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Rabbit Moon
A family drama set in Shanghai, where a fractured American family faces its complicated past
Four years after their bitter divorce, Claire and Aaron Litvak get a phone call no parent is prepared for: Their twenty-two-year-old daughter Lindsey, teaching English in China during a college gap year, has been critically injured in a hit-and-run accident. At a Shanghai hospital they wait at her bedside, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
The accident unearths a deeper fissure in the family: the shocking event that ended the Litvaks� marriage and turned Lindsey against them. Estranged from her parents, she has confided only in her younger sister, Grace, adopted as an infant from China. As Claire and Aaron struggle to get their bearings in bustling, cosmopolitan Shanghai, the newly prosperous “miracle city,� they face troubling questions about Lindsey’s life there, in which nothing is as it seems.
Four years after their bitter divorce, Claire and Aaron Litvak get a phone call no parent is prepared for: Their twenty-two-year-old daughter Lindsey, teaching English in China during a college gap year, has been critically injured in a hit-and-run accident. At a Shanghai hospital they wait at her bedside, hoping for the best and preparing for the worst.
The accident unearths a deeper fissure in the family: the shocking event that ended the Litvaks� marriage and turned Lindsey against them. Estranged from her parents, she has confided only in her younger sister, Grace, adopted as an infant from China. As Claire and Aaron struggle to get their bearings in bustling, cosmopolitan Shanghai, the newly prosperous “miracle city,� they face troubling questions about Lindsey’s life there, in which nothing is as it seems.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2025
254 people are currently reading
19.5k people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Haigh
28books1,088followersJennifer Haigh is an American novelist and short story writer. Her new novel MERCY STREET takes on the contentious issue of abortion rights, following the daily life of Claudia Birch, a counselor at an embattled women's clinic in Boston.
Her last novel, HEAT AND LIGHT, looks at a Pennsylvania town divided by the controversy over fracking, and was named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and NPR. Earlier books include the novel FAITH, about a beloved Boston priest accused of a molesting a child in his parish, and THE CONDITION, the story of a woman diagnosed in childhood with Turner's Syndrome.
Haigh's critically acclaimed debut novel MRS. KIMBLE won the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction. Her second novel, the New York Times bestseller BAKER TOWERS, won the PEN/L. L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her short story collection NEWS FROM HEAVEN won of the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction. A Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, she writes frequently for The New York Times Book Review. Her fiction has been published in eighteen languages.
Her last novel, HEAT AND LIGHT, looks at a Pennsylvania town divided by the controversy over fracking, and was named a Best Book of 2016 by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and NPR. Earlier books include the novel FAITH, about a beloved Boston priest accused of a molesting a child in his parish, and THE CONDITION, the story of a woman diagnosed in childhood with Turner's Syndrome.
Haigh's critically acclaimed debut novel MRS. KIMBLE won the PEN/Hemingway Award for first fiction. Her second novel, the New York Times bestseller BAKER TOWERS, won the PEN/L. L. Winship Award for outstanding book by a New England author. Her short story collection NEWS FROM HEAVEN won of the Massachusetts Book Award and the PEN New England Award in Fiction. A Guggenheim Foundation Fellow and a graduate of the Iowa Writer's Workshop, she writes frequently for The New York Times Book Review. Her fiction has been published in eighteen languages.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 305 reviews
April 10, 2025
A broken family. An unbreakable bond of sisterhood...
Claire and Aaron Litvak are divorced parents of two daughters - Lindsey, 22, their natural daughter, and Grace, 11, adopted as an infant from China. Despite their age gap, the sisters are loving and devoted to each other. The parents are divided, angry, and bitter towards one another. This family is fractured.
Claire and Aaron are notified that Lindsey is in critical condition at a Shanghai hospital from a hit-and-run accident. They arrive separately and wait contentiously by Lindsey's bedside with questions...
Rabbit Moon is memorable, with much to digest for a relatively short novel. It feels heavy, dark, and sad; it has the heaviness of the unknown, the darkness of secrets and lies, and the sadness of unspoken regrets.
Haigh's writing is beautiful, evocative, and addictive, and I didn't want to put this book down or for it to end. I instinctively knew I would love this even before I started reading. I do have one teeny niggle: I wish it were a little longer to accommodate more of Grace's voice and her innate joy. Sharing this could have lightened the heftiness of this heartbreaking story.
This was an immersion read; the audiobook is narrated by Katharine Chin (Lindsey) and Yu-Li Alice Shen (Grace), who recounts the story flawlessly and delivers the perfect first-person voice for Lindsey and Grace. The result is an enjoyable listening experience.
Rabbit Moon is the first book I've read by Jennifer Haigh, and it will be one of my favorite reads for 2025!
4.75�
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Audio, and Jennifer Haigh for the gifted DRC and ALC through NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
Claire and Aaron Litvak are divorced parents of two daughters - Lindsey, 22, their natural daughter, and Grace, 11, adopted as an infant from China. Despite their age gap, the sisters are loving and devoted to each other. The parents are divided, angry, and bitter towards one another. This family is fractured.
Claire and Aaron are notified that Lindsey is in critical condition at a Shanghai hospital from a hit-and-run accident. They arrive separately and wait contentiously by Lindsey's bedside with questions...
Rabbit Moon is memorable, with much to digest for a relatively short novel. It feels heavy, dark, and sad; it has the heaviness of the unknown, the darkness of secrets and lies, and the sadness of unspoken regrets.
Haigh's writing is beautiful, evocative, and addictive, and I didn't want to put this book down or for it to end. I instinctively knew I would love this even before I started reading. I do have one teeny niggle: I wish it were a little longer to accommodate more of Grace's voice and her innate joy. Sharing this could have lightened the heftiness of this heartbreaking story.
This was an immersion read; the audiobook is narrated by Katharine Chin (Lindsey) and Yu-Li Alice Shen (Grace), who recounts the story flawlessly and delivers the perfect first-person voice for Lindsey and Grace. The result is an enjoyable listening experience.
Rabbit Moon is the first book I've read by Jennifer Haigh, and it will be one of my favorite reads for 2025!
4.75�
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company, Hachette Audio, and Jennifer Haigh for the gifted DRC and ALC through NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.
May 2, 2025
A suspenseful family drama..
Lindsey Litvak, beautiful 22-yr old redhead from Boston lays comatose in a Shanghai hospital following a hit and run.
Lindsey was teaching English to students there, after quitting college.. drawn to China after her family adopted a sister, Grace, from there as an infant.
Lindsey’s divorced parents fly to Shanghai to sit vigil with Lindsey and try to find out what happened.
Lindsey had been estranged from her parents for a while and was living a life they were not aware of prior to the accident.
An engaging and emotional read.
Lindsey Litvak, beautiful 22-yr old redhead from Boston lays comatose in a Shanghai hospital following a hit and run.
Lindsey was teaching English to students there, after quitting college.. drawn to China after her family adopted a sister, Grace, from there as an infant.
Lindsey’s divorced parents fly to Shanghai to sit vigil with Lindsey and try to find out what happened.
Lindsey had been estranged from her parents for a while and was living a life they were not aware of prior to the accident.
An engaging and emotional read.
April 9, 2025
*Someone complained that this review contains spoilers. I disagree, but proceed with caution, I guess.*
Finished Reading
Pre-Read notes
I was offered a widget of this one. I liked the premise, so I grabbed it. The cover drew me in as well. I am reading and enjoying a few different stories about decolonization, an important theme that makes good stories.
Final Review
The little boy was a preexisting condition; Shen had made him with another woman without knowing there was a Lindsey in the world. But for him to have a second child with his wife would be an unspeakable betrayal, an anguish too terrible to bear. p113
Review summary and recommendations
Sun’s grandmother is dead now, his wife, his parents . He has no children or grandchildren. He is a human island, unconnected to any living person on Earth. p164
Reading Notes
Three things I loved:
1. Without his glasses, he looked younger and gentler, curiously undefended. It was more intimate, in a way, than seeing him naked. p112 One of the hardest things to write in fiction is vulnerability. Here and elsewhere, Haigh masterfully describes that subtle drive possessed by every creature--measuring the risk implicit in everything we to, to one degree or another.
2. This book builds to an incredibly tense and suspenseful second act, leveraging a timeline that is just experimental enough, insightful character development, and a compelling storyline about how our choices and actions can pigeonhole us into the tiny boxes in other people's minds.
