Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - The Rabbit Hutch

Blandine isn't like the other residents of her building. Welcome to the Rabbit Hutch.

Well, that was a reading experience I was not expecting at all! The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty is a gut retching novel, with an online obituary writer, an old couple who have a rodent problem, a young mother with a secret and four teenagers who have aged out of state foster care, living as neighbours in a run down, lost cost apartment block. The story is set over the space of a week and accumulates with a violent stabbing.

I appreciated how the narrative was written and how the story elicited strong emotions as I read it, however I felt that it did not flow exactly and sometimes the plot lacked focus.

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whimsofwands's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed this book because the characters felt very believable
They were unique and flawed and I liked and disliked all of them for different reasons (except Moses). It was a bit all over the place and didn't quite stick the landing bringing it all together, but there were many beautiful and fascinating moments I'll definitely continue thinking about.

I think this is one of the best portrayals of a statutory rape situation I've ever read. The writer does an amazing job acknowledging the complicated feelings both people have, while consistently condemning it completely.

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danaaliyalevinson's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

I wanted to like this one. It won the National Book Award. And the first 100 pages I was like, this is genius. And then it was all downhill from there. It's about a group of people all living in the same housing project as they each play a part in a violent event. I thought it got lost in its own too clever by half structure, and then the characters wound up being so underdeveloped that I felt nothing as it hurtled toward the conclusion I saw coming from a mile away. Then there's also this thing I see with a lot of modern fiction writers where it feels like literary fiction by way of Wes Anderson. It's very en vogue. And sometimes it works. But here, I thought it was so wrapped up in its need to be quirky and idiosyncratic that I lost the heart.

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