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Rabbit Cake

door Annie Hartnett

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3572171,610 (3.94)23
Twelve-year-old Elvis Babbitt has a head for the facts: she knows science proves yellow is the happiest color, she knows a healthy male giraffe weighs about 3,000 pounds, and she knows that the naked mole rat is the longest living rodent. She knows she should plan to grieve her mother, who has recently drowned while sleepwalking, for exactly eighteen months. But there are things Elvis doesn't yet know--like how to keep her sister Lizzie from poisoning herself while sleep-eating or why her father has started wearing her mother's silk bathrobe around the house. Elvis investigates the strange circumstances of her mother's death and finds comfort, if not answers, in the people (and animals) of Freedom, Alabama. As hilarious a storyteller as she is heartbreakingly honest, Elvis is a truly original voice in this exploration of grief, family, and the endurance of humor after loss.… (meer)
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1-5 van 21 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
Two thumbs up! I liked this book more than anything I’ve read in months.

Rabbit Cale is told from the POV of Elvis Babbit a 10 year old girl who is a bit of an oddball even before her Mom died suddenly by drowning in the middle of a sleepwalking episode. The book covers the grieving period (about two years) for Elvis and her family.

It’s sad and quirky with an undercurrent of mystery and ultimately a happy message: life goes on and things will be ok. ( )
  hmonkeyreads | Jan 25, 2024 |
Annie Hartnett’s debut novel follows the Alabama based Babbitt family - ten-year-old Elvis, her older sister fifteen-year-old Lizzie, their father Frank and their family dog Boomer as they come to terms with the death of the girls’ mother and Frank’s wife, Eva Rose Babbitt who died from drowning in the Chattahoochee river after sleepwalking into it.

“Mom always said we needed a cake to mark every new beginning, and whether it was a birthday or a first day of school or a new moon, rabbits mean good luck to a new start.”

Elvis’s mother always used to bake a cake in a rabbit mold to mark special occasions. Sadly on her tenth birthday, her mother accidentally burns the “rabbit cake” and soon after tragedy strikes. This devastating loss affects each member of the family and their grief manifests in different forms. Their father seems to withdraw from them, spending more time with his newly acquired pet parrot who coincidentally speaks in a voice similar to his late wife’s. Frank is also seen dressing up in Eva's clothes and makeup while at home. Lizzie’s sleepwalking disorder, inherited from her mother, seems to get worse and her behavior during her nocturnal sleepwalking episodes becomes increasingly destructive. She also has trouble in school leading to her being suspended. Elvis, obsessed with her mother’s death is unable to reconcile with the death being ruled “accidental” and maintains that there was more to it than everyone assumes. She has sessions with the school counselor who helps her map out a grief chart but her progress seems to be stalling on account of the dysfunctional dynamic on the home front. She is busy balancing her own needs, investigating her mother’s death and taking care of her sister whose behavior leads to a stint in a hospital for mentally disturbed children.

“Maybe my grief had turned abnormal, before the eighteen months were even up. I always felt as if I had swallowed something sharp, like a house key or a thumbtack, something causing a deep pain down in the pit of my stomach."

“Rabbit Cake” by Annie Hartnett is a beautifully written novel that revolves around themes of grief, mental illness, family and moving on-from the perspective of now twelve-year-old Elvis Babbett and covers the twenty months following the tragic night of Eva's death as the family members navigate through their grief, both as individuals and as a family. Elvis’s narrative is charming, smart, and honest and reflects her inquisitive nature, wisdom and innocence in the ways of the world. The author excels in voicing the thoughts and emotions of a ten/twelve-year-old child - her sorrow,her denial and her frustration with her family members and the other adults in her life are refreshingly honest, very real and never out of place. She is a child who misses her mother and this is expressed beautifully through flashbacks of Elvis’s memories of Eva throughout the narrative. When she enrolls in the volunteer program at the Serengeti Park Zoo, we bear witness to her utter devotion to animals, an interest she shared with her late mother. Her interactions with the zoo animals are full of compassion and curiosity and make for some heartwarming moments and the plethora of animal facts interspersed throughout the novel are truly interesting. The author, while dealing with the more serious issues of grief and mental illness with respect and sensitivity, manages to inject a healthy dose of humor and some truly funny moments throughout the narrative as well. Losing a loved one is never easy and each of us deals with grief in our very own way. There is no one-size-fits-all coping mechanism that applies universally to grappling with loss - a fact that the author honestly and sensitively depicts in this charming, sad yet hopeful and heartwarming novel. The writing is beautiful, the pace never falters and I liked how the story is wrapped up. I had a lump in my throat but a smile on my face by the end of the story.

“…… but I’d figured out by now that death never makes sense, no matter how someone dies: murder, accident, old age, cancer, suicide, you’re never ready to lose someone you love. I decided death will always feel unexplained; we will never be ready for it, and you just have to do the best you can with what you have left.” ( )
  srms.reads | Sep 4, 2023 |
Elvis Babbitt, who shares a name and birthday with the King of Rock & Roll, is the precocious and obsessive protagonist of Annie Hartnett’s Rabbit Cake. Elvis’s peculiar proclivities stem in part from her mother, a failed naturalist who settled for teaching in community college in Alabama. Mom herself harbors quite a bit of quirk. For one, she always makes her daughters, Elvis and Lizzie, rabbit-shaped cakes complete with raspberry blood for their birthdays. But that isn’t the only weird thing about Mom. Read more…

Mom is a sleep-swimmer. Instead of just stumbling around when she sleepwalks, she goes for a dip in the river. This happens so frequently that she goes to bed in her bathing suit, and her husband sleeps in swim trunks.

