I did not enjoy this book. The story was disturbing. The main character was not likeable. The 3 male characters were not likeable, in fact, it was hard to tell them apart.
I kept reading because I thought it might get better. It did not.

This was an interesting read about Blandine, who has gone through a series of events, shaping her into the person she is today. This story is a blend of people inhabiting an complex called The Rabbit Hutch. The story follows Blandine, her roommates, and her neighbors.

I think the story is impactful in a way of how one reacts to the situations come across in life and how people move, or don't move, on.

THE RABBIT HUTCH opens with a tragic, violent event, then tracks backwards, tracing the lives of the people who live in the low-cost housing complex known as The Rabbit Hutch.

We get glimpses into the lives of, among others, a depressed overwhelmed postpartum mother who has developed a fear of her baby’s eyes, a lonely 50-something woman whose job is to purge negative posts from an online memorial site, four teenagers who have just aged out of state foster care, and a recently-deceased TV star and her alienated son.

The novel depends on character depth and texture–and on the layered effect of different characters’ stories. So, it’s fortunate that even when the characters are types, none of them are clichés. They easily come alive with individual quirks, complex interior monologues, histories, and hopes. Blandine, the young woman who “leaves her body” at the beginning of the novel, is a near-genius obsessed with Catholic female mystics, deeply traumatized by an emotionally intense affair with a high school teacher, and a secret saboteur of a local development project.

The novel starts off slowly, cutting between different characters’ perspectives and different genres of text. Interior stream of consciousness gives way to a traditional scene and dialogue between two characters, followed by a newspaper clip, a close third-person perspective, a dead celebrity’s parting letter to the public, a first-person plural narrative from the perpetrators of violence, and more. While the overall effect is confusing and disorienting at first, each section does in fact connect to the previous one through a mention or reference. The writing is textured and interesting enough to keep me reading, but it’s definitely a format for people who appreciate more literary writing–and may be difficult going for anyone wanting a traditional plot or point of view.

For me, the writing was interesting enough to keep me reading but didn’t grab me until we began to see the main character Blandine’s building affair with her high school teacher. At that point, the emotional intensity brought me deep into the book and kept me there.

From that point, the interwoven sections built to a complex, unexpected ending–which managed to feel at once surprising, tragic, and inevitable. And despite the dark and difficult events, the novel contains depths of hope and true character change, with its violent outcome leavened by loving, empathetic, or caring actions from characters or situations I had written off.

THE RABBIT HUTCH is a textured, multilayered narrative that manages to be both cerebral, heart-filled, and plotty. For literary readers–or those who can hold on until the narrative takes off–it’s well worth the read.

The only way I can describe this book is to call it weird and lovely. And sad. But only if you agree that sad isn't necessarily a bad thing. The residents of a low-cost housing complex called the Rabbit Hutch, mainly a quartet of former foster children, learn the ways of the world.

I don't think I am in my best mindset for this book at the moment, and I don’t want to force myself to continue.

It is BEAUTIFULLY written, and the intrigue is high. There has just been a few depressing and disturbing scenes in the first few chapters that I couldn't continue at this time.

Find the trigger warnings on Storygraph and if you can handle them, the book itself seems wonderful as far as I had gotten.

The Rabbit Hutch, Tess Gunty's debut novel, is certainly the literary book-of-the-moment, winning the National Book Award and laudatory reviews everywhere. Set largely in a decaying low-income apartment building in the fictional Indiana city of Vacca Vale, the novel follows a few residents and others, but focuses on Blandine, a teenager who shares an apartment with three boys, all of whom are, like her, graduates from the foster system. Blandine is brilliant and oddly charismatic and beautiful in an off-beat way. She loves mystics, especially medieval women, and likes to rant in what sounds like lengthy twitter threads. Everyone is drawn to her, from her high school drama teacher to the three boys who live in the same apartment, to a middle-aged woman who speaks to her once. Gunty has a writing style that sometimes feels over-written and witty for the sake of being witty, but which flows nicely and she does have an eye for the interesting detail.

