Friday Friyay: 'The Rabbit Hutch' by Tess Gunty

Happy Friday! I'm almost entering my last week in the Netherlands which feels kind of bittersweet. I'm also in that phase of moving where there are still things to do but it's not the time for it yet. Like, I want to pack all my things but I still need clothes so I can't pack those yet. And I want to pack my books but then they'll just be in boxed on my floor instead of in the bookshelf so then it feels like I'm just creating mess. So hopefully in the next week, some of that will resolve itself. Most of the big things though, like letting the municipality know about my emigration etc. are done so that's good. I'm hoping I find a little peace and quiet this weekend to read though, even though it's also my birthday so who knows. I'm hoping to get into The Rabbit Hutch by Tess Gunty.

Welcome to The Rabbit Hutch.

An online obituary writer. A young mother with a secret. A woman waging a solo campaign against rodents. Separated by the thin walls of The Rabbit Hutch, a low-cost housing complex in the run-down Indiana town of Vacca Vale, these individual lives unfold.

But Blandine isn't like the other residents of her building. Ethereally beautiful and formidably intelligent, she spends her hours reading Dante and dreaming about becoming a female mystic.  

Until, that is, three sweltering days in July culminate in an act of violence that will change everything, and finally offer her a chance to escape. Savage and hilarious, The Rabbit Hutch is a piercing look at the power structures that shape us, and the tale of a young woman with irrepressible strength.   

Edit: I prepped this post on Thursday morning and since then I've started reading The Rabbit Hutch and wheeew, it certainly kicks off strong!

Book Beginnings is at home on Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. I'll also be joining the Book Blogger Hop, hosted by Billy over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

BB:

'On a hot night in Apartment C4, Blandine Watkins exits her body.' 1%

What a beginning! I love the immediacy of the present tense but also mysticism of it, which makes complete sense since, according to the blurb, Blandine wants to be a mystic. So exiting your body and maybe entering different realms is definitely one place to start. But I also have a suspicion this may turn out bad...

F56:

'Blandine studies the wooden beams on the ceiling, sucking in her cheeks, tipping her head back. There are too many lemons in this apartment - lemons on the kitchen counter, lemons in the ceramic bowl on the dining table, lemons in a glass jar on the bookshelf.' 56%

I mean, yes, that is too many lemons, waaaayy to many lemons. Lemons are great and absolutely have their place, but maybe not everywhere. I loved the description of her in the first sentence though since I also often suck my cheeks in when I'm considering something. 

BBH:

This week's question was suggested by Elizabeth from Silver's Reviews:

Have you taken a look at the website and app Litsy?

Not before I saw this question, but now I have! I am always looking for something to replace Goodreads because although I adore what it does, I'm not the biggest fan of some of its functionalities and its ownership by Amazon. But I also don't know if Litsy is what will do it for me. While Goodreads also very much has a social aspect, the books are very much central to it for me, if that makes sense. Litsy, from my look at it now, feels a little more like an actual social network so knowing myself I would be horrible at keeping up with it and it would just be another thing for me to feel guilty about neglecting. But maybe I've got it wrong, so I'm excited to see what everyone else thinks about it!

So that's it for me! What do you think of Litsy and The Rabbit Hutch?