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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NATIONAL BOOK AWARD WINNER • The standout literary debut that everyone is talking about • "Inventive, heartbreaking and acutely funny."—The Guardian A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times, TIME, NPR, Oprah Daily, People Blandine isn't like the other residents of her building. An online obituary writer. A young mother with a dark secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents — neighbors, separated only by the thin walls of a low-cost housing complex in the once bustling industrial center of Vacca Vale, Indiana. Welcome to the Rabbit Hutch. Ethereally beautiful and formidably intelligent, Blandine shares her apartment with three teenage boys she neither likes nor understands, all, like her, now aged out of the state foster care system that has repeatedly failed them, all searching for meaning in their lives. Set over one sweltering week in July and culminating in a bizarre act of violence that finally changes everything, The Rabbit Hutch is a savagely beautiful and bitingly funny snapshot of contemporary America, a gorgeous and provocative tale of loneliness and longing, entrapment and, ultimately, freedom. "Gunty writes with a keen, sensitive eye about all manner of intimacies―the kind we build with other people, and the kind we cultivate around ourselves and our tenuous, private aspirations."—Raven Leilani, author of Luster Read more
Publisher : Vintage
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : August 2, 2022
Language : English
File size : 15.8 MB
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 400 pages
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Kindle
What stories! So many you get to know through one event. Connections, and lack thereof is the center of the realities, and unrealities of the characters. At the beginning I found it hard to fully engage and then I was hooked. I highlighted pieces that so well describe pain and life and figuring out how to make it through. I loved this read!
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Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2024 by Kindle Customer
Format: Hardcover
Mostly great. Inventive, sharply observed, witty, bold. Cons: the book honestly feels like it consists of something like 80% description/exposition and 15% backstory. Every character gets paragraphs and paragraphs of description, and there are numerous characters. Same for places/setting. This is excellent and fun to read for awhile, but across the book it came to feel exhausting, mainly because it detracts from a reader’s ability to sustain the dream of the story and drop away into the imagined world of the book. An awareness of the author herself, and the cleverness employed in the language of this book, overrode my ability to focus on the characters—I was constantly reminded the characters were being wrung into existence by all that description rather than just getting to know them by following them through action. The book insisted that I keep noticing the author instead, when my favorite books are the ones so seamless and elegant I drop into the fictive world and forget about the author entirely. There also is, in the end, very little present action in this book. I believe that’s why people have a hard time describing it—not because of some of its eccentric elements, but because so little happens. The summary of this book could be: a lot of people, places, and things are described, at LENGTH, using inventive language. Though even that language holds odd reiterations throughout—a repeated stance against vegans, suburbia, patterned wallpaper, and the color beige, among others, including a lot of overstatement/over-thought on the distinction between what is real and what is not—numerous characters struggle with that divide, and it gets to be exhaustive. Lastly, (and be warned, somewhat of a spoiler ahead) I’m bothered by the animal violence as well as the structure and use of violence as the primary engine of this narrative. The “hook” of the book—what the author clearly knowingly employs to grip readers and keep them turning the pages—is the threat and actualization of violence against a young woman. The opening pages of the book trick the reader into thinking something even worse than what actually occurs with blandine will happen at the end, and I feel this is a terrible and ugly bait and switch. For a book that has no hesitation arguing for social justice in a wide variety of areas, those arguments ultimately ring false and empty when the entire narrative—it’s known selling point and propulsive force—is violence against a woman. Can we call this tired theme inventive, after all, regardless of the sparkly language in which it’s described? A brilliant, economically poor, unconventionally beautiful young girl being seduced by an older man is at this point such a reiterated relationship dynamic in celebrated fiction that I'm starting to wonder/worry about what it says about general cultural appetites (see: Luster, Great Circle, Fates and Furies, How Much of These Hills is Gold etc. etc. etc.) What's especially painful about The Rabbit Hutch is that these scenes of sexual violence ultimately have no bearing or effect on the main events of the book, meaning they were completely gratuitous, and that is not the type of writing I like to read. Overall: with more editing and less use of sexual and animal violence as a hook to engage readers (without much point or purpose beyond that function) I would give this great debut the full five stars.
