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Book: “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” by Nadine Sander-Green
Publishing Info: House of Anansi Press, April 2024
Where Did I Get This Book: I received an ARC from Zg Stories.
Where You Can Get This Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | Indiebound
Book Description: A woman’s coming-of-age through a toxic relationship, isolation, and betrayal―set against the stark landscape of the far north.
Millicent is a shy, 24-year-old reporter who moves to Whitehorse to work for a failing daily newspaper. With winter looming and the Yukon descending into darkness, Millicent begins a relationship with Pascal, an eccentric and charming middle-aged filmmaker who lives on a converted school bus in a Walmart parking lot. What begins as a romantic adventure soon turns toxic, and Millicent finds herself struggling not to lose herself and her voice.
Events come to a head at Thaw di Gras, a celebration in faraway Dawson City marking the return of light to the north. It’s here, in a frontier mining town filled with drunken tourists, eclectic locals, and sparkling burlesque dancers, that Millicent must choose between staying with Pascal or finally standing up to her abuser.
In the style of Ottessa Moshfegh’s honest exploration of dysfunctional relationships, and with the warmth and energy of Heather O’Neill, Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit illuminates what it’s like to be young, impulsive, and in love in one of the harshest environments in the world.
Review: Thank you to Zg Stories for sending me an ARC of this novel!
While I am usually a person who loves predictability and not so much spontaneity, one of the areas where I DO tend to divert from the norms is my reading. And while that isn’t shown as much on the blog, I found myself compelled to dip my toes outside of my usual genres when the book “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” by Nadine Sander-Green came across my path. I was wholly taken with not only the setting of a small town in The Yukon (far up North small towns are very near and dear to my heart, even if my frame of reference is more Minnesota and Wisconsin versus Canada), and it sounded like an interesting character study of a woman trying to find herself, and unfortunately being targeted and manipulated by a toxic older man. So while it MAYBE had some thriller potential due to the latter bit of that, I felt that even if it was ultimately not a thriller, I still wanted to give it a go. And I’m happy I did, because “Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” hit a nerve in a good way.
“Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” is a contemporary novel that follows Millicent, a twenty four year old woman who has uprooted her life to take a job at a small town newspaper in an isolated community in The Yukon called Whitehorse. Her only initial connection is her roommate Sophie, a friend from university whom she has drifted from, and her new job has left her with a serious case of imposter syndrome as she is at her heart a poet, not a journalist. The small town setting is both claustrophobic, but also striking and very grounded. I could imagine Whitehorse, I could almost see all the people, and the dark winter landscape as Millicent tries to adjust. I also got a full sense for the community as a whole and the very real issues that happen within the time and place, with references to relevant social issues in the Yukon in regards to politics and the First Nations people who are living there, and the ins and outs of a dying newspaper that Millicent works for. It’s a quieter novel, but I found it very engaging perhaps in part because of that. Millicent is a bit of a fish out of water, and her isolation, even from her supportive roommate and coworkers, makes it easy for her to be drawn to Pascal, a local eccentric who fancies himself and artist and is living a transient lifestyle in a bus like a mercurial bohemian. His eccentricity makes him stand out in this setting, which is so well drawn out by Sander-Greene that his appeal, at least on the surface, is wholly believable (and more on him in a bit).
Another thing I enjoyed about this book is how straight forward it is in terms of the plot and narrative. As we follow Millicent’s story, there are few bells and whistles, very little melodrama, no twists, and no big reveals to upend expectations of the plot. Instead we just have a very clear cut story about a young woman who is trying to find herself in a new environment that can feel quite isolating, and who becomes wrapped up with a manipulative and charismatic man in the hunt for connection. And this thread in the book was what stood out to me the most, this portrayal of a toxic relationship and how a smart young woman could find herself entangled within it. Pascal is absolutely a villain in this book, but his villainy is very well done in that it is very subtle and very easy to see why Millicent, who is yearning for connection and with an idealistic view of the world, could be sucked in by him. He’s charming, his life seems artistic, romantic, and interesting, and how many times have we heard of older men preferring the company of young women because of, at least in part, how much they can control them, and manipulating them to feel connected and genuine. Pascal is sinister as hell, but he never feels like an moustache twirling antagonist that is over the top with his malevolence, and if anything that makes him that much scarier.
“Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” was a gratifying shift from my usual genres, with a powerful new voice for contemporary and literary works. I will certainly be looking out for more works by Nadine Sander-Green in the future!
Rating 8: A compelling, quiet, and intense story about isolation, identity, and finding oneself in the face of abuse and hardship.
Reader’s Advisory:
“Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit” isn’t on any Goodreads lists as of now, but it would fit in on the Goodreads list “The Yukon”.
The Library Ladies 