Rabbit Cake

Annie Hartnett's debut, Rabbit Cake, is a quirky, original, and poignant story of 10 year-old Elvis Babbit as she tries to make sense of her mother's sudden death. Elvis's mother was a sleepwalker, and at the beginning of the novel, Elvis and her family are reeling from her death by drowning while sleep-swimming. Elvis's older sister is also a sleepwalker, though Lizzy is prone to potentially more violent and destructive acts in her sleep (and while awake). Elvis seeks solace and comfort in the animals she researches and gets to know through her time volunteering at the local zoo. As Elvis tries to unlock the mysterious circumstances of her mother's death and wrestles with her relationship with her volatile older sister, she learns tough lessons about love and loss.Hartnett's writing is sharp and humorous while also moving. She doesn't offer any easy solutions for Elvis and the people around her. The adults Elvis turns to to make sense of her loss are both imperfect and well-meaning. Elvis's observations of the animals she's so knowledgeable about are both metaphorical and fascinating.Though this isn't a YA book, I think it might also appeal to a YA audience. The short chapters help the book move quickly as Elvis makes her way through her 18 month "grieving chart." A confident and imaginative debut, I'm looking forward to Hartnett's next book.

This book takes a look at grief and some serious family dysfunction that was surely going on before two young girls and an out-of-sorts dad lost their mother/his wife to what appears to be a suicide but possibly an accident. Annie Hartnett’s RABBIT CAKE follows young Elvis as she tries to hold her family together, cover up for her older sister who has a severe case of sleepwalking, help her father who has taken to wearing her mother’s lipstick and walk around in her robe, all the while trying to find clues about how she died, after her body was found in the river, where she used to swim alone at night.Elvis is one sharp pre-teen who is just trying to grieve. She is light years ahead of the counselor whom she sees at school who can’t seem to pry herself away from her own issues enough to help Elvis and is a stickler for rules when it comes to the stages of grief.​This book finds humor where there is not usually anything funny. It is quirky, warm and heart-mending, with characters who are truly unique. Whether or not you have experienced loss, I highly recommend this lovely book. This is a girl who had a mother who created a celebration of everyday life. Elvis is trying to find meaning now that her mother is gone. She has many doors to open. Including the oven door to the most delightful rabbit cakes. Note: I just found that Williams-Sonoma has a rabbit cake pan and it’s on sale!

RABBIT CAKE is a stellar debut novel from Annie Hartnett. I love novels where I’m not only emotionally drawn into the story but also amazed at the creative details and colorful writing. This story hit it out of the park for me.I have a soft spot for unconventional narrators, and 12-year old Elvis Babbitt is a true gem. Elvis is smart, strong and very funny (sometimes unintentionally). Elvis is grieving the recent loss of her mother. She’s the youngest but also the most grounded of the Babbitt family members. I appreciated her love of science and determination to get to the cause of her mother’s death. Of course, in life we can’t always find the answers we seek.While their father flounders, Elvis’ older sister Lizzie deteriorates as she struggles with sleepwalking and destructive behavior. The story sparkles with truths about living with a loved one who has mental illness. It can make life unpredictable and painful at times, but it also makes you appreciate sweet moments and small triumphs all the more when they do finally arrive. (And why not celebrate by baking rabbit-shaped cakes?)Beautifully-written and affecting, this novel will be kept on my special shelf of favorite books.

Charming, but not overly sweet. Just a really great book. Annie Hartnett has a gift for voice Her young heroine Elvis is my new hero. I've read it twice already and shared with friends. I seem to own three copies already, thanks to a first advanced copy. Buy two, you'll immediately want to share a copy with your dearest friend but won't want to give your own copy up.

I've never read a book quite like this!I have a friend who is so delightful and dry in her humor. Elvis reminded me of her with her perspective of the happenings in her life and the way she expresses them. It seemed to me that comments would come out of left field and after they were within my grasp, I paused and studied them for awhile. You know how a puppy will tilt its head and look at you as if studying your intentions and words? Like they're not sure exactly what you are saying, but it requires tilting the head to knock it into place.How can someone process their life is such a way and then express it to hit home in such a profound and poignant way?I marvel at this story, the characters and the quirkiness of the happenings in each of the characters lives. Each character possesses a richness and authenticity, laced with a delicious dysfunction that makes all too much sense to the me ... the reader.This book is an escape for all who seek to be teleported out of their normal, mundane, chaotic, unsettling or dysfunctional life and wish to submerge themselves into a place and time that gives them permission to see life through another perspective.You'll give yourself permission to appreciate your own life because you'll realize that there is no such thing as "Normal" and perhaps you have a story of your own to tell that will be as delicious, epic and twisted as this one. It's all good, you know?

Reading is always helpful to improve my English language. However, as an eleven-year-old girl, the author seems knowing too many biological words and know them too well.

The reader gets totally engaged in The Babbit family. A story about love and loss and resiliency. I loved it!

A story that touches the heart in unexpected ways. An exploration of grief and love that will make you smile through tears.