pulled in so deeply but all that was happening. I was immersed into Teddys life, romances, thoughts, feelings, almost immediately. I started having my own guesses to who did it, I started my own Insanity Wall (in my head, but still).

Although the ending wasn’t as satisfying as it could’ve been, I loved that this book did have a very strong ending all together.

4.5/5 stars, thank you for the ARC via NetGalley

I originally submitted my review as a DNF but decided to go back and finish it. Am I glad I did? Not particularly. I found the characterizations a bit muddy and, as other reviewers have pointed out, there is some very upsetting content involving animals (dead kittens, a dead cat in a completely different scene, and the drawn-out needless suffering and death of a family dog). There's enough promise here that I'll check out further titles from this author, but this one was an unpleasant slog.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely heartbreaking in the best possible way. This wrecked me through every single emotion but left me grateful for my life on the other side.

This book wasn’t for me.
I didn’t understand nor like a single person in the book.
What the main character did to her dog was just appalling.
I couldn’t relate to anyone in the story and didn’t particularly want to.

I FLEW through the first 60-70% and I was sure it would be a 5 star read. I loved the writing and was intrigued by the story, I kept thinking about it when I wasn’t reading, etc.

Then things get a little weird. I am mostly fine with a lot of triggers (I have no soul 🙃), but this has an animal trigger that I was sensitive to. Idk if I had known about the trigger I probably wouldn’t have picked this book up, but I’m still glad I read it. But I don’t want to recommend it to people who are sensitive to this - I could handle it but others might not be able to (again, I have no soul 😅).

This is not a thriller… it’s more of a slow burn *almost* mystery with a side of grief and complicated family dynamics. I LOVED those aspects of it.

I loved the writing style, but there aren’t really cohesive transitions. I felt this was in line with our main character’s state of mind, so it made sense and I liked this writing style. Others may have a hard time with this - it can give you some whiplash! But again, I enjoyed it and devoured the first half of the book easily.

I am giving it 4 stars and I will continue to read books by Kate Brody because I absolutely loved the way she writes. But this book is not for everyone! In good conscience I can’t recommend it to anyone with triggers for animals, but I did still like this book.

Thank you NetGalley and Soho Press for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

Compelling enough story and quick to read, not sure if it was the ease of the writing style or because I was trying to squeeze one last book into 2023.

I didn’t always like the MC Teddy, she made very questionable choices and was judgmental or toxic a lot of the time. Which she’s going through it with so much loss. I don’t mind unlikeable characters but make it interesting, not unlikeable for the sake of being unlikeable. There was also zero character development unfortunately.

Also hated the romantic aspect of the novel due to the age gap (and more so when they met) that was 🤢

The transitions are very abrupt and jarring. One minute we are at the mom’s house and the next Teddy is at school texting Mickey? It made things really confusing.

More crime than mystery/thriller and not at all what I expected from the synopsis. It’s also marketed as “twisty and sexy” and it’s anything but- it wasn’t predictable but it also didn’t shock me if that makes sense? Things were revealed and it was like an “oh okay, moving on” feeling. As for sexy…suicide, missing sister, a creepy older dude that knew you as a kid, and mistreatment/death of animals is not sexy?!

And going back to the mistreatment/suffering of animals; Why is the dog having cancer and being put through misery and slowly starving to death necessary? What was the point? It was completely unnecessary to the plot or characters and was just there. Sorry I just don’t like books that have gratuitous descriptions of animal suffering to try and make some weird symbolism or representation behind the story/characters. It was disturbingly graphic.

Finally the ending doesn’t give us concrete answers and felt rushed. We get a sort of picture of what might have happened but it’s quickly passed over.

Overall I’m giving it 3 stars because I was intrigued and entertained enough to finish. Less a mystery/thriller and more a deep look at obsession, grief, unhealthy relationships and a woman with severe mental health issues. If you know that going in and don’t mind graphic descriptions of animal suffering and death, you may enjoy this more than me.


