The Rabbit Hutch

Whenever I picked up The Rabbit Hutch, 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.

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.

The Rabbit Hutch

The Rabbit Hutch

The Rabbit Hutch

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

There are two definitive things I can say about this book. The first is that it’s really weird. The second is that I absolutely love it. It takes a really special type of writer to do what Gunty does here. She manages to pretty effortlessly weave thick sections of social commentary with short vignettes about bizarre situations with cartoonish drawings with small slice of life stories. You could make the argument that the way the book goes back and forth in time and across multiple characters makes it disjointed but I really think it works. Every character feels impactful. Every detail feels purposeful. Every setting feels truly realized. Even the things that are ostensibly out of place aren’t. This is one of the funniest books I’ve ever read as well as one of the saddest and yet I didn’t feel any sense of tonal whiplash throughout. I really can’t help but admire what Gunty was able to do within these 396 pages. She’s a legitimate master of her craft and she deserves all the praise in the world for this book. I don’t throw out the word masterpiece too lightly but I really think this book has earned that title. Bravo Tess Gunty.

3.5 stars rounded up. A debut novel that is a collection of stories, not so much intersecting as co-existing - a literary representation of the apartment building. Yet ultimately it is about Blandine as it all comes together in the end.
It almost works and the writing is good enough to create a collection of bizarrely believable characters.