3. She had never smoked a cigarette in her life. Meanwhile, Sun, who has smoked since age ten, is in perfect health. It’s a diabolical punishment, a fate worse than cancer, to have caused the death of the woman he loved. Thinking of it fills him with despair, which makes him want to smoke. Since her death, it is his only consolation. p163 This book is full of this wonderful, heartbreaking irony.
One thing I didn't love:
This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.
1. I don't usually go for oscillating timelines, but I find this captivating. One reason why it is successful is because the transitions from one section to another are clean and the storyline remains logical.
Rating: 🐇🐇🐇🐇 /5 rabbits
Recommend? yes
Finished: Mar 10 '25
Format: accessible digital arc, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
🙃 irony
👩🏻🤝👩� sister stories
👨👩👦� family drama
🪢 experimental form
Thank you to the author Jennifer Haigh, publishers Little, Brown, & Co., and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of RABBIT MOON. All views are mine.
---------------
Finished Reading
Pre-Read notes
I was offered a widget of this one. I liked the premise, so I grabbed it. The cover drew me in as well. I am reading and enjoying a few different stories about decolonization, an important theme that makes good stories.
Final Review
The little boy was a preexisting condition; Shen had made him with another woman without knowing there was a Lindsey in the world. But for him to have a second child with his wife would be an unspeakable betrayal, an anguish too terrible to bear. p113
Review summary and recommendations
Sun’s grandmother is dead now, his wife, his parents . He has no children or grandchildren. He is a human island, unconnected to any living person on Earth. p164
Reading Notes
Three things I loved:
1. Without his glasses, he looked younger and gentler, curiously undefended. It was more intimate, in a way, than seeing him naked. p112 One of the hardest things to write in fiction is vulnerability. Here and elsewhere, Haigh masterfully describes that subtle drive possessed by every creature--measuring the risk implicit in everything we to, to one degree or another.
2. This book builds to an incredibly tense and suspenseful second act, leveraging a timeline that is just experimental enough, insightful character development, and a compelling storyline about how our choices and actions can pigeonhole us into the tiny boxes in other people's minds.
3. She had never smoked a cigarette in her life. Meanwhile, Sun, who has smoked since age ten, is in perfect health. It’s a diabolical punishment, a fate worse than cancer, to have caused the death of the woman he loved. Thinking of it fills him with despair, which makes him want to smoke. Since her death, it is his only consolation. p163 This book is full of this wonderful, heartbreaking irony.
One thing I didn't love:
This section isn't only for criticisms. It's merely for items that I felt something for other than "love" or some interpretation thereof.
1. I don't usually go for oscillating timelines, but I find this captivating. One reason why it is successful is because the transitions from one section to another are clean and the storyline remains logical.
Rating: 🐇🐇🐇🐇 /5 rabbits
Recommend? yes
Finished: Mar 10 '25
Format: accessible digital arc, NetGalley
Read this book if you like:
🙃 irony
👩🏻🤝👩� sister stories
👨👩👦� family drama
🪢 experimental form
Thank you to the author Jennifer Haigh, publishers Little, Brown, & Co., and NetGalley for an accessible advance digital copy of RABBIT MOON. All views are mine.
---------------
November 22, 2024
ARC for review. To be published April 8, 2025.
A solid 3.4 stars for this one, so 3 stars.
Claire and Aaron Litvak were divorced four years before they got a phone call telling them their daughter Lindsey, who is teaching English in China during her gap year has been critically injured in a hit and run. The race to Shanghai to be with her.
While there they learn about Lindsey’s life in Shanghai, which is fraught and further explore the event that ended their marriage and left Lindsey estranged from them and she has confided only in her sister, Grace who was adopted from China as an infant. What is happening is Lindsey’s life?
Maybe I’m just jaded, but this book was so not shocking, and seemed a bit sterile. Grace was really the only character I liked, other than the wonderful friend, Johnny. The book’s brevity meant that readers don’t know any characters well. So, it was fine.
Edited to add: wow, surprised at the high ratings for this. I’m clearly jaded and no fun.
A solid 3.4 stars for this one, so 3 stars.
Claire and Aaron Litvak were divorced four years before they got a phone call telling them their daughter Lindsey, who is teaching English in China during her gap year has been critically injured in a hit and run. The race to Shanghai to be with her.
While there they learn about Lindsey’s life in Shanghai, which is fraught and further explore the event that ended their marriage and left Lindsey estranged from them and she has confided only in her sister, Grace who was adopted from China as an infant. What is happening is Lindsey’s life?
Maybe I’m just jaded, but this book was so not shocking, and seemed a bit sterile. Grace was really the only character I liked, other than the wonderful friend, Johnny. The book’s brevity meant that readers don’t know any characters well. So, it was fine.
Edited to add: wow, surprised at the high ratings for this. I’m clearly jaded and no fun.
April 28, 2025
[4.6 rounded up]
I came into the story, its suspenseful and well-paced build-up, expecting that unzippering release, then realizing the zipper is more of a loop, or a Kevin Bacon six-degree map of events. It’s a story of a dysfunctional family that wants to love and be loved. It starts with one main character, an American woman named Lindsey, who moved to Shanghai. Her sister, Grace, is Chinese, adopted from an orphanage here in Shanghai when she was a baby. If you asked ten different readers what the story was about, you might get ten different answers.
There’s the plot, which starts on page one when Lindsey is hit by a car. But is that the central focus? It goes on longer than usual past the denouement, extends quite far beyond the climax. It’s predominantly about the sisters and their divorced parents, but presented as an ensemble cast with other colorful characters dotting the landscape. The strain of family secrets and the weight of history—like the Cultural Revolution in China--illuminates the intersection of causal effect and random chance. In a world of many religions, I surrendered to Haigh’s more secular philosophy of life.
In lesser hands, this choice of narrative design would blow the whole work. But Haigh’s writing is so clean, confident, and concise that I was willing to go with her flow. Don’t expect a familiar wrap-up. Like life, there’s more than one perspective and story. We are all connected. I ached for this family.
I came into the story, its suspenseful and well-paced build-up, expecting that unzippering release, then realizing the zipper is more of a loop, or a Kevin Bacon six-degree map of events. It’s a story of a dysfunctional family that wants to love and be loved. It starts with one main character, an American woman named Lindsey, who moved to Shanghai. Her sister, Grace, is Chinese, adopted from an orphanage here in Shanghai when she was a baby. If you asked ten different readers what the story was about, you might get ten different answers.
There’s the plot, which starts on page one when Lindsey is hit by a car. But is that the central focus? It goes on longer than usual past the denouement, extends quite far beyond the climax. It’s predominantly about the sisters and their divorced parents, but presented as an ensemble cast with other colorful characters dotting the landscape. The strain of family secrets and the weight of history—like the Cultural Revolution in China--illuminates the intersection of causal effect and random chance. In a world of many religions, I surrendered to Haigh’s more secular philosophy of life.
In lesser hands, this choice of narrative design would blow the whole work. But Haigh’s writing is so clean, confident, and concise that I was willing to go with her flow. Don’t expect a familiar wrap-up. Like life, there’s more than one perspective and story. We are all connected. I ached for this family.
April 11, 2025
“For a soft man, modern China is a dangerous place.�
Rabbit Moon is the kind of novel literary fiction lovers dream about: lushly written, deeply character driven, layered with mystery, family ache, and the quiet sadness of growing up and growing apart.
Lindsay, 22, has dropped out of Wesleyan and landed in Shanghai, though her family back in Boston believes she’s teaching English in Beijing. One late night, walking alone down a quiet Shanghai street, she’s the victim of a hit-and-run accident that leaves her in a coma.
Her divorced parents, Claire and Aaron Litvak, rush to China, desperate to piece together what happened, and, maybe more importantly, why Lindsay was living this life they knew nothing about. Their story is shaped not only by Lindsay’s secrets but also by their shared history: twelve years ago, they adopted a Chinese daughter, Grace. It’s in this family, part Boston suburb, part Shanghai reckoning, that cultures collide and hard truths surface.
I was completely captivated by Haigh’s writing: intimate, sharp, and quietly devastating. The dual narratives of Lindsay and Claire unfold beautifully: Lindsay, fiercely independent and fluent in Mandarin, surviving in a foreign city; Claire, back home, navigating motherhood, adoption, and the complexities of raising a Chinese daughter in a white American family.