TW/CW: animal death, cancer, suicide, infidelity, drug abuse, death of parent, sexual content, animal cruelty, body shaming, stalking, toxic relationship, self harm, blood, gun violence, ableist slur (brief mention),

Brilliant book that's a dark exploration of grief while also a riveting mystery. The parts about reddit rang true and the opioid addiction was covered well similar to Liv Moores long bright river novel. This is accessible literary fiction at its finest!

Thank you to Netgalley, and the publisher for a chance to review this.

I was really excited for this book. The whole idea is amazing. The execution for me wasn't the best. I guess I expected more. It had some really wonderful parts, then other parts were extremely slow, and I struggled to get through. If you don't like animal deaths, then pass on this book. There is a scene near the end that deals with it. It was a tough scene to read, and I read a lot of extreme horror. As a debut, I think this worked well, and look forward to what Kate Brody comes up with next.

Rabbit Hole was a ride. But I don’t know if it was a ride I necessarily wanted to be on….

I really wanted to like the story and I did find that it was hard to put down once I got in but I was so unsatisfied with the characters and the ending that I skimmed the last few pages.

The story itself felt disjointed and all over the place. It didn’t help that the galley I had didn’t have actual chapters or even realistic breaks to symbolize we had moved on and it made it so hard to follow.

Teddy, the main character, is incredibly self destructive. While it makes sense considering her older sister went missing 10 years ago and her dad has just killed himself, I just couldn’t get past how awful she could be. Then you have Mickey, who is just as jaded and damaged and the whole relationship between the two was weird and messed up. I kept thinking why does Teddy keep this obviously insane person around. It was so odd to me.

I wish that everything had wrapped up a little nicer. I like ambiguous endings but this one was so off. I just couldn’t get behind it.

I’m sure that other people will love this book, I just couldn’t do it.

This book is for anyone who has spent hours scrolling through true crime content, convinced they can piece together a mystery from the comfort of their couch.

Ten years after her sister’s disappearance and days after her father’s suicide, Teddy is barely holding it together. Then she discovers her dad’s secret life as a Reddit sleuth and she falls down the same rabbit hole - to the detriment of her last bits of sanity.

Read if you like: messy characters, Unsolved Mysteries, women versus the void

Missing sister, father dead by his own hand, and a metric ton of family and generational trauma. This book had lots of twists and strange familial ties.

Teddy’s father just drove off of a bridge and as she’s going through his office she realizes he’s been investigating the disappearance of her sister 10 years ago. It’s a cold case. No one has seen her. Teddy picks up where her dad left off, with a new partner, Mikey. Mickey is young, impulsive and looks like Teddy’s sister.

I really liked the character of Teddy. Very genuine. The family tree is a little crazy in this tale so you might need to pay attention. I did not guess the entire twist, only part of it so bonus points.

If you like thrillers, complex family dynamics and lots of amateur crime investigation you’ll like this one!

I am not always a huge fan of books that have unreliable narrators as the protagonists. Teddy just kept annoying me with her wishy-washy decisions and inability to stay away from people/things that were going to get her in trouble. It isn't the worst book I have read in this style, but I didn't overly enjoy it either. I give Rabbit Hole 2.5/5 stars. But people should try it themselves since it was mostly the character I didn't enjoy. Not the writing style itself.

This made for a nice break in my holiday reading to read the devolving case of the missing sister. Tragedy strikes Teddy's home at the suicide of her father that takes her down the rabbit hole that he was visiting frequently. I thought this was a new and fresh idea of a mystery/character development type book. I was invested in Teddy and her life as things started to slip for her and she went further down the hole.

Thank you to NetGalley and SoHo Press for the advance e-copy of this book.

I enjoyed this debut novel by Brody. The book opens as Teddy and her mother learn her father (Mark) has suicided, ten years to the day after her sister Angie disappeared. He'd been obsessed with her case, refusing to believe she was dead.