I struggled with this novel, I really did. I loved the sections that weren't about or told from the perspective of Blandine, which is to say, there were a handful of chapters I enjoyed. But Blandine is the focus of the novel and of the people in this novel. She's beautiful and brilliant, and quirky and unique, and everyone thinks about her all the time. I like novels with unlikeable protagonists and I like books with likable main characters, but here is an unlikeable character whom everyone genuflects to and thinks about all the time. Random people notice how beautiful she is as she passes them on the street. I was bored with her and a little baffled that being told over and over that this character is fascinating is enough for many readers to decide that yes, she is. Anyway, greater minds than mine loved this book.

I'm really not sure if I'm not "enlightened" enough to get all the fuss over this book or if it's just a puffed piece of marketing. I was not impressed with the writing, the story, and felt that it was a bunch of rambling and tropes crammed together to make a book.

Good writing, beautiful book cover, I did have to DNF due to how slow it was. I think maybe in the future I will try reading it again, but as of now it did not capture my attention.

I wanted to read this book because of all the attention it had received. While I am not sure it completely lives up to the hype (which book does?), it is a good, interesting read depicting (mostly) the young adult lives of kids who grew up in the foster system. There are other characters in the book, who are equally as interesting, but their lives don’t intersect the main character as much so we unfortunately don’t get to know much about them. I could have learned less about the son of the movie star and more about the older neighbor couple. There is a satisfying end, though, that wraps (most of) the neighbors together. I would absolutely recommended this book, but level out your expectations. You don’t find interesting characters like the ones in this book every day. You will not forget them. Thank you, NetGalley, for an ARC.

3.5 rounded to 4.

Debut novel, The Rabbit Hutch, drops you in the middle of a dying city for the span of a few days. You feel the distress of a range of characters all tied together by La Lapinière - the Rabbit Hutch. Paranoia, obsession, fear, shame, pleasure, loneliness, and desperation all culminate in an act that grants Blandine, apartment C4, her greatest desire: transcendence.

Tess Gunty immediately grips you and pulls you in with a bold move to show her cards within the very first paragraph. For a debut novel, this book is impressive. Gunty certainly knows her way around a sentence. I wish I had kept track of how many times I reread a sentence because of its charm. The description of characters and their surroundings was delectable. However, despite a strong start and a strong ending, there were points midway where I nearly walked away. I can understand a focus on characters vs plot but there were long winded sections with not enough to hold it all together. I enjoyed that it was a bit all over the board but some of the moving pieces were lackluster at best.

Would love to see another novel from Gunty.

Netgalley and Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group sent me a digital copy in exchange for my honest opinion.

Exceptional. A real piece of absurdist literature that doesn't feel put-on or overly quirky for the sake of shock-value. Though some of the subplots felt tangential, I still enjoyed them thoroughly and preferred how they added to the texture of the story. Will recommend this book to my patrons.

What shape will our lives take if we're not loved enough? What do we owe to those we love? To those who love us? To each other as a broader community?
In The Rabbit Hutch, Tess Gunty introduces us to characters living within the same low-income apartment complex in a run-down Midwestern town at the brink of gentrification. One of the main characters is Blandine, a brilliant but eccentric 18 year old who spends her free time reading about female mystics and wishing she could exit her body. She has completely entranced the three boys that she lives with, and they become focused on proving their love to her in misguided and bizarre ways.
This was an ambitious book. It's a character study while also being a critique of America as a whole with commentary on income inequality, the climate crisis, and capitalism--- problems that converge and impact people and their ability to connect to and relate to one another.
Gunty's writing is exquisite. She made me care deeply for these characters, and even though the culminating moment is teased within the first sentences of the book, she still does a great job of creating that tension.
My main critique is that she does incorporate a bit too much of the language from the mystics that Blandine is obsessed with (specifically from Hildegard von Bingen), and I'm not sure what this added. There were also a couple of threads that I wish Gunty had tied up a bit more, like Blandine's activism and a different character's mysterious game of Clue.
Overall, an engrossing read that I know I'll need to think more about to truly make sense of. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!

