As a reader for the Waterstones Debut Fiction Prize 2022 I was astounded by the quality of books on offer, but The Rabbit Hutch really took the cake.

From the very first line, Gunty lures you in and keeps you on the edge of your seat with beautifully languishing prose, which at time cloaks the horror of what’s occurring in the plot.

I’d highly recommend this book to anyone who loves things character-based (thinking Betty by Tiffany McDaniel) but also please be aware that this plot will not disappoint you! Full of grit and heart and sorrow, The Rabbit Hutch is unlike anything I’ve ever read before and I think there’s something in it for everyone to take away.

It was an interesting listen, however the book had too many ideas that simply did not resonate with me.
Author has great talent for writing, I enjoyed the way she told the story, however there were too many unnecessary details that made even audiobook drag in some places.
I had difficulty getting attached to any of the characters too.

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.

Behind the thin walls of a low-cost housing complex in the once bustling industrial centre of Vacca Vale, Indiana, residents search for meaning in their lives. An online obituary writer. A young mother with a dark secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents. And Blandine, who shares her flat 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.

This is a dark and powerful novel that I suspect will divide opinion. The writing is incredible, the voice unique, and the story very important - I would highly recommend it to anyone who likes their stories dark and subversive.

This was ok. I liked the premise and there were some great parts but somehow the parts in this book don't really fit great toghether.
The narrater did a good job.

This was a very original story, I found it strange at first, but it all started to come together, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it. I'm looking forward to the next book from this author!
Thanks to NetGalley, the public and the author for the opportunity to listen to this ARC.

I found this book interesting, but also quite intense. The message in this story was incredibly important and was written incredibly well. The narrator was enjoyable to listen to. I found some of the aspects of the story really uncomfortable, but it was necessary. I did feel that there were some aspects to of beating about the bush with the story. I would like to read it as a book as I found the multi pov hard to follow as an audio book.

I listened audiobook edition of this debut work of literary fiction when it became available on @netgalley and I was so excited going into it as it had won the Waterstone’s Debut Fiction Prize.

The Rabbit Hutch is set in a fictional town Vacca Vale, in the heart of the Rust Belt where the primary industry Zorn Automobiles had left leaving behind a rundown town.
The titular Rabbit Hutch is the rundown apartment building all the characters live in where the walls are paper thin. The main character is 18 year old Blandine who has aged out of the foster care system and is now living with three teenage boys that are all in love with her and trying to impress her in some strange ways. Blandine had originally had so much promise as an academically gifted scholarship child who had so much potential but ends up dropping out and living this hand to mouth existence.

The writing was exquisite but it seemed to miss the mark for me. It’s billed as a comedy but I found it tragic rather than funny.

As much as I wanted to like this book as it sounded amazing there was just way too much going on. Too many plotlines and characters. It was difficult to work out what was going on. Even though I persevered and finished it I'm still not sure I really understood everything that happened.

Thank you to NetGalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review! I think a good portion of my struggle with this was reading it in audiobook format. Some books work well this way but I echo many others in saying this was just far too confusing and distracted to simply listen to. I enjoy the premise of the Rabbit Hutch and for the most part enjoyed the weaving narratives of its residents, but can’t help but feel that taking just one or two of those storylines out of the book entirely would have made for a much more cohesive read. The climactic tension Gunty was going for just never quite took off and made an ending that should have been explosive really just feel a bit underwhelming and jarring. I love the ideas brought forward in this debut novel but the execution really fell flat for me - ultimately I couldn’t tell you half of what happened or what this story was about as a result.

What an amazing debut novel! Definitely award worthy! I adored the story, the atmosphere and the writing. I expect big things from this author

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and the author for the opportunity of listening to this. I don’t know quite why but the narrator really gave me Addie LaRue vibes!

The story jumps between a range of characters, all who live in a run down block of flats in the economically struggling Vacca Vale, nicknamed the Rabbit Hutch. The main character in this is 18 year old Blandine who grew up in foster care. She lives in apartment C4 with 3 teenage boys, who begin travelling a questionable path themselves. We meet several of their neighbours, all with very different fears and circumstances.

This book uses powerful and intelligent language throughout, often having me questioning my own smartness (maybe that doesn’t take too much) with the arguments Blandine and others use.

Jumpy writing that refused to settle and have this book an unsettling feel to it, people who have just met have conversations about god and religion and it's neither very philosophically thought provoking or does it build characters. This is a massive fail. Sorry.

After winning the Waterstones Debut Fiction prize ( Lessons in Chemistry was nominated as well and lost against this one ) I was super intrigued. Thank you Netgalley and the publisher for approving this audiobook. Unfortunately I think audio was the wrong media. While the cast was brilliant, the style makes it hard to follow. After having bought the book, it is also visual ( Todd's chapter in illustrations ), which you of course miss with the audio. In the first half I was always close to DNF-ing it. While the second half had me more interested I was still wondering why I was actually still listening. Many storylines don't add to anything, and if they do, I am not intelligent enough to get it. Same goes for all the rabbit references. The main storyline would be Blandine and her forbidden love to her teacher, the falling out and the consequences of that. Sometimes a storyline of a person living in the same building or being somewhat linked to her is injected. These can be stories that only appear once in a chapter ( mental Health Blog entry ) or like Joan, Blandines neighbor, who appears several times. At times it was overwhelming, and again: the audio was probably the wrong media to keep up with everything.

I was interested in this book as I liked the sound of the concept of it, as well as having seen it advertised all of book stores.
A story about people’s lives intertwining and how much you really know about a person.

In reality, listening to this audiobook, I had no idea what was going on. I just didn’t want to listen to it and ended up stopping at 52%.