“The rescue mission. Claire Litvak, the white hero, had saved her Chinese daughter from untold horrors, whisked her away to an idyllic suburban childhood, music lessons and orthodontia, private school and Santa Claus. She’d given zero thought to all that Grace was losing: birth mother, motherland, mother tongue.�
Haigh structures the novel masterfully, moving between Lindsay’s life in Shanghai, the unraveling of Claire and Aaron’s relationship, and even the inner lives of minor characters who unexpectedly steal entire chapters. Everyone has a story here. Everyone carries a loss.
But maybe the most unforgettable character in Rabbit Moon is Shanghai itself. Haigh’s Shanghai is alive � its history, its grit, its constant movement, captured in sensory detail so vivid I felt like I was back there, walking the same streets, inhaling the same layered smells of a building past its prime.
“A solo dancer has joined the group, a stooped widower in a red ascot, his hair slicked back with some fragrant pomade. The widower dances grandly, with great sweeping movements, arms outstretched to embrace a woman who is no longer there.�
Even in its brevity, Rabbit Moon feels expansive. It’s a novel about family and identity, about being lost and found, in cities, in languages, in relationships, in ourselves.
For readers who love complicated families, unforgettable cities, richly drawn characters, and stories that leave you both wrecked and grateful, this book is not to be missed.
Rabbit Moon is the kind of novel literary fiction lovers dream about: lushly written, deeply character driven, layered with mystery, family ache, and the quiet sadness of growing up and growing apart.
Lindsay, 22, has dropped out of Wesleyan and landed in Shanghai, though her family back in Boston believes she’s teaching English in Beijing. One late night, walking alone down a quiet Shanghai street, she’s the victim of a hit-and-run accident that leaves her in a coma.
Her divorced parents, Claire and Aaron Litvak, rush to China, desperate to piece together what happened, and, maybe more importantly, why Lindsay was living this life they knew nothing about. Their story is shaped not only by Lindsay’s secrets but also by their shared history: twelve years ago, they adopted a Chinese daughter, Grace. It’s in this family, part Boston suburb, part Shanghai reckoning, that cultures collide and hard truths surface.
I was completely captivated by Haigh’s writing: intimate, sharp, and quietly devastating. The dual narratives of Lindsay and Claire unfold beautifully: Lindsay, fiercely independent and fluent in Mandarin, surviving in a foreign city; Claire, back home, navigating motherhood, adoption, and the complexities of raising a Chinese daughter in a white American family.
“The rescue mission. Claire Litvak, the white hero, had saved her Chinese daughter from untold horrors, whisked her away to an idyllic suburban childhood, music lessons and orthodontia, private school and Santa Claus. She’d given zero thought to all that Grace was losing: birth mother, motherland, mother tongue.�
Haigh structures the novel masterfully, moving between Lindsay’s life in Shanghai, the unraveling of Claire and Aaron’s relationship, and even the inner lives of minor characters who unexpectedly steal entire chapters. Everyone has a story here. Everyone carries a loss.
But maybe the most unforgettable character in Rabbit Moon is Shanghai itself. Haigh’s Shanghai is alive � its history, its grit, its constant movement, captured in sensory detail so vivid I felt like I was back there, walking the same streets, inhaling the same layered smells of a building past its prime.
“A solo dancer has joined the group, a stooped widower in a red ascot, his hair slicked back with some fragrant pomade. The widower dances grandly, with great sweeping movements, arms outstretched to embrace a woman who is no longer there.�
Even in its brevity, Rabbit Moon feels expansive. It’s a novel about family and identity, about being lost and found, in cities, in languages, in relationships, in ourselves.
For readers who love complicated families, unforgettable cities, richly drawn characters, and stories that leave you both wrecked and grateful, this book is not to be missed.
March 27, 2025
This is one of those rare immersive novels that delivers more than it promises. Beginning with a hit-and-run that spreads its effect on everyone connected to the victim, it covers not only family dynamics but individual identity, intellectual curiosity regarding cultural commonality as well as difference. Everyone associated with Lindsay thought they really knew her, but in Haigh's deft handling, the reader is the only one who knows the entire story. She is adept at creating characterizations for everyone even those who only had tangential contact, including her landlord, but most notably her sister who was closest to her. The final section, as narrated by that sister, covers even wider spectrums of influence, holding interest until the final page is turned. Highly recommended.
March 17, 2025
I listened to the audio version of this book which was narrated by Katherine Chin (Lindsay) and Yu-Li Alice Shen (Grace). The narration was excellent and movingly read by both women.
The main part of the novel is Lindsay's story which starts with an horrific accident which leaves Lindsay in a coma. We then follow what led to her ending up in hospital, which us a catalogue of events that I felt angry and sad about. Lindsay is a natural adventurer and after her parents adopt a younger daughter from China, Lindsay learns the language and then travels to the country ostensibly to teach English with her boyfriend.
Her story follows one difficulty after another as she finds herself prey to older men who find her beauty mesmerising. Lindsay is either unwilling or unable to see these men for the predators they are, believing them to love her.
During a lot of Lindsay's story I felt quite irritated by her poor decision making but then I am much older than the character and more jaded by life. Who is to say that any of us would make the same decisions in the same circumstances.
I had this book down as a solid three but then Grace, the adopted sister, takes up the story and her experiences added so much to Lindsay's story. It felt a much more believable account and I had to check a couple of times that this was a work of fiction. This part of the novel added so much more to the main body.
It is a sad story with some difficult issues being tackled - adoption, child abuse, sexual violence and death. It is worth the journey.
Recommended.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for the audio advance review copy.
The main part of the novel is Lindsay's story which starts with an horrific accident which leaves Lindsay in a coma. We then follow what led to her ending up in hospital, which us a catalogue of events that I felt angry and sad about. Lindsay is a natural adventurer and after her parents adopt a younger daughter from China, Lindsay learns the language and then travels to the country ostensibly to teach English with her boyfriend.
Her story follows one difficulty after another as she finds herself prey to older men who find her beauty mesmerising. Lindsay is either unwilling or unable to see these men for the predators they are, believing them to love her.
During a lot of Lindsay's story I felt quite irritated by her poor decision making but then I am much older than the character and more jaded by life. Who is to say that any of us would make the same decisions in the same circumstances.
I had this book down as a solid three but then Grace, the adopted sister, takes up the story and her experiences added so much to Lindsay's story. It felt a much more believable account and I had to check a couple of times that this was a work of fiction. This part of the novel added so much more to the main body.
It is a sad story with some difficult issues being tackled - adoption, child abuse, sexual violence and death. It is worth the journey.
Recommended.
Thankyou to Netgalley and Hachette Audio for the audio advance review copy.
May 4, 2025
3.75 stars The premise of this book is quite good and the writing superb. It is a historical family saga where parts tug at your heartstrings. It is well written and explores several important themes such as belonging, infidelity, and sexual predators of minors (not graphic). This would have been rated higher, but the characters were presented in such a way that I didn't feel emotionally attached to them.
October 13, 2024
I loved this novel. It has everything I want in a book - drama, great characterization, compelling narrative, and a riveting plot.
Lindsey Litvak, who her parents think is in Beijing China, teaching English as a Second Language, is actually in Shanghai. When Lindsey gets hit by a hit-and-run driver in the middle of the night, her life hangs by a thread in a Chinese hospital. She is in a coma, kept alive by tubes and force of will, Her divorced parents, Claire and Aaron, puzzled about Lindsey being in Shanghai, fly there immediately to be with their injured daughter. They have no idea what she is doing in Shanghai or why and when she left Beijing.
Grace is Lindsey's younger adopted sister with whom she's always been very close. Ethnically Chinese, Grace was adopted in China and has been raised in the United States by the Litvak family since infancy. She and Lindsey usually text regularly and, when Lindsey no longer answers Grace's texts, she becomes worried. Grace is in a Quaker sleep-away camp and is left in the dark about the severity of Lindsay's accident.
Lindsey is not teaching English. In fact, she is doing nothing like that. She is involved in something that she has not told her parents about because it is shady. She has one good friend, a gay hair stylist, and he does his best to avoid Lindsey's parents when they arrive in Shanghai.
I found this novel almost impossible to set down. Grace's denouement moved me to tears. I highly recommend Rabbit Moon to anyone who loves compelling literary fiction. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for granting me early access to Ms. Haigh's wonderful novel.
