A review by namizaela
The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty

dark sad tense

3.75

This book is undeniably brilliant. Through a cast of intriguing characters, a non-linear and unconventional storytelling method, and fascinating commentaries on violence at the intersection of gender and class, I feel like this novel was as much a manifesto as it was a story.
However, I didn't enjoy this book as much as I admired it. There were some parts, such as the storyline about Moses, that felt too underdeveloped to make an impact on the whole story. I think this novel would have been more compelling if it had focused entirely on Blandine, her roommates, and James. I still enjoyed reading about the side characters, but I viewed them more as a distraction. Additionally, this is just my personal preference, but some of the dialogue in the book felt extremely unrealistic, as if the author was just using the characters as mouthpieces for conflicts of different schools of ideas. The particular conversation I'm thinking of is
the last confrontation between James and Blandine
, which I felt devolved into more of an academic debate than an actual conversation. It took away some of the immersion of the novel at the cost of introducing some great ideas, so it wasn't all bad.
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