The Rabbit Hutch

Tess Gunty is a remarkable new writing talent. The Rabbit Hutch is a real marmite book; I suspect people will love it or hate it, for a variety of reasons. I loved it, mainly because it’s a book which almost defies description and it’s written with such energy, particularly considering the downbeat subject.

I know nothing about Indiana and in a way, the setting isn’t literal because the story is partly comment about decline and poverty in areas where industry has gone, along with hope and lifestyle. There are parallels in American cities which have lost car manufacture, for example and in the UK where steelworks closed. The Rabbit Hutch is the name of a social housing complex; originally the vision was laudable and very different. Now it’s a rundown concrete block filled with a variety of disparate residents and we take a peek into their boxed off lives over one hot weekend. There’s a dramatic start where Blandine dies and her spirit exits her body. The narrative then switches back and forth between a number of apartments and we learn about the occupants and the events that lead to a tragic conclusion. In a way, it’s a pastiche; each story is a small vignette, but there’s a central theme and everything is linked.

What I really enjoyed, along with the energy was the different style of writing. Each chapter was a surprise. Gunty has a talent for observation and captured each of her characters to perfection. There is so much social comment hidden in throw away one liners, it’s a text that deserves closer inspection. I listened to the audio version and was swept along by different narrators and bits which sounded like poetic rap. I loved it because it brings the power of language alive. It’s a book that speaks to the reader as well as telling a story and it rates as one of my best so far this year. I hope we hear more from Tess Gunty.


My thanks to the publisher for a review copy via Netgalley.

On a hot night in Apartment C4, Blandine Watkins exits her body. She is only 18, but she has spent most of her life wishing for this to happen,” begins The Rabbit Hutch. “The mystics call this experience the Transverberation of the Heart, or the Seraph’s Assault, but no angel appears to Blandine. There is, however, a bioluminescent man in his 50s.” If you were looking for an opening sentence both bewildering and intriguing, this is an excellent candidate. Gunty's excellent debut evokes a social housing apartment block in a languishing Rust Belt town on the verge of an ambitious "regeneration" plan to revive and gentrify a town in decline since the closure of the local car manufacturer. We are introduced to some if La Lapiniere's residents, among them the anxious Mother with a new baby, the middle-aged woman who moderates comments on an obituary webpage and the three teenage boys who share a flat with Blandine, a ferociously intelligent high-school dropout with a fascination for the female mystics.

Gunty has a great facility for the absurd, making the Rabbit Hutch a story full of dark humour, despite the rising dread as the events that lead to Blandine "leaving her body" are revealed in the frustrations, worries and desires of her neighbours, who lead frustrated, unfulfilled lives of petty grievances against the backdrop of their dying town. Some of the storylines feel underdeveloped compared with the main narratives of Blandine and Jack (one of her flatmates), the young mother never really finds a place in the story but Gunty creates a funny, moving picture of their world, touching on patriarchy, abuse, isolation, spirituality, the forces of gentrification, the impact of the foster system. It's a riveting tale, ably performed by excellent narrators.

A rich and compelling debut. Dark and quirky this audiobook begins with an act of violence before rolling back one week in time and following the characters within one apartment block named The Rabbit Hutch. Once a thriving town with a prominent car business, all is now folded and boarded up; it is a dying and decaying town. We are like voyeurs gazing into the apartments of various individuals and seeing snapshots of their lives: 4 teenagers who have aged out of foster care and are cohabiting, Blandine at their centre - a girl, who has dropped out of school and lives shrouded in a greyness. She is obsessed with mystic Christians who can transcend their bodies and she desires to echo the experience. Her flatmates become obsessed with her and animal slaughter. Nearby apartments house a new mother struggling to adjust, a man obsessed with his internet dating scores, a woman who works for an obituary column and has upset a 53year old male whose celebrity mother has died. He commented negatively on the post and is angered that his comment was remove. He seeks to make the columnist pay for this error in judgement. An older couple argue and smoke and carry on with their mundane daily activities. This melting pot of individuals create a strange mix of persons both uplifting and unsettling. Gunty takes this treadmill of monotony and makes it pulsate with life. Tess Gunty deftly narrates one of several narrative voices in the audiobook. It was almost impossible to hit pause as I wanted to unravel the next part of the narrative. #TheRabbitHutch #TessGunty #NetGalley #stunningdebut

“The Rabbit Hutch” by Tess Gunty is set in the run down town of Vacca Vale, Indiana. In an apartment block called La Lapiniere by its investor and the English translation by everyone else, life goes on in the different flats. Faith is petrified by the eyes of her new born child. An adolescent boy is making explicit content for men over the internet. An elderly couple laments how their children have turned out, and, Blandine is exiting her body in the way of the martyrs and mystics.