Lindsey Litvak, who her parents think is in Beijing China, teaching English as a Second Language, is actually in Shanghai. When Lindsey gets hit by a hit-and-run driver in the middle of the night, her life hangs by a thread in a Chinese hospital. She is in a coma, kept alive by tubes and force of will, Her divorced parents, Claire and Aaron, puzzled about Lindsey being in Shanghai, fly there immediately to be with their injured daughter. They have no idea what she is doing in Shanghai or why and when she left Beijing.
Grace is Lindsey's younger adopted sister with whom she's always been very close. Ethnically Chinese, Grace was adopted in China and has been raised in the United States by the Litvak family since infancy. She and Lindsey usually text regularly and, when Lindsey no longer answers Grace's texts, she becomes worried. Grace is in a Quaker sleep-away camp and is left in the dark about the severity of Lindsay's accident.
Lindsey is not teaching English. In fact, she is doing nothing like that. She is involved in something that she has not told her parents about because it is shady. She has one good friend, a gay hair stylist, and he does his best to avoid Lindsey's parents when they arrive in Shanghai.
I found this novel almost impossible to set down. Grace's denouement moved me to tears. I highly recommend Rabbit Moon to anyone who loves compelling literary fiction. Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for granting me early access to Ms. Haigh's wonderful novel.
January 10, 2025
“We live at the intersection of causality and chance.� � from Rabbit Moon
“Chance is a word devoid of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.� � Voltaire (used as epigram to the novel)
“It could happen anywhere,� Rabbit Moon begins, “but it happens in Shanghai, miracle city of modern China, on a Sunday morning just before dawn.� The street is silent. The surrounding buildings are “fantastically shaped � a perfume bottle, a hypodermic needle� the streetlamp wear Mickey Mouse ears.�
An attractive young red-haired woman stands at a street corner at night, listening to music through earbuds, tapping a message to her little sister on her phone: “Disaster night! Kill me now.� Her back to the street, distracted, she doesn’t see the car racing towards her, driven by an intoxicated nineteen year old. The awful impact throws her almost nine feet. The car speeds off, the driver oblivious to what he just did. Moments later, a street sweeper comes upon the scene, calls the police, slips the woman’s phone into his pocket, and leaves.
A tragedy: being in the wrong place, wrong time. But as Voltaire observed, “Nothing can exist without cause.� Who is this young woman? What sequence of events, what string of choices made by her and others, brought her to this particular corner at this particular hour?
Her name is Lindsey Litvak. She was born and raised in well-to-do Newton, Massachusetts. A good student. More than just attractive. “Fatally, ruinously beautiful, the kind of beauty that makes a girl a target.� (That’s what her mother believes.) She attended college for a while but wanted a break. Or needed one. So she and her boyfriend went to China to teach English. It didn’t work out so she left. As far as her family knows at the time of the accident, Lindsey’s still in China. But there are many secrets she’s kept from her family, most notably how she is supporting herself in the "miracle city."
Lindsey’s parents, Aaron and Claire, are no longer married. When they are notified of their daughter’s situation they travel � separately � to Shanghai. It is the first time they’ve been together since the divorce. Their forced interaction brings up a lot of anger and grievance. Claire, for example: “Childbirth had wrecked her,� she thinks, “not the labor itself but its aftermath. For a year she lived in a state of mental paralysis, a sadness so crippling that taking a shower felt like work.� Her marriage too was a weight too heavy to be borne. It made her “a passenger in her own life.� Her husband was cold, self-absorbed. “If Lindsey had burst into flame at the dinner table, he might not have noticed.�
As for Aaron, his resentment also takes an incendiary shape: “When disaster strikes,� he thinks, “Claire can always be counted on to lose her shit, her anguish eclipsing the original crisis in its demands for attention and care. If the house burst into flames, Claire’s distress would demand the firefighters� full attention. It would be unforgivable, an act of monstrous insensitivity, to put out the fire first.� He should have known better, should have seen the signs earlier. "He spent twenty years of his life trying to make her happy, but in the end it couldn't be done. Aaron understands this on a cellular level, having been raised by such a woman."
Lindsey’s young sister, eleven year old Grace, is the one person in her family with whom Lindsey feels completely and lovingly connected. So much so that she sends texts to her everyday from the other side of the world. Grace was adopted as a baby from China. In fact, Lindsey accompanied her mother, an act she comes to bitterly regret ("Claire Litvak, the white her," she thinks.) When we meet Grace she is miserable at a “spartan� summer camp in New Hampshire where there is a heat wave but the cabins have no air conditioning. And the campers have had their phones taken away because one of them was discovered to be sexting.
“Rabbit Moon� traces the pasts and interactions of this damaged group of individuals � and a handful of others, among them a young man named Johnny Du whom Lindsey befriends in Shanghai. At family get-togethers he is the only unmarried person. He’s a hairstylist and he’s gay. He fabricates a fake girlfriend, a fake job: “an underpaid diaosi who sells mobile phone contracts, a job of such low status that no one would lie about doing it. His story thus has the ring of truth.� A difficult set of lies to maintain over time, to be sure, but in his family, “truth is selective.�
Haigh jumps back and forth across time to reveal who these people are (at the “cellular� level). Lindsey as a child and a young woman, seeking things her parents don’t � or can’t � give, and then looking for them elsewhere. Thinking again and again about how her “mother’s love was a boulder on her back.� Claire, feeding her anger at all the things she never did, the woman she never became. In Shanghai she will glance at her ex-husband and think, “What an asshole I married. The realization brings her no satisfaction, no pleasure. If she married this asshole, what does that make her?� She despises Aaron for his “incapacity for wonder,� yet when she comes across a man doing water calligraphy on a sidewalk in Shanghai she is repelled: The water evaporates quickly in the summer heat. By the time the man finishes drawing a character, the previous one has already begun to disappear. To Claire this is unthinkable. In her mind, every word she’s ever written is precious—each sentence produced under a cloud of anxiety, the lurking dread that it will be her last.
About the title: The myth of a Rabbit Moon is found in a great many cultures around the world. (If you Google the phrase you’ll see photos showing how certain times of the lunar cycle shadows on the moon take on a shape suggestive of a rabbit.) Here Haigh follows Asian tradition and ties it to a the Mid-Autumn Festival: …because holidays must, it comes with a story. Long ago, on the night of the full moon, four animals encountered a starving man, never suspecting that he was the prince Śakra in disguise. When the man begged for something to eat, the monkey gave him fruit; the otter, fish. The jackal offered a lizard and a pot of milk curd. Having nothing else to give, the rabbit sacrificed its own body, leaping into a fire the man had built. Moved by the rabbit’s great sacrifice, the prince drew its outline on the face of the moon. How is the legend is tied to the book? Something to ponder. Along with another significant image that recurs the Rabbit Moon: the Red Thread (sometimes called the Red Thread of Destiny).
Jennifer Haigh seems to get better and better with each book. I found “Rabbit Moon� captivating in every respect. The characters are vivid, fully realized � sympathetic in some respects, repugnant in others. In other words, human. The ways in which they think of each other and themselves feel real and just as complicated and messy as life. The story honestly engages both heart and mind. A very solid 5.
My thanks to Little, Brown and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
“Chance is a word devoid of sense; nothing can exist without a cause.� � Voltaire (used as epigram to the novel)
“It could happen anywhere,� Rabbit Moon begins, “but it happens in Shanghai, miracle city of modern China, on a Sunday morning just before dawn.� The street is silent. The surrounding buildings are “fantastically shaped � a perfume bottle, a hypodermic needle� the streetlamp wear Mickey Mouse ears.�
An attractive young red-haired woman stands at a street corner at night, listening to music through earbuds, tapping a message to her little sister on her phone: “Disaster night! Kill me now.� Her back to the street, distracted, she doesn’t see the car racing towards her, driven by an intoxicated nineteen year old. The awful impact throws her almost nine feet. The car speeds off, the driver oblivious to what he just did. Moments later, a street sweeper comes upon the scene, calls the police, slips the woman’s phone into his pocket, and leaves.
A tragedy: being in the wrong place, wrong time. But as Voltaire observed, “Nothing can exist without cause.� Who is this young woman? What sequence of events, what string of choices made by her and others, brought her to this particular corner at this particular hour?
