I loved it, I think?

⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book was unlike any thriller I have ever read. It has the plot of a traditional thriller, but is written like literary fiction. Because of that, my brain does not know how to categorize it.

Rabbit Hole follows Teddy Angstrom, a high school teacher whose father has recently died by suicide. As Teddy uncovers more about what he has been going through, she discovers his involvement in the true crime community and his investment in the investigation of Teddy's missing sister through Reddit and other fellow amateur sleuths. Soon Teddy is losing herself in the same entanglements but is closer to the truth than she ever thought possible.

I really enjoyed how unique this book was. You really feel like you're inside Teddy's mind. Teddy makes all the wrong decisions, but you start to understand where she's coming from when you see it through her eyes.

If you're tired of the same old thrillers I recommend picking this one up!

Rabbit Hole comes out January 2, 2024. Thank you to #netgalley for the review copy.

How do I explain the way that I both thoroughly enjoyed and entirely hated this book? I was fully absorbed by Teddy’s fall into madness, the way it felt like I was reading a memoir, skewed by her personal biases and perspectives. I was just as desperate to know what happened to Angie as Teddy was, just as invested in solving this mystery (because, yknow, I’m nearing the end and I still don’t know who did it, but I’m developing some solid ideas of what I think happened). And then… after 384 pages, the book ends… AND NOTHING HAPPENS. Like nothing at all. We don’t find out what happened. Not even a clue, a hint, a tease. I’m in the same place after 384 pages that I was when I started and I feel so cheated. If this had been an actual memoir and nothing happened, then fine that’s life sometimes. But I understood this to be a thriller/mystery, and I am certainly not thrilled.

The writing was good, and Teddy’s obsession, her madness and her desperation were all believable. The characters felt legitimate, nothing over the top or stereotypical. But wow, I can’t get over how pointless the whole book felt - all the drama, the digging, the danger for absolutely nothing at the end. Again, if this was marketed different - even as a fictional memoir, fine. But not like this.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a chance to read this book. 3 complicated stars.

I have read...thousands of books. This one was intriguing in that I don't think I've read anything exactly like it before. It's not a fiction novel about someone starting a podcast to solve a true crime, or a random person who is somehow hung up on a specific case, or a journalist who has an inside lead. It's about a woman who lived through the disappearance of her sister for a decade and then after suffering a second tragedy, becomes obsessed in her own right. It's hard to say too much about my thoughts without giving it away, but I enjoyed the normalcy of it. It wasn't trying too hard. In fact, I often oscillated between it being a fiction novel, or a memoir. I had to remind myself it wasn't real, because it really did read like a memoir at points. What happens when you go too far down any rabbit hole? What waits for you there? How do you escape?

I’m having a hard time deciding what I think about this book.

On one hand, I read it within 2 days. It kept me very intrigued and I didn’t feel like it ever lulled or got boring. I really enjoyed the Reddit tie-ins and I wish there had been more. I enjoyed the mystery around the disappearance of Teddy’s sister and Mickey. I wanted to know who did it and if they’d find them.

On the other hand, it wasn’t really what I thought it was going to be when I picked it up. I wouldn’t call it a thriller at all. It was barely even a mystery, really. I’d call it more a story of what can happen to people after multiple family tragedies and how that shapes their life and interactions.

I can’t say I really liked Teddy all that much and I’m also not sure if we were supposed to like her. She seems to be extremely affected by the loss of her sister, her father, and just a generally dysfunctional childhood.

Sometimes the switch from one scene to another confused me. There were no chapters. I’m not sure if it was just the way the book was formatted since it’s an ARC and it’s still unedited, but it all just kind of ran together sometimes. I didn’t take anything off for that, but I’m also unsure if that will be fixed in the final copy. I hope so.

So overall, I wish there had been more of what I thought it would be. A thriller/mystery with lots of Reddit/Internet sleuth tie-in.

Instead, it seemed to be a story of how grief and family dysfunction can affect people.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for allowing me to read this eARC.

I am guilty of falling down rabbit holes near daily so this hit a little close to home. How easy is it to get sucked into a story or Reddit? Even when it isn't the best idea. I thought the location was very atmospheric and added to the slightly uncomfortable vibe to the book.

I did feel like the side characters were a little underdeveloped but the main characters were solid. It could have done without the dog storyline--that pulled me out of the book and seemed like a cheap way to get sympathy from the reader.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for this free arc.
3.5 stars
This book was like a bad accident, I couldn’t look away. It a great idea that fell flat. The last few pages don’t work with the tone of rest of the book and sex scenes were random. The ending was predictable and I didn’t care for any of the characters…honestly only the poor dog.

Rabbit Hole had a great setup that never connected with me and I hate that because Kate Brody has great character writing but I felt the overall story fell flat. I love a great mystery but Rabbit Hole is just ok.

I was so invested in this book, but it was so frustrating! The story was enough to keep me going, but this main character is the definition of unlikeable.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of Rabbit Hole.