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Reviewed in the United States on December 11, 2022 by Amanda Gram-Wilder
Format: Kindle
Reading Tess Gunty's National Book Award winning novel "The Rabbit Hutch" reminded me of "Monrovia, Indiana" an outstanding documentary film from 2018 directed by Frederick Wiseman. I saw the film at the AFI Theater near my home, and it has stayed with me. I would like to see it again. The film is set in the small town of Monrovia, roughly in central Indiana with a population of about 1600. Over its 143 minute length, the film shows the lives of the members of the community at work, play, worship, in serious events and at play. The film had a feeling of realism, without ideology or judging. The primary audience for the film was educated individuals in the urban centers of the East and West, Some of the polarizaion in American life involves the tension between rural and urban areas, a tension that rose in 2016 with the election of Donald Trump to the presidency. Wiseman's film offered a valuable perspective. The official synopsis of the film states: “The film explores the conflicting stereotypes and illustrates how values like community service, duty, spiritual life, generosity and authenticity are formed, experienced and lived. The film gives a complex and nuanced view of daily life in Monrovia and provides some understanding of a rural, mid-American way of life that has always been important in America but whose influence and force have not always been recognized or understood in the big cities on the east and west coasts of America and in other countries.” (quoted on wiki page for the film) I had hoped that Gunty's novel might offer a restrained, thoughtful view of a middle American town in Indiana as did Wiseman's film. Her novel is set in Vacca Vale, Indiana, which, is a larger version of Monrovia, an industrial rather than a farming town, and fictitious. In the novel Vacca Vale is part of the rust belt. For many years, the town was prosperous and the home to many workers in the automobile industry. The auto manufacturer left the town, leaving poverty, crime, loneliness, and severe environmental pollution in its wake. Some less than well-intentioned efforts are underway throughout this story to revive the town and bring back prosperity, at least for some. The title "The Rabbit Hutch" refers to a dilapidated apartment building which houses a variety of Vacca Vale's poor and lost. The decrepit character of the building allows little room for privacy. The novel follows the lives of several residents of the Rabbit Hutch. Their backgrounds and lives are diverse and eccentric. The stories are extreme and hit the reader on the head with a hammer. The main character is an eighteen year old, Blandina, who lives in an apartment in the Rabbit Hutch with three young men. Each of the four are former residents of foster homes who are trying to make it on their own. Understandably, sexual tension develops between the three young men and their female roomate. Blandina, a promising and bright student, has dropped out of school and works in a cheap restaurant. She has a mystical temperament and reads about great women medieval mystics including Hildegarde of Bingen and St. Teresa of Avila. The novel follows her life over the course of about a week and her relationship to the roomates and to other residents of the Rabbit Hutch. In the course of reading I had different responses to the novel. Portions of the book are beautiful and incisive as Gunty describes her characters and their varied backstories. The discussions of mysticism are inspiring. The book captures the poignancy of a once thriving town which has fallen on hard times and which is making some efforts at recovery. Some of the material in the book could form the basis for a portrayal of a rust belt town, along the lines that Wiseman achieved in his portrayal of the farming town of Monrovia, Indiana. Alas, it was not to be. The novel is long and herky-jerk. It wanders and, with the impressiveness of some of the individual scenes, is difficult to follow and didn't hold my attention. But the problem with the book is deeper. While some of the book shows people trying to live their lives in the face of economic and personal misfortune, the novel, for the most part, doesn't allow the characters to speak for themselves. The book is more of a social criticism of Vacca Vale and of the economic system responsible for the town's present difficult times. The novel is concerned with large ideas, such as the failings of late capitalism, selfishness, pervasive ignorance, male toxic sexuality, male domination, phoniness, cruelty to animals, American class structure, and much more. It is too much to discuss well, takes the author away from her characters, and is preachy and ideological. The book, unlike "Monrovia, Indiana", does not let the characters speak for themselves but instead imposes the author's beliefs and understanding of their lives upon them. Although there was promising material in "The Rabbit Hutch" it was disjointed,shrill, and ultimately left me with the sense that it was moved more by ideology and by social and political commitments than by the story and the characters. I became increasing dissilusioned with the book over the course of my reading. The journey from Monrovia to Vacca Vaca, Indiana was disappointing. Robin Friedman
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Reviewed in the United States on October 10, 2023 by robin friedman
Format: Paperback
Usually I read a book quicker than I did this gem by Tess Gunty, but I savored her imaginary and her ability to create marvelous sentences and tie them to memories that have an impact on the reader. Yes, sometimes, with so much information packed into each page, sometimes the story got tedious. However, it was brilliant writing and a strange but powerful story. To win the National Book Award for Fiction with her first novel says it all. This author has started to make her mark. Congratulations to her for such and powerful and imaginary work.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2023 by Sandra Waters customer
Format: Paperback
...Le Sigh...where to begin? The Rabbit Hutch is what happens when you have a MFA and no applicable life experiences. It's a MasterClass in WHO gets published and WHY. And I'm not saying it's all Tess Gunty's fault. The writing is good, she had some excellent one liners. And I honestly think she was pressed by someone In The Business to write this drivel. The dystopian-ness...the seeming insight into the banality of "average Americans", the extremely violent intro which is NOT a hook for female readers (and mind you, women are about the only ones reading in America right now). It was like she wrote a book, and then someone came behind her and shouted, "More SADNESS! More GRIEF! More ASSAULT!" as if those are the only things that make a bestseller. She also didn't do as much research as she should have for her background. The state the book takes place in has a VERY large Hispanic population, and a VERY large protestant population. Yet this book is filled with nothing but white Catholics! One of the protagonists is supposed to be a dead/dying child star á la Shirley Temple, but her cast is mostly VERY young (read well under 30) women and children, and if you've talked to anyone in that age range today, most of them have never heard of Shirley Temple and don't remember ever watching a show in Black and White such as I Love Lucy. So the timeline there was just a bit warped as well as some other easy details she should have caught. I finished this book because I was forced to by my Book Club, but all I took away from it was someone who checked all the boxes for a bestseller and ended up with trash.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2026 by Miris