Her name is Lindsey Litvak. She was born and raised in well-to-do Newton, Massachusetts. A good student. More than just attractive. “Fatally, ruinously beautiful, the kind of beauty that makes a girl a target.� (That’s what her mother believes.) She attended college for a while but wanted a break. Or needed one. So she and her boyfriend went to China to teach English. It didn’t work out so she left. As far as her family knows at the time of the accident, Lindsey’s still in China. But there are many secrets she’s kept from her family, most notably how she is supporting herself in the "miracle city."
Lindsey’s parents, Aaron and Claire, are no longer married. When they are notified of their daughter’s situation they travel � separately � to Shanghai. It is the first time they’ve been together since the divorce. Their forced interaction brings up a lot of anger and grievance. Claire, for example: “Childbirth had wrecked her,� she thinks, “not the labor itself but its aftermath. For a year she lived in a state of mental paralysis, a sadness so crippling that taking a shower felt like work.� Her marriage too was a weight too heavy to be borne. It made her “a passenger in her own life.� Her husband was cold, self-absorbed. “If Lindsey had burst into flame at the dinner table, he might not have noticed.�
As for Aaron, his resentment also takes an incendiary shape: “When disaster strikes,� he thinks, “Claire can always be counted on to lose her shit, her anguish eclipsing the original crisis in its demands for attention and care. If the house burst into flames, Claire’s distress would demand the firefighters� full attention. It would be unforgivable, an act of monstrous insensitivity, to put out the fire first.� He should have known better, should have seen the signs earlier. "He spent twenty years of his life trying to make her happy, but in the end it couldn't be done. Aaron understands this on a cellular level, having been raised by such a woman."
Lindsey’s young sister, eleven year old Grace, is the one person in her family with whom Lindsey feels completely and lovingly connected. So much so that she sends texts to her everyday from the other side of the world. Grace was adopted as a baby from China. In fact, Lindsey accompanied her mother, an act she comes to bitterly regret ("Claire Litvak, the white her," she thinks.) When we meet Grace she is miserable at a “spartan� summer camp in New Hampshire where there is a heat wave but the cabins have no air conditioning. And the campers have had their phones taken away because one of them was discovered to be sexting.
“Rabbit Moon� traces the pasts and interactions of this damaged group of individuals � and a handful of others, among them a young man named Johnny Du whom Lindsey befriends in Shanghai. At family get-togethers he is the only unmarried person. He’s a hairstylist and he’s gay. He fabricates a fake girlfriend, a fake job: “an underpaid diaosi who sells mobile phone contracts, a job of such low status that no one would lie about doing it. His story thus has the ring of truth.� A difficult set of lies to maintain over time, to be sure, but in his family, “truth is selective.�
Haigh jumps back and forth across time to reveal who these people are (at the “cellular� level). Lindsey as a child and a young woman, seeking things her parents don’t � or can’t � give, and then looking for them elsewhere. Thinking again and again about how her “mother’s love was a boulder on her back.� Claire, feeding her anger at all the things she never did, the woman she never became. In Shanghai she will glance at her ex-husband and think, “What an asshole I married. The realization brings her no satisfaction, no pleasure. If she married this asshole, what does that make her?� She despises Aaron for his “incapacity for wonder,� yet when she comes across a man doing water calligraphy on a sidewalk in Shanghai she is repelled: The water evaporates quickly in the summer heat. By the time the man finishes drawing a character, the previous one has already begun to disappear. To Claire this is unthinkable. In her mind, every word she’s ever written is precious—each sentence produced under a cloud of anxiety, the lurking dread that it will be her last.
About the title: The myth of a Rabbit Moon is found in a great many cultures around the world. (If you Google the phrase you’ll see photos showing how certain times of the lunar cycle shadows on the moon take on a shape suggestive of a rabbit.) Here Haigh follows Asian tradition and ties it to a the Mid-Autumn Festival: …because holidays must, it comes with a story. Long ago, on the night of the full moon, four animals encountered a starving man, never suspecting that he was the prince Śakra in disguise. When the man begged for something to eat, the monkey gave him fruit; the otter, fish. The jackal offered a lizard and a pot of milk curd. Having nothing else to give, the rabbit sacrificed its own body, leaping into a fire the man had built. Moved by the rabbit’s great sacrifice, the prince drew its outline on the face of the moon. How is the legend is tied to the book? Something to ponder. Along with another significant image that recurs the Rabbit Moon: the Red Thread (sometimes called the Red Thread of Destiny).
Jennifer Haigh seems to get better and better with each book. I found “Rabbit Moon� captivating in every respect. The characters are vivid, fully realized � sympathetic in some respects, repugnant in others. In other words, human. The ways in which they think of each other and themselves feel real and just as complicated and messy as life. The story honestly engages both heart and mind. A very solid 5.
My thanks to Little, Brown and Edelweis+ for providing a digital ARC in return for an honest review.
April 5, 2025
Welcome to my 6th FIVE ⭐️ read!
This novel will break your heart. ♥️ the writing is stellar, and credible.
This book transports you to Shanghai, China; the tall buildings, the hoards of people that make you suffocate in the haze, and taste the colourful bowls of noodles.
Lindsey’s a young American girl, who is walking alone in the middle of the night, when she is gravely injured after a car hits her.
Her parents travel to China to visit her in the hospital. They think she lives in Beijing and not Shanghai. They think she works as an English teacher, they think she has healed from a traumatic love affair�.they truly have no idea about anything is her life.
Ironically, Lindsey’s young sister, Grace, was adopted from China and they have a very touching bond. A bond ,most sisters dream of having. This is the part of the story where the bond pushes Grace in later years, to find more out about her sister’s secret life. “China has more than a billion people, and only four thousand surnames.�
I cannot write more without giving everything away. Estrangement is the main theme of this novel.
Moving, heartbreaking and yet it comes to a poignant conclusion. This book will stay with me for a very long time.
“We live at the intersection of casualty and chance.�
Jennifer Haigh has always been a much-loved author on my radar, and this book just confirmed how much I appreciate her craft.
This novel will break your heart. ♥️ the writing is stellar, and credible.
This book transports you to Shanghai, China; the tall buildings, the hoards of people that make you suffocate in the haze, and taste the colourful bowls of noodles.
Lindsey’s a young American girl, who is walking alone in the middle of the night, when she is gravely injured after a car hits her.
Her parents travel to China to visit her in the hospital. They think she lives in Beijing and not Shanghai. They think she works as an English teacher, they think she has healed from a traumatic love affair�.they truly have no idea about anything is her life.
Ironically, Lindsey’s young sister, Grace, was adopted from China and they have a very touching bond. A bond ,most sisters dream of having. This is the part of the story where the bond pushes Grace in later years, to find more out about her sister’s secret life. “China has more than a billion people, and only four thousand surnames.�
I cannot write more without giving everything away. Estrangement is the main theme of this novel.
Moving, heartbreaking and yet it comes to a poignant conclusion. This book will stay with me for a very long time.
“We live at the intersection of casualty and chance.�
Jennifer Haigh has always been a much-loved author on my radar, and this book just confirmed how much I appreciate her craft.
December 3, 2024
We live at the intersection of causality and chance. from Rabbit Moon by Jennifer Haigh
A compelling family drama, Rabbit Moon‘s authenticity and characters made it a page turner.
The story subtly touches on so many issues: postpartum depression, the morality of foreign adoption, sexual abuse of a minor, how a crisis spurs divorce, the love between sisters, a woman giving up her dream to be a mother, being Asian in white America. And, we learn about Modern China, “dangerous, polluted, crowded, expensive.�
The book opens with a young American women standing on a Shanghai street at night when a drunk driver side swipes her. A passerby steals her cell phone, but does not alert the authorities.
Her parents arrive in China separately to stand vigil, their oldest daughter in a comma. They believed Lindsey was in Beijing, teaching English, on a sabbatical from college. Why was she in Shanghai–why on the street at night wearing a dress and heels which she never wore before–why did her apartment hold no clues to her life? And what was the Chinese character tattooed on her arm?
Meanwhile, Lindsey’s beloved little sister is at camp, waiting for the message from her sister that never comes. Grace has been adopted from China when Lindsey was thirteen. Her big sister was the first person she knew loved her.
Lindsey’s back story will break your heart, a story that Grace, decades in the future, finally discovers. Grace is set free by telling the truth of what happened to her sister.