That is, until one night she drowns, and Elvis, Lizzie, and Dad’s worlds are all thrown off-kilter. Elvis doesn’t believe her mother’s death was an accident, and so, amid her research into the sleeping habits of the animal world, Elvis goes on a quest to find out who her mother really was and so to figure out what really happened to her. Of course, family weirdness gets in the way. Lizzie and Dad both deal with their grief differently. Dad adopts a parrot that can mimic his deceased wife’s voice. Sometimes he puts on Mom's favorite shades of lipstick. Meanwhile, Lizzie’s grief has caused her to inherit her mother’s unusual somnambulatory adventures. Except instead of swimming, Lizzie eats or even bakes!

Annie Hartnett’s debut novel Rabbit Cake is a quirky, sweet, full-hearted exploration of grief and family, and it is on sale today, March 7th, 2017. Get it while the rabbit cakes are fresh from the oven and the raspberry blood is still warm - from Tin House books or your local indie bookstore.


Disclaimer: I received an ARC copy from Tin House's First to Read program in exchange for my honest opinion. ( )
  beckyrenner | Aug 3, 2023 |
I am going to be up front about a few things-

1. If you are a regularly reader of my reviews, you know I love the publishing company- Tin House. I have almost all of their fiction books and am a subscriber to their quarterly magazine.

2. I received this book for review from Tin House. I received it in exchange for an honest review. I normally don't post this in the beginning, but I wanted to be up front in stating this will have no influence on my review. I would have purchased this book at some point more than likely.

3. I really loved Rabbit Cake because like most Tin House books, one will think about it long after finishing the book and it will continue to open up more and more. Most Tin House books have several layers to them, which is why I continue to follow my first point.

Elvis is a twelve year old little girl who knows a lot of facts. She can spout them off in a heartbeat. Lizzie is her sister who has begun sleep walking and eating to the point where she has become a danger to herself and to others around her. Their father has begun putting on his wife's make up, doesn't quite know what to do with Lizzie and gives into her strange ideas- such as setting the world record for rabbit cakes, and is deeply grieving. All three are grieving the death of Elvis and Lizzie's mother who in a sleep walking incident drowned while sleep swimming.

The entire book is told from Elvis' perspective who is convinced something else happened to her mother. She thinks her mother may have had a disease which made her do this and is afraid Lizzie has the same problem. Elvis narrates her grieving journey, what she sees and hears, and seeks out answers the best she can even if she cannot fully understand it. She will find things out about her mother and father that may not be comfortable, yet she will push forward as she attempts to figure out what happened on that night..

Having Elvis as the narrator was an interesting choice by Hartnett as Elvis doesn't really understand the world or what she is seeing. She doesn't really understand grieving and thinks it can be completed in 18 months or so. She also doesn't understand sex or relationships and that will come into play a bit within the book.

The book itself deals with grieving, but also mental illness as Lizzie continues to go down a path where she gets worse and worse in her conditions. Her father is caught up in his own process, so much so that he continues to give in to Lizzie (or at least how Elvis sees it). Lizzie will eventually be institutionalized (first quarter of the book, so not a spoiler) which will set her off another path. The family will need each other to get through everything. This is a deep book and it walks down paths that are quite unexpected, but you are limited to Elvis' perspective.

This leads me to my only critique- the ending. I will not ruin the ending at all, but the book ties up too nicely for the rest of the book. It is a- everything becomes resolved ending, even though grief, especially a death like their mother's, almost cannot have a resolved ending. It did not take away from the book and fits the book, but I wish the ending was a bit messier.

In the midst of writing the review, I realized I forgot to mention one item. The book is very funny too. It is a great mix of humor and seriousness that will keep one thinking.

Overall, I loved this book. Elvis was a great narrator and has a unique voice. This is also Hartnett's first book and I look forward to what else she will write in the future. This was a great freshman offering. I gave this one 4 stars.

Here is your Amazon link- Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett ( )
  Nerdyrev1 | Nov 23, 2022 |
And over time, defined by how you carry on
And all of the torch songs you keep inside
And all of the songs that hang in the night
Even after you're gone ( )
  bluestraveler | Aug 15, 2022 |
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Twelve-year-old Elvis Babbitt has a head for the facts: she knows science proves yellow is the happiest color, she knows a healthy male giraffe weighs about 3,000 pounds, and she knows that the naked mole rat is the longest living rodent. She knows she should plan to grieve her mother, who has recently drowned while sleepwalking, for exactly eighteen months. But there are things Elvis doesn't yet know--like how to keep her sister Lizzie from poisoning herself while sleep-eating or why her father has started wearing her mother's silk bathrobe around the house. Elvis investigates the strange circumstances of her mother's death and finds comfort, if not answers, in the people (and animals) of Freedom, Alabama. As hilarious a storyteller as she is heartbreakingly honest, Elvis is a truly original voice in this exploration of grief, family, and the endurance of humor after loss.

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