Format: Kindle
The last time I was in a period of impasse I started looking at MFA programs including NYU's program. I believe this was around July 4th, 2018. While I was there I picked up a copy of short stories that were compiled by the MFA program to showcase their students work. I liked Tess's writing so much that I specifically cited her in my application as evidence of the programs efficacy. Now that I am enduring another bout of impasse five years later she has found me again this time from a review in the NYT which I read somewhat infrequently that it felt fated. I love her work and how she seems to capture the zeitgeist of the moment in such a clever way. She also displays, for the most part, a high level of empathy for her characters like the famous woman's son when she writes about his stutter and his neglectful mother to help the audience deepen our understanding of why he is such a misanthrope. It's a little embarrassing to admit but as the victim of narcissistic abuse and neglect I see some of myself in this character and it's nice to see him treated with some grace and respect. I also love that Ms. Gunty shows the connection between his own narcissism and his resentment towards his mother. I often believe we become what we most fear or the opposite of it. Additionally, I really enjoyed the character of the young woman who has sex with her teacher and seeing how this impacts her. I do not have any sisters so it is always helpful to me to get insight into what adolescents and being a young woman is like. Lastly, it has been really impactful for me to get to have read Tess's work from five years ago and be reading this book. I see a lot of the same clever elements that were present in her earlier writing and how she has developed as a writer. I did find myself wondering about where in the book she may have inserted herself and what elements of this story were part of her own narrative. I previously thought it was because of the connection I feel with her but another reviewer felt the same way. The other reviewer's assertion was that there was too much telling and not enough showing. If I do have one knock on Tess it may be that she could use more dialogue to move the story forward maybe idk honestly. If this is the case and she's reading her reviews and she wants practice creating more dialogue and to get out more, I have found improv really helpful to get outside of myself and think about developing different characters and their dialogue. As an extrovert, I really love this method of character development. To bring it back to Tess for a hot second, I love her work but I did relate to what the other reviewer had written about finding myself wondering as much about her as I did about the story. I also felt like this could be driven by my curiosity about her and how/why she keeps showing up in my life at these periods where I feel like I should write a book of fiction. Sometimes I feel like when I read works like this there is a sense of demotivation because they are so good. It's like well, why try when someone else can do it so much better? Then I throw and Gillian Welch's "One Little Song." I know I am a good writer and I could write something this eloquent and thoughtful but it took her five years or more to develop this style. As a way of displaying my own level of narcissism and making this all about me, I'll just say that I am not sure I want to change course and invest this kind of time and effort into my writing but I'll keep pondering it. Hats off to you Tess and thank you for demonstrating what it takes to achieve such a high level of success! I cannot wait 'til we meet again!!!
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Reviewed in the United States on July 14, 2023 by Spencer Gordon
Format: Kindle
I did not care for this story at all. The characters are so despondent and hopeless. I know that people have many different types of lives and I don't mind reading about hard luck stories and enjoy them (my favorite books are A Tree Grows In Brooklyn, Grapes of Wrath, To kill a Mockingbird,) but I need some purpose for the story and some redeeming value. There is no hope, no insight, no enjoyment here. I kept waiting for the insight that would make my time reading it worthwhile but unfortunately it never came.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2023 by R & J
Format: Kindle
The Rabbit Hutch is a modern American story about people who have curious characteristics and have been affected by the horrors of 21st-century life. Its setting is the fictional town of Vacca Vale, Indiana which used to be a thriving car manufacturing town. But, unfortunately, its heyday is over, and widespread poverty and social disintegration prevail. A developer has proposed a rejuvenation plan, but he and his team experience a disturbing interruption to a planning meeting. Numerous characters play a part in the book, and many live in the Rabbit Hutch, affordable housing where the units have little privacy and mimic the blurred boundaries of modern life. Folks know almost everything about their neighbors in adjacent units, and distasteful events occur regularly. We know from the novel's beginning that Blandine Watkins, one of the main characters, an eighteen-year-old malcontent, will exit her body. The reader becomes painfully aware that Blandine IS everything that has wounded her during her childhood in foster care and much angst about religion and the meaning of life. Blandine lives with three male roommates, all aged out of the foster care system. Each carries baggage from the system. It's challenging to keep track of the characters. Many are angry and act in unconventional ways to communicate with others. Some of the stories tie to others; others do not. Contemporary concepts and themes run through the course of the book, and rather than trying to tie them together; I offer this list of concepts typical of post-industrial, modern life: Disposable people American icons Abandonment Decaying towns Flooding and flooded housing areas Marxism Capitalism Abuse of power Sexual abuse Complex villains Fakeness Revitalization Gentrification Emojis—vulgar and others Anonymous lives Social justice discrimination Suicide Opioid abuse Religion Fatal flaws Commodifying people Mysticism Truth Internet Healing Trauma afterlife Love Terror Unwanted babies Motherhood Mothers not bonding with babies American class system Male dominance Power structures Animal sacrifices Animal abuse Cancer Angst Phobias
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Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2023 by LindaL