Although we may wish for justice for Lindsey, there is satisfaction in the ending, the realization that love shared is eternal.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
A compelling family drama, Rabbit Moon‘s authenticity and characters made it a page turner.
The story subtly touches on so many issues: postpartum depression, the morality of foreign adoption, sexual abuse of a minor, how a crisis spurs divorce, the love between sisters, a woman giving up her dream to be a mother, being Asian in white America. And, we learn about Modern China, “dangerous, polluted, crowded, expensive.�
The book opens with a young American women standing on a Shanghai street at night when a drunk driver side swipes her. A passerby steals her cell phone, but does not alert the authorities.
Her parents arrive in China separately to stand vigil, their oldest daughter in a comma. They believed Lindsey was in Beijing, teaching English, on a sabbatical from college. Why was she in Shanghai–why on the street at night wearing a dress and heels which she never wore before–why did her apartment hold no clues to her life? And what was the Chinese character tattooed on her arm?
Meanwhile, Lindsey’s beloved little sister is at camp, waiting for the message from her sister that never comes. Grace has been adopted from China when Lindsey was thirteen. Her big sister was the first person she knew loved her.
Lindsey’s back story will break your heart, a story that Grace, decades in the future, finally discovers. Grace is set free by telling the truth of what happened to her sister.
Although we may wish for justice for Lindsey, there is satisfaction in the ending, the realization that love shared is eternal.
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
October 20, 2024
As a Chinese adoptee, I have immensely complicated thoughts on this novel.
"The memory has lingered with me, for a compelling reason: It's the first time I can remember reacting as a Chinese person rather than as a white person."
"We live at the intersection of causality and chance."
TW: this book contains descriptions of sexual abuse of a minor
I wanted to read this because this book centers around a Chinese adoptee, but I was incredibly unprepared for the emotions this brought up. For starters, most of the book is not told from Grace's perspective, the adopted Chinese daughter of two white parents from Boston. This book begins when Grace's adoptive sister, Lindsey, is hit by a car in the middle of the night while living in Shanghai. After the accident, Lindsey becomes comatose and the reader is taught about Lindsey and Grace's lives through the perspectives of their parents, Claire and Aaron, and Lindsey's closest friend in Shanghai, Johnny Du. It is only towards the end of this book that we hear the truth of Lindsey's year abroad and Grace's discovery of everything her big sister hid from her as well as the culture she was born into, yet always felt apart from.
I know my anger towards parts of this story stem from my own personal experience, but it definitely made it hard to give this an unbiased rating. I think Haigh's writing is powerful and wonderfully plotted for the most intense emotional reaction. In just two-hundred pages, Haigh absolutely ripped me apart. I don't see how anyone could read this novel, especially a parent or a sibling, and not feel just a little bit broken by it. For that, I am giving this five full stars.
But if you want my opinion as a Chinese adoptee, and I think this may be especially helpful for others like me looking for stories that reflect our own, I am left with so much anger after finishing this. There is a moment towards the end of this book where Grace asks someone to identify a Chinese character for her because she can't read the language herself. Lindsey had it tattooed on her arm while living in Shanghai so when Grace shares a photo of the tattoo to someone who can read it, they think it's a joke that Grace is unable to identify her own name in her own mother-tongue.
I could go on for hours about my experiences attempting to discover my own culture that ended in feeling even more distant than I was before. How growing up as a transracial adoptee with white parents tricked me into believing I was no different than the fifth generation Italian American sitting next me. For the integrity of this review, I won't, but fair warning to other adoptees: be sure you are ready to read this book.
Big thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for giving me access to this digital review copy.
"The memory has lingered with me, for a compelling reason: It's the first time I can remember reacting as a Chinese person rather than as a white person."
"We live at the intersection of causality and chance."
TW: this book contains descriptions of sexual abuse of a minor
I wanted to read this because this book centers around a Chinese adoptee, but I was incredibly unprepared for the emotions this brought up. For starters, most of the book is not told from Grace's perspective, the adopted Chinese daughter of two white parents from Boston. This book begins when Grace's adoptive sister, Lindsey, is hit by a car in the middle of the night while living in Shanghai. After the accident, Lindsey becomes comatose and the reader is taught about Lindsey and Grace's lives through the perspectives of their parents, Claire and Aaron, and Lindsey's closest friend in Shanghai, Johnny Du. It is only towards the end of this book that we hear the truth of Lindsey's year abroad and Grace's discovery of everything her big sister hid from her as well as the culture she was born into, yet always felt apart from.
I know my anger towards parts of this story stem from my own personal experience, but it definitely made it hard to give this an unbiased rating. I think Haigh's writing is powerful and wonderfully plotted for the most intense emotional reaction. In just two-hundred pages, Haigh absolutely ripped me apart. I don't see how anyone could read this novel, especially a parent or a sibling, and not feel just a little bit broken by it. For that, I am giving this five full stars.
But if you want my opinion as a Chinese adoptee, and I think this may be especially helpful for others like me looking for stories that reflect our own, I am left with so much anger after finishing this. There is a moment towards the end of this book where Grace asks someone to identify a Chinese character for her because she can't read the language herself. Lindsey had it tattooed on her arm while living in Shanghai so when Grace shares a photo of the tattoo to someone who can read it, they think it's a joke that Grace is unable to identify her own name in her own mother-tongue.
I could go on for hours about my experiences attempting to discover my own culture that ended in feeling even more distant than I was before. How growing up as a transracial adoptee with white parents tricked me into believing I was no different than the fifth generation Italian American sitting next me. For the integrity of this review, I won't, but fair warning to other adoptees: be sure you are ready to read this book.
Big thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for giving me access to this digital review copy.
February 7, 2025
I had high hopes for this but no less than 15 pages in a character makes an islamophobic comment in their internal monologue (i.e. not the kind of thing that will ever be addressed again/condemned). So� yea. 1 star and DNF for me.
May 3, 2025
4.5. This is one of those books that’s like a delicate subtle little gem. It feels like a novella or an extended short story. Themes include the elusiveness, changeability, or unpredictability of belonging and connection and how difficult it is for humans to truly know one another. In its depiction of the impacts of loss as well as of sexual grooming and trafficking, it is a wistful and sad book, but it also shows how humans endeavor to persevere through disappointment, change, and even tragedy. The vivid Shanghai setting is unique and fits the story well, especially through the different characters� perceptions of the city.
March 31, 2025
firstly, thank you to the publisher for an arc and an alc!
this was a sad read about a broken american family facing their complicated past after the eldest daughter dies in a hit and run in china, but i really didn’t feel connected to any members of the family, or the supporting cast.
as for the audio, i loved that there were two narrators, and both did a fantastic job!
this was a sad read about a broken american family facing their complicated past after the eldest daughter dies in a hit and run in china, but i really didn’t feel connected to any members of the family, or the supporting cast.
as for the audio, i loved that there were two narrators, and both did a fantastic job!
April 1, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of
Rabbit Moon.
** Minor what's-the-point-of-this? spoilers ahead **
When their daughter's tragic accident in Shanghai brings two divorced parents together, the former couple is forced to come to terms about their child's life and the events that culminate at their daughter's bedside.
I liked the descriptions of Shanghai but I didn't understand the point of the story.
Why should we care about the Litvaks?
The parents are deeply unlikable and spend the better part of their time in Shanghai bemoaning the other person's flaws and eccentricities.
Why did these people get married at all?
Lindsey is young, beautiful, impressionable, and has deeply-rooted Freudian Daddy issues.
This is apparent from the terrible choices she makes with men and how susceptible she is to certain types of men, namely married men with families.
She's obviously seeking a father figure since her own father works tirelessly and ceaselessly and rarely spent any time with him.
Johnny, Lindsey's BFF, and Grace, her adopted sister from China, are the only interesting characters but their character development is brief.
The writing is good, but dry, the tone informative, lacking depth, empathy and emotion.
There were parts of the narrative that read as filler like the POV of Sun, the landlord.
I guess it was to highlight his own feelings for Lindsey and the young ladies renting in his building.
At the end, I kept wondering, what's the takeaway of this novel? Why should I care?
Is it about Grace, navigating two worlds, her Chinese side and her adopted side by white parents in America? Her enduring love for her sister?
Is it about Lindsey, who never achieved her true potential because of the poor decisions she made?
Is it about their parents, who seem better off without the other, and ironically seem to have flourished after the eldest child's death?