Read by Tess Gunty Kirby Heyborne, Kyla Garcia, Scott Brick and Suzanne Toren the audio version of the book uses the different narrators to good effect, adding depth to the story telling. This is a very well researched, complex and interweaving novel, which has both comedy and tragedy in spades. My only wondering was whether some of the humour was dampened down slightly by the narration, which was very straight faced. Over all however, this is a brilliant book, very well told.

This was an incredibly bizarre and strange book to read, but I loved it anyway. I find it a hard one to describe, it feels like a surreal mash of the most popular books in contemporary literary fiction while still remaining a unique reading experience. I remember reading an article that compared Rabbit Hutch to about a dozen different books and I initially thought that was marketing overkill but it turns out they were completely right. It's packed with so many different storylines that bleed into each other but come together seamlessly. It's funny, bleak but ultimately hopeful. I think it's a book where it's best to go in blind, to let the writing and weirdness of it all too captive you. It's an odd book, probably not for everyone but this might be one of my favourite reads of the year and one you should pick up if you're even slightly intrigued.

I am happily suprised by how much I enjoyed this one. It's definitely not the type of book I would naturally pick up and probably would not have, without it being crowned winner of the Waterstones Debut Book Prize.

It is a real slice-of-life novel set in a rundown part of Indiana. Each chapter either focuses on Blandine, one of the residents of the apartment block nicknamed 'The Rabbit Hutch', or another person either in her life or in the orbit of the Rabbit Hutch.

Blandine, recently graduated from the foster system and lives with 3 young men, who she met in foster care. She has a troubled past and has become obsessed with the idea of becoming a catholic mystic. Largely viewed as a manic pixie dream girl by most of the people in her life, she strives to become more than herself.

I had tried reading a physical arc of this and hadn't connected with the writing style, so I am glad I tried it in another format. It was pretty dark in places, but it does discuss a lot of important issues, and overall I thought it an excellent read.

Audiobook from netgalley.
I loved this book. From the blurb i though it was like the lovely bones or something similar. However, it’s a beautiful exploration of relationships and peoples difficulties. It’s also difficult to explain the events without spoilers. The body of the book explored the lives of several people living in “the rabbit hutch” which is some form of apartment complex. The stories gradually come together exploring the events leading to an “act of violence” as the blurb states. The author describes the characters motivations and histories in a really unflinching way.
The negatives is that some of the secondary characters were quite similar and difficult to distinguish. Especially the men in the story but I don’t know if that is intentional?
I genuinely enjoyed this book and will recommend to others.

I really enjoyed this audiobook. What a fascinating story and I can see why it won Waterstones Debut of the Year. Highly recommend

What a gripping thriller

This was a very disturbing but good read.

Thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish and could not get enough of.

Drifting through a set of apartments you learn of the residents who inhabit them and what their lives are like, touching, raw, brutal, sometimes even funny.



Set in a deprived area of social housing in Indiana colloquially known as The Rabbit Hutch, you wander the minds of those who live there; What are their hopes, fears, problems, daydreams, what is happening in the banality of day to day life? The narrative thread is very loose especially at the start, it seems to be more about the life of each character, than a particular ‘story’ as such. Later on the lives interweave and connect the further into the book you get.



The content reminds me a little of the film Waking Life in the way it winds between different characters, thoughts and topics. It is an unusual, but beautiful writing style. I’m not sure if in general I would have picked this book, but I’m glad I did. Very thought provoking.


The narrator has a lovely expressive voice, who he really lends itself to this writing style, both soft and clear.

CW postnatal depression, suicide, depression, catastrophising, apocalypse