Thank you to the author, publishers and NetGalley for a copy of this audiobook but it just wasn’t for me.

I've heard so much buzz around The Rabbit Hutch, including it's Waterstones Debut Fiction win, that I really expected to be wowed by this.

The Rabbit Hutch centres around the residents of La Lapiniére, an affordable housing complex in Vacca Vale, an invented post-industrial town in Indiana. Residents include an online obituary writer, a young mother struggling to meet her newborn baby's eyes, and three teenage boys living with a teenage girl called Blandine, who walks around with hefty religious texts and dreams of being a female mystic. A act of violence brings them all together, in a look at power structures, wealth and a town trying to rebirth itself.

I wasn't as blown away by this as I hoped to be, though I did still enjoy it very much. As much as I did like the narratives across the housing complex, I think cutting out at least one would have helped the plot tether itself a little more, and strengthened a final act that felt, at least in my opinion, a little rushed and pulled together. I also didn't quite get the 'dark, thrilling, disquieting and so on' atmosphere that the book's been lauded for. I didn't feel like it did anything risky; every time it stepped towards something that I felt could've been pushed more, it retreated. It was an excellent depiction of a Rust Belt town though, and as much as I could've done without some points of views, like Moses's, I do they did contribute to an excellent sense of place and time.

Blandine, to me, was semi-insufferable, in that she's exactly the sort of character I tend to hate - drifts around the place, speaks about politics and society in a very vague, surface level way, described as 'ethereal' about seven times a paragraph - but her new obsession with mystics and her unhealthy relationship with a teacher at school did make me always want her to be okay, as much as i did find her irritating, and I've found myself thinking since reading about what the fallout from the final scene will mean.

As much as it didn't quite tick all of my boxes, i think this was a worthy winner of the Waterstones prize - it's one I like more on reflection, maybe a re-read is necessary one day.

A very promising author, however I’m really undecided about this one. Some of the stories were amusing and intriguing, others were uncomfortable to read, but that’s purely down to my reading taste and what I can easily stomach. Very accomplished writing from a debut author. One to watch.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

I received the Audio book version of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I saw this book all over my local bookstore and I got just very curious about it, so happy I manage to get a copy from NetGalley to review.

Please look for the blurb of the book elsewhere here are only my thoughts and opinions.

The audiobook is narrated by Tess Gunty, Suzanne Toren, Kirby Heyborne, Kayla Garcia and Scott Brick. Having a good variety of made it easier to follow, as there are so many characters and one or two voice actors wouldn’t have been enough to tell them apart. They voices themselves were good and some more than others kept me inside the story.

When it comes to the book I was really into it at first when we are getting to know the characters and their context but very quickly I was annoyed by the “manic pixie girl” cliche as it’s the main story I was disappointed that it was the way the author chose to tell the story, but there wasn’t any other interesting character worth following. It really bothered me how much suffering one smart, beautiful strong willed woman was put through while they were other characters that needed a bit more of that.

Some of the side stories read interesting but fell flat at some point that I wasn’t listening at all and I had to keep going back to hoping I missed out on something, but I didn’t.

I think this book could’ve been edited a bit more so the forced weirdness of it would’ve been less obvious.

I’d recommend this book for someone who is getting into crime novels, but not for someone who is more experience int this genre.

“On that hot night in Apartment C4, when Blandine Watkins exits her body, she is not everything. Not exactly. She’s just the opposite of nothing.”

My thanks to WF Howes for a review copy via NetGalley of the unabridged audiobook edition of ‘The Rabbit Hutch’ by Tess Gunty. It is narrated by
Kirby Heyborne, Kyla García, Scott Brick, Suzanne Toren, and Tess Gunty.

This was a very strange novel. I was pleased that I was able to borrow its ebook edition as otherwise I likely would have been floundering.

The Rabbit Hutch of the title is a low-cost housing project in the centre of the fictional rundown town of Vacca Vale, Indiana. The novel follows a number of its residents, including eighteen-year-old Blandine, who shares her flat with three teenage boys that she neither likes nor understands.

Like her they have all aged out of the state foster care system that has repeatedly failed them. Despite her indifference the boys are all in love with her and seek ways to impress her, including creating extreme content for the internet. It did make for disturbing listening, especially when animals were involved.

After the shocking opening the perspective moves to the days earlier and hops between the perspectives of various characters.

This is billed as ‘bitingly funny’ though I didn’t find it at all comic. It is definitely a challenging and provocative novel that addressed various themes including loneliness, love, mental health, and the failure of the American Dream.

At times I did find the dialogue between characters rather artificial and artsy. It just felt too stylised and tended to go on and on. However, I was fairly gripped by the final chapters as the clock ticked down to the crime that opened the novel.

With respect to the audiobook, all four of the narrators have extensive experience and I felt that they brought that expertise to their readings of the novel.

Overall, while I felt that certain themes were well presented and that Tess Gunty’s writing was impressive for a debut novel, ‘The Rabbit Hutch’ wasn’t a particularly good fit for me.

I think this is one I may need to go back to on physical format another time - almost like I missed something doing it through audio? I’m not sure.

It started off great and I was really drawn into the plot. But then it kind of lost me somewhere in the middle.

I’d heard the story was a bit ‘quirky’ and ‘out there’ which I usually LOVE! But it just didn’t work for me in this instance, it almost seemed a little too try hard. That just left me feeling a little underwhelmed and a bit like everything was very far fetched.

Blandine was a great character, I love reading characters like her. Sadly the side characters just didn’t match up and it kinda felt washed out.

Like I mentioned previously, I’m not done with this book - I need to come back to it another time in a different format to properly gauge my opinion on it. Mainly because it’s one I wanted to love.