Or is it just about a dysfunctional family and we all know one or are a part of one so who cares?
** Minor what's-the-point-of-this? spoilers ahead **
When their daughter's tragic accident in Shanghai brings two divorced parents together, the former couple is forced to come to terms about their child's life and the events that culminate at their daughter's bedside.
I liked the descriptions of Shanghai but I didn't understand the point of the story.
Why should we care about the Litvaks?
The parents are deeply unlikable and spend the better part of their time in Shanghai bemoaning the other person's flaws and eccentricities.
Why did these people get married at all?
Lindsey is young, beautiful, impressionable, and has deeply-rooted Freudian Daddy issues.
This is apparent from the terrible choices she makes with men and how susceptible she is to certain types of men, namely married men with families.
She's obviously seeking a father figure since her own father works tirelessly and ceaselessly and rarely spent any time with him.
Johnny, Lindsey's BFF, and Grace, her adopted sister from China, are the only interesting characters but their character development is brief.
The writing is good, but dry, the tone informative, lacking depth, empathy and emotion.
There were parts of the narrative that read as filler like the POV of Sun, the landlord.
I guess it was to highlight his own feelings for Lindsey and the young ladies renting in his building.
At the end, I kept wondering, what's the takeaway of this novel? Why should I care?
Is it about Grace, navigating two worlds, her Chinese side and her adopted side by white parents in America? Her enduring love for her sister?
Is it about Lindsey, who never achieved her true potential because of the poor decisions she made?
Is it about their parents, who seem better off without the other, and ironically seem to have flourished after the eldest child's death?
Or is it just about a dysfunctional family and we all know one or are a part of one so who cares?
December 13, 2024
In her new novel, Rabbit Moon, Jennifer Haigh expertly captured family relationships as well as the angst and complications of the life of a young woman. The setting in Shanghai made the writing and story come even more alive. The main character is Lindsay, a young woman who is adrift in life, having dropped out of college and moved to China (with her boyfriend) to teach English. She finds herself alone in Shanghai and makes a life altering decision regarding her employment. She suffers a terrible accident (that’s all I’m going to say to avoid spoilers!). The reader first meets her divorced parents at the time they receive word that their daughter has been seriously injured in Shanghai.
The novel goes back in time to disclose the messy family history, including the effect of Lindsay’s actions on the entire family. The parents and their domestic life, attitudes, issues and decisions are very well drawn by the author. But most importantly, the reader sees deeply into Lindsay’s life and choices. She was fully portrayed as a character, and as I reader, I felt I knew her and wanted to give her advice. The other important character is Lindsay’s sister, Grace, who was adopted from China. Issues regarding Chinese Americans are nicely shown � but the author doesn’t pound on them. Other wonderful characters included Johnny, the hairdresser and friend of Lindsay, who hid his gay life as a hairdresser entirely when he visited his parents and created a whole new “good Chinese son� persona for them.
Intertwined throughout the novel were the city of Shanghai itself, daily life in Shanghai, and lots of current Chinese culture. I thought the author did an excellent job of weaving this setting into the storyline. The novel moves quickly, and I remained interested to find out what happened next. I have not read Jennifer Haigh in several years, but I fully enjoyed this novel and now I plan to read more of her prior work.
The novel goes back in time to disclose the messy family history, including the effect of Lindsay’s actions on the entire family. The parents and their domestic life, attitudes, issues and decisions are very well drawn by the author. But most importantly, the reader sees deeply into Lindsay’s life and choices. She was fully portrayed as a character, and as I reader, I felt I knew her and wanted to give her advice. The other important character is Lindsay’s sister, Grace, who was adopted from China. Issues regarding Chinese Americans are nicely shown � but the author doesn’t pound on them. Other wonderful characters included Johnny, the hairdresser and friend of Lindsay, who hid his gay life as a hairdresser entirely when he visited his parents and created a whole new “good Chinese son� persona for them.
Intertwined throughout the novel were the city of Shanghai itself, daily life in Shanghai, and lots of current Chinese culture. I thought the author did an excellent job of weaving this setting into the storyline. The novel moves quickly, and I remained interested to find out what happened next. I have not read Jennifer Haigh in several years, but I fully enjoyed this novel and now I plan to read more of her prior work.
March 31, 2025
boo. I feel like this book was so self-obsessed with its own attempts at addressing insensitivity that it circled back around to being uncomfortably insensitive. Social issues are brought up, but explored only through a generalized, surface-level perspective. Just enough for the author to pat themselves on the back. None of it felt purposeful; it was needlessly repetitive, and the worst part is that there were so many ways this could have been written well, but it wasn't.
Ends with the moral that being beautiful is terrible. Which, as a beautiful person myself, I cannot relate to or agree with.
Ends with the moral that being beautiful is terrible. Which, as a beautiful person myself, I cannot relate to or agree with.
October 1, 2024
Thank you to Little, Brown and Company and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on April 8th, 2025.
Writing: 5/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 5/5
When red haired, six-foot tall Lindsey Litvak is slammed by a hit and run driver in Shanghai, her suspension between life and death is a shock for her family and friends, each of whom reflects on how this completely unforeseen point was reached. Her (bitterly) divorced parents � Aaron and Claire � who race across the world in a panic; her ethnically Chinese adopted sister Grace, now stuck in a Quaker summer camp that she hates while her parents abandon their homes; her secretive and stylish gay best friend Johnny, who fades into the background as the Americans march in; and even the apartment building manager who knew more about her situation than he lets on.
Backcasting through time, pieces of history help us to understand how the intersections between lives were set into motion, eventually crashing into the blunt trauma of the accident. The writing is excellent, full of small reflections and insight on the part of each character. Themes around cultural differences, coming-of-age stories, sexual predators, multi-cultural adoption, queerness, and all the various influences that shape a person permeate the novel.
Quotes:
“The Quaker camp, which Grace hates, looks like a penal colony and is priced like a five–star resort.�
“When disaster strikes, Claire can always be counted on to lose her shit, her anguish eclipsing the original crisis in its demands for attention and care. If the house burst into flames, Claire’s distress would demand the firefighters� full attention. It would be unforgivable, an act of monstrous insensitivity, to put out the fire first.�
“Since earliest childhood, Lindsay has drawn up language like a cut flower and water.�
“Efficient sleeping is Aaron’s superpower. He can fall asleep at will � anytime, anywhere � and wake on time without setting an alarm. His consciousness operates on a toggle switch: the two settings are wide-awake and dead asleep, with nothing in between.�
“In those moments Lindsay was the whole world to him, the center of the known universe. The feeling was intoxicating. She would chase it for the rest of her life.�
“His skepticism was infectious; it made believing sympathetic. Eventually, Claire surrendered to it. Exhibiting a striking lack of foresight, she neglected to cultivate a relationship with God, to pray or fast or do any of the things a person would do if she actually believed. Now, in her hour of need, she feels unable to ask for blessings.�
Writing: 5/5 Plot: 4/5 Characters: 5/5
When red haired, six-foot tall Lindsey Litvak is slammed by a hit and run driver in Shanghai, her suspension between life and death is a shock for her family and friends, each of whom reflects on how this completely unforeseen point was reached. Her (bitterly) divorced parents � Aaron and Claire � who race across the world in a panic; her ethnically Chinese adopted sister Grace, now stuck in a Quaker summer camp that she hates while her parents abandon their homes; her secretive and stylish gay best friend Johnny, who fades into the background as the Americans march in; and even the apartment building manager who knew more about her situation than he lets on.
Backcasting through time, pieces of history help us to understand how the intersections between lives were set into motion, eventually crashing into the blunt trauma of the accident. The writing is excellent, full of small reflections and insight on the part of each character. Themes around cultural differences, coming-of-age stories, sexual predators, multi-cultural adoption, queerness, and all the various influences that shape a person permeate the novel.