Tess Gunty's debut covers a lot of ground. Plotlines overlap and perspectives hop around: a young mother develops a phobia of her newborn's eyes, a cerebral teenager consults the mystics and exits her body, the son of a newly deceased actress covers himself in glowstick fluid, three boys age out of the foster care system and flirt with animal sacrifice etc. Keen, captivating, and character driven. Would recommend.

The Rabbit Hutch immediately became my favorite book of the year. I can't wait for everyone I know to read this! Some of the most brilliant writing I've read in ages, this book completely blew my mind.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this impressive debut story!
The Rabbit Hutch is a book like no other I have come across in a very long time. It is set in a low rental apartment dwelling in the midwest. We are introduced to the characters and intimate and at times, unusual ways. The all “come to life” so vividly, and before long, we know them and their stories. The way the voices are projected is purely remarkable writing and storytelling. You will not be disappointed and will also perhaps see your own neighbors in a different light.

As with all of my reviews these days, I will focus more on my reaction to the book than on summarizing the plot, as so many other reviewers have done that expertly already. In this case it is perhaps a more appropriate tactic, since this is not a plot-driven novel at all. This is about the craft of writing (think newly minted MFA) rather than the craft of story-telling. It is also about place, and that place is bleak -- rust-belt America and its trapped and down-trodden inhabitants. What shines most brightly is the author's gift for capturing the human psyche at its most vulnerable and insecure. Gunty portrays her characters' most intimate thoughts, desires and doubts with incredible nuance and sensitivity, whether the character makes only a fleeting appearance or is centered in the narrative. The story, however, feels disjointed and imbalanced, jumping from minor to major character, from the present to the back story, without creating enough of an arc to compel the reader to want to keep turning the pages. The social commentary on American culture is biting to the point of nihilism, and though it rings true, this also inhibits its readability. This is a dark novel touching on themes of (almost) statutory rape, animal cruelty, mental illness, postpartum depression, urban decay, poverty, and, well, you get the idea. This is not for the faint of heart.

Brilliant but no for everybody. If you like an old fashioned story with a beginning and and an end this is not for you. If you like bold, fearless, rambling prose by all means read it!

This National Book Award winner is an endlessly intriguing story about the residents of an apartment complex informally called the Rabbit Hutch. It primarily focuses on Blandine, a much too intelligent eighteen year old girl, as she navigates life sharing an apartment with three boys after she drops out of high school. The supporting characters were just as dynamic and well written as Blandine herself. Tess Gunty is a massive talent and I can’t wait for her next book.

Tess Gunty is an extraordinary writer, unfurling sentences so delightful that you have to go back and read them again. The first paragraph made me sigh with satisfaction and settle in for a wonderful read. “The Rabbit Hutch” Is on nearly everyone’s Best Fiction of 2022 list and has won the National Book Award. So why was I barely able to get through it?

Gunty is brilliant with a great plot idea—follow the residents of a low income apartment building in a rusted industrial town in Indiana. The “Rabbit Hutch” (local translation of its French name) houses all types, and many are former foster children who have exited the system. There are also a pair of new parents, a gentle older woman. The story fans out from there, with too many characters and too many opportunities left unexplored. I didn’t find “The Rabbit Hutch” terribly weird, just disjointed. If those attempts to conjure the weird had been minimized, I think we’d have a much more satisfying novel about a group of people whose lives are rarely explored.

I look forward to Tess Gunty’s next novel and hope to see her exciting writing style put to different use, where her obvious talent is in service to her characters.

Thank you to the publisher (Knopf) and NewGalley for the DRC of this novel is exchange for an honest review.

Short listed for the National Book Award in 2022.

I listened to audiobook and e-book in tandem. Well narrated, interesting story but I DNF'd. Found the story line to be too esoteric for me. However, the writing is really stellar.