Rabbit Cake

Rabbit Cake by Annie Hartnett is a humorous novel of literary fiction about grief and family. The book description from the publisher describes it best: “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.”

Elementary school-aged protagonist and narrator Elvis Babbitt has recently lost her mother, who drowned while sleepwalking one night. Elvis's counselor at school helps her through her grief while Elvis snags self-help books from her office to research grief and trauma herself. Her sister Lizzie also sleepwalks and sleep-eats and it causes the family trouble, so much so that she's sent to an insane asylum for a time, eventually bringing her kooky roommate home with her. The sister ultimately pours her grief into baking one thousand rabbit-shaped cakes to set a world record. Her father tackles his own grief while wearing the lipstick and the robe of his deceased wife, pouring his deep well of love into caring for a parrot named Ernest Hemingway, a reject from the local pet store. Even though this novel is about grief, it is filled with humor and lightness and love for this dysfunctional family who learn to come together in the wake of the matriarch's death.

I loved loved loved this novel! I loved Elvis as a narrator and her spunkiness, intelligence, empathy, wittiness, and love for her family. I loved how the family came together despite the large holes left in their hearts. I loved the family's pets too, characters in their own right, the family dog Boomer and parrot Ernest, both having quirky personalities all their own including the parrot's propensity to speak in the deceased matriarch's voice, something he learned when she used to visit the pet store where he lived for a time. In short, I loved this big-hearted novel. Don't let the fact that it's about grief scare you away. It is a lovely book that I didn't want to end.

I really enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this book 5 stars.