Quotes:
“The Quaker camp, which Grace hates, looks like a penal colony and is priced like a five–star resort.�
“When disaster strikes, Claire can always be counted on to lose her shit, her anguish eclipsing the original crisis in its demands for attention and care. If the house burst into flames, Claire’s distress would demand the firefighters� full attention. It would be unforgivable, an act of monstrous insensitivity, to put out the fire first.�
“Since earliest childhood, Lindsay has drawn up language like a cut flower and water.�
“Efficient sleeping is Aaron’s superpower. He can fall asleep at will � anytime, anywhere � and wake on time without setting an alarm. His consciousness operates on a toggle switch: the two settings are wide-awake and dead asleep, with nothing in between.�
“In those moments Lindsay was the whole world to him, the center of the known universe. The feeling was intoxicating. She would chase it for the rest of her life.�
“His skepticism was infectious; it made believing sympathetic. Eventually, Claire surrendered to it. Exhibiting a striking lack of foresight, she neglected to cultivate a relationship with God, to pray or fast or do any of the things a person would do if she actually believed. Now, in her hour of need, she feels unable to ask for blessings.�
April 28, 2025
Extreeeeeemely boring to me.
April 21, 2025
Meeting the author at a book event in early May and this is the first book of hers I have read. Rabbit Moon starts off strong; Lindsey Litvak has been living in Shanghai and becomes the victim of a hit and run. In a coma in a hospital, her divorced parents are forced to be in the same space as they have traveled from the United States to care for her. Her younger sister who was adopted from China is at sleep away camp and is unaware of the seriousness of Lindsey's injuries. Slowly, Jennifer Haigh lets us in on the details of all their lives, but especially Lindsey's as she has been keeping the largest secrets. The end of the novel felt rushed as if the author just wanted to be done with the characters. Rounded up to 3 1/2 stars.
April 7, 2025
Unexpectedly, the latter half of this book turned everything around for me and I loved this one by the end.
Rabbit Moon follows the life of a fragmented American family, and when they're eldest daughter, Lindsey (22) moves to Beijing to teach students English during her gap year, life moves on. They are forced to come back together when Lindsey is in a coma: she was a victim to a hit-and-run, and her body was found in Shanghai in a partying outfit. Lindsey shouldn't have been there, but it's not like she's shared her life with anyone else other than her young adopted sister, Grace. Throughout this story, you uncover how Lindsey ended up there, interpersonal relationships, and why their parents divorced in the first place.
At first, I thought this book was mid. I found all the changing POVs to be too much, and Rabbit Moon felt like one of those books that will never be anyone's favorite but is objectively a good book. Then parts two and three came around and this book went from an average three-star to a four-star rating. I really recommend this one.
It was complicated, but everything came together, both beautifully and tragically. Lindsey was such a powerhouse character and, I think, the glue that held the Litvak family together, no matter how stringy.
By the end, I wanted more of Grace. Although the last part is really Grace summing up everything that happened and everything that continues to happen, I craved more. She was Lindsey's best friend and sister and whilst I understand she didn't have much importance to the story that wasn't already in this book, I really wanted to connect to her.
This title releases on April 8, 2025, from Little Brown. Thank you to the publishers for this ARC copy. My review reflects the ARC I read, not the finished title.
Rabbit Moon follows the life of a fragmented American family, and when they're eldest daughter, Lindsey (22) moves to Beijing to teach students English during her gap year, life moves on. They are forced to come back together when Lindsey is in a coma: she was a victim to a hit-and-run, and her body was found in Shanghai in a partying outfit. Lindsey shouldn't have been there, but it's not like she's shared her life with anyone else other than her young adopted sister, Grace. Throughout this story, you uncover how Lindsey ended up there, interpersonal relationships, and why their parents divorced in the first place.
At first, I thought this book was mid. I found all the changing POVs to be too much, and Rabbit Moon felt like one of those books that will never be anyone's favorite but is objectively a good book. Then parts two and three came around and this book went from an average three-star to a four-star rating. I really recommend this one.
It was complicated, but everything came together, both beautifully and tragically. Lindsey was such a powerhouse character and, I think, the glue that held the Litvak family together, no matter how stringy.
By the end, I wanted more of Grace. Although the last part is really Grace summing up everything that happened and everything that continues to happen, I craved more. She was Lindsey's best friend and sister and whilst I understand she didn't have much importance to the story that wasn't already in this book, I really wanted to connect to her.
This title releases on April 8, 2025, from Little Brown. Thank you to the publishers for this ARC copy. My review reflects the ARC I read, not the finished title.
April 15, 2025
“We live at the intersection of causality and chance.� Sometimes we choose our outcomes and other times our outcomes choose us. We must live in the discomfort of the uncontrollable until we live no longer.
I wanted more Johnny and Grace and Lindsey’s life in Shanghai and less of the parents. The book shined when friendship and sisterhood were at the forefront and lagged when the parents became the protagonists. Still a thought-provoking and enjoyable read.
I wanted more Johnny and Grace and Lindsey’s life in Shanghai and less of the parents. The book shined when friendship and sisterhood were at the forefront and lagged when the parents became the protagonists. Still a thought-provoking and enjoyable read.
May 7, 2025
The first 15% of this book had my attention, but the rest fell flat. I'm not really sure what the point was as there were so many random things added in and going on. Yet another Barnes and Noble bookclub dud for me (and most of the club).
April 19, 2025
I loved this book from the first page. Compulsively readable. Very emotional family story. This is my first Jennifer Haigh novel, but I will definitely read more of her backlist. What I love in a book is when the city/state/country is a character. Shanghai was just so interesting I wanted to board a plane and explore the city!
April 8, 2025
A quiet and restrained novel that explores the ways both chance and action can influence our lives. Considering this book was relatively short, it had a very well developed cast of characters radiating outward from Lindsey, our protagonist who is injured in a hit-and-run accident in Shanghai at the start of the story. The reader learns about why she is in Shanghai, her damaged relationship with her parents, her love for her adopted younger sister Grace, and the choices she makes which lead her to the moment when she is struck down by a careless driver in a city far from home. This had the feel of an epic family saga that dips backward in time and explores the lives of each character but again over the course of a much shorter novel than you’d expect from such a wide scope.
I appreciate that while there was drama and tension to the story, it was not over-the top and felt very realistic. A less talented writer might have chosen to manufacture coincidental connections between characters but this was kept to a minimum despite the “red thread� theory that was explored with Grace’s section at the end. Overall I found this story to be quite moving and satisfying and the characters will stick with me. Thank you to NetGalley as well as Little, Brown, and Company for providing me with an e-galley of this title in exchange for my honest thoughts.
I appreciate that while there was drama and tension to the story, it was not over-the top and felt very realistic. A less talented writer might have chosen to manufacture coincidental connections between characters but this was kept to a minimum despite the “red thread� theory that was explored with Grace’s section at the end. Overall I found this story to be quite moving and satisfying and the characters will stick with me. Thank you to NetGalley as well as Little, Brown, and Company for providing me with an e-galley of this title in exchange for my honest thoughts.
April 10, 2025
I was excited for this one, but it really fell short. There were so many opportunities for nuance and exploration of important background that informed the characters but they were never realized. Lindsey is involved in a hit and run in Shanghai and her divorced parents fly to sit by her side. They don’t understand why Lindsey is in Shanghai and not teaching English in Beijing as they believed. Lindsey’s connection to China is her sister Grace who was adopted from the country but her character, adoption, and relationship with her white family are barely explored. She seems a gratuitous character whose sexuality reveal at the very end is even more gratuitous. Lindsey’s relationship with her mother is very fraught and they are estranged and even though it’s written several times that they were best friends before “the thing� happened it is never shown. And Grace’s POV says that Lindsey is the most important in her life but that is also never shown. The relationship with their dad is completely unexplored. The only thing I liked is the way it shows human trafficking in its most insidious iteration: one where young women believe they’re choosing sex work and realizing too late that their life is no longer their own. But again, so much could have been done with this storyline that just wasn’t. And I really hated the overall negative depiction of China without providing any balance with culture.
April 16, 2025
I was very excited to read this book, but ended up disappointed. It was extremely depressing, and Clair, the mother, was very judgmental and unsympathetic. The book took a bizarre turn in the last 10 percent, it was like the editor said this is the MOST depressing book ever, please fix it. Thus, the last 10 percent tries to sum up the story with a positive twist. The plot is strong ,and the locations interesting- the writing is good. On a complete side note, this author must have had a bad Disney experience. I have never seen so many negative references to my BELOVED Disney parks. She seemed to use Disney as a symbol for everything bad in the world. Finally, the father is a tech millionaire, but can't seem to figure out it would be beneficial to hire a Chinese translator while abroad ,or a private investigator. The parents complete lack of curiosity about their daughter was very puzzling. Anyway, if you are up for a