I'm pretty disappointed with Rabbit Hole because it's not a mystery or a thriller; rather, its about how a family struggles with grief after the loss of a father and husband, and sister and daughter.

On the ten-year anniversary of her older sister Angie's disappearance, Teddy's father takes his own life.

Teddy's family is rife with drama, estrangement with relatives, and many unresolved questions.

When she begins to dig into her sister's past, hoping to understand what truly happened to Angie and what led her father to take his own life, she discovers painful truths about her own family, her father, and herself.

Grief affects everyone in a myriad of ways. There are no rules on how you should act or behave, no manual or playbook to refer to when you've suffered a tremendous loss.

Rabbit Hole is about Teddy's tenuous grip on her life as she tries to deal with her own grief while managing the fallout from her father's suicide, the reason her sister disappeared, and her mother's sorrow.

Teddy is not a likable person; she makes poor decisions, sleeps around, and has no friends, no one to confide to.

Mickey is an odd character, for good reason. I don't think the reader is supposed to trust her, and I didn't.

She and Teddy didn't really jell together, but then who else does Teddy have to turn to?

There's no drama or suspense, no urgency, just Teddy making wrong decision after wrong decision, ruminating endlessly over where her sister might be, dwelling on a fantasy that Angie will talk through the front door one day and all will be well.

The writing was fine, but I soon got tired of the narrative and the repetition; Teddy hooking up with that old geezer (daddy issues, anyone?), meeting Mickey, investigating false leads with no solution as to why or what happened to Angie.

I love how modern this mystery felt. Who among us hasn’t gone down a Reddit rabbit hole. That’s exactly what happens to the main character, Teddy. Haunted by the disappearance of her older sister years ago, Teddy seeks answers wherever she can find them.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!

I loved this book! I really appreciated how you get to see the dark and gritty reality of grief. The mystery element was very well executed and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I loved how raw everything felt, as if you're inside of the main character, giving the read an overall different level of depth.

Thanks NetGalley for this ARC!

Kate Brody’s Rabbit Hole is a trip. The story is narrated by Teddy, the adult sister of a teen girl that disappeared ten years before. In the wake of a new tragedy Teddy starts to question the unsolved case of her sister with a 19 year old she meets on Reddit that has followed the case since childhood. With each piece of information we get the sordid story unfolds.

The twists are great and the story is quite original. Would def recommend this one.

I didn’t realize this was a murder mystery type thing so that’s totally on me, but this was 100% not my jam. 5 stars because that’s not the authors fault and I’m sure this is the bees knees for people who want that.

I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

A young woman delves into the mystery surrounding her sister's disappearance. Her investigation leads her into dark places and shockingly poor choices.

Rabbit hole - used to refer to a bizarre, confusing, or nonsensical situation or environment, typically one from which it is difficult to extricate oneself.

Ten years ago Teddy's teenage sister disappeared and the case is still unsolved. On the anniversary of her 10 year disappearance, Teddy's father commits suicide. Teddy begins clearing out her dad's office to pay bills and finds his cell phone and a post it note with a name on it. Contacting these people leads Teddy to read Reddit threads about her sister's disappearance and starts questioning the motives around people she knows. I felt like I also was going down a rabbit hole reading this book, not knowing who to trust from the anonymous posters on Reddit to the people in Teddy's life including a new guy she's dating that knew her sister and a college student who's also obsessed with the case. This was a different take on solving a mystery with the online searching being a big part of the story. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

3.75 stars…I went into this one expecting a thriller, Teddy’s sister Angie has been missing for 10 years. In the wake of her father’s suicide, she decides to try and find out what happened to her. The disappearance is a minor character in this story to the pain Teddy suffers. She is self-destructive, and almost punishes herself with her relationships. I found the story of Wolfie, her sister’s dog so touching, but so very very sad. I am the biggest animal lover (and have a tattoo to honor the boxer dogs of my past), so there were some very tough parts of that storyline to get through. Trigger warning for animal suffering (and you may need to skip a page or two like I did.)

i did not expect to be compelled like this, or to FEEL this much from this book. it's awesome and twisty and dark and devious, a perfect successor to gillian flynn

Dark, twisty and with plenty of delicious moral ambiguity this was a really fun descent into the "rabbithole" of online true-crime addiction and how easily you can be buried in it.
The characters are well-written and the dynamics between them are definitely the highlight of the book.
Really enjoyable for anyone who has caught themselves pulled into the internet void of conspiracy theories and crime solvers.

This was a compellingly written and moving book. It takes some of the typical components of a thriller and thrusts the reader down the rabbit hole along with the main character, while using the bigger picture to meditate on grief, trauma, resilience, and connection.

Thank you NetGalley and Soho Press for the eArc Rabbit hole. This was a difficult read. I understand Arc's are usually not edited but this one was rough. A lot of run-on sentences and no chapters. It was very difficult to get into the story. I will not give this a bad score because of it, the story was ok.