After his death Teddy finds the debris of his obsession and falls down the rabbit hole of Reddit and other websites and chat rooms dedicated to Angie's case.

We learn Angie was a rebellious teenager but Body avoids the cliched and obvious suggestion of her being a runaway by giving Teddy's family a lot of complex baggage. Angie's father (a descendent of prominent local family) died before she was born and his brother Mark, in an attempt to comfort her mother and support baby Angie, fell in love with his widowed SIL, leaving his own wife and young child. Teddy came soon after and her whole family was disowned by her in-laws. And later in the novel Teddy ponders Mark’s life, wondering if he felt he’d borrowed that of his brother.

Teddy picks through her father’s contact lists and the Reddit threads about her sister. As well as a potential love interest in Bill (a landscaper who’d worked for her family a decade earlier) she meets Mickey, a young college student who helped Teddy’s father with his research. Mickey's interest rivals Teddy’s… attracting suspicion of we readers, but (interestingly) not Teddy. Having said that Mickey obviously reminds Teddy of Angie - who’s suspended in time, eternally 18 in her mind.

Slowly they backtrack through Mark’s investigation and Teddy becomes obsessed in the same way her father had been (and in a way her mother is not, the latter seemingly having accepted her daughter's death). The question Teddy pauses to ask herself eventually though is, 'What is she seeking? The truth, closure, or perhaps confirmation of her own memories and her own perception of Angie. And… at what cost.'

I enjoyed this read, though found myself impatient with Teddy’s lack of suspicion of Mickey’s motives and a tad frustrated at how she allowed herself to go against her better judgements several times…. in search of the truth.

And finally, we do learn more about Angie’s last hours though readers will have to decide for themselves how satisfied they are with the answers provided.

A very engrossing mystery. While I really enjoyed reading it, I found the plot to be a bit convoluted and hard to follow at times. That said, I loved the Reddit aspect of the story, and the relationships between the characters. It kept me on my toes, but also left me a bit confused.

I'll start off by my only negative about this book, and it could have just been the ARC but there were no chapters. I love chapter breaks (not excessive) because when you are trying to squeeze in reading all the time, it gives a good place to pause. Regardless, the lack of chapter breaks made several scenes seem like they were changing characters and locations out of nowhere leading to a lot of re-reading. But I got past that and I ended up loving this book. I can't wait for more from this author! Definitely add to your TBR!!

Rabbit Hole comes out next week on January 2, 2024, and you can purchase HERE!

By twenty-five, you've given up all your hopes and dreams, your novel-in-progress, your hot body, your plans to travel to Japan. By twenty-five, you have a steady job and you're right on track for your panic-inducing suburban middle age. But what is so bad about that? What is so horrible about a warm bed and a softening body and the properly-timed tragedies of living? What could be so bad about giving birth and getting divorced and burying your elderly parents? That's what you're supposed to get.

True true-crime junkies will appreciate the *ahem* Reddit rabbit hole Teddy dives into to try and figure out what happened to her sister, Angie. I liked how the online forum was one of the main characters-- the book takes place in 2015 (honestly not sure if Reddit is still popular, I've never really indulged) so the online experience was definitely a little different back then and it really played an important role within the story. Thinking about how society consumes true crime today compared to how it was not too long ago had me thinking a lot about how I approach it. I'd consider myself a fan but I am definitely guilty of treating it as entertainment only instead of thinking about how these are real people who have left real people behind. Although this is obviously fiction, the reader gets a first-hand look at how this dysfunctional family deals with their daughter/sister/friend's disappearance and I just thought it was really interesting.

The writing is so dark and intelligent and just well done. Teddy is such an unreliable narrator, so I found myself internally yelling at her while also rooting for her at the same time. Her behaviour gets more and more erratic the further you read, but there's something about her that hooks you in.

Thank you to Soho Press for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

TWs: suicide, grief, references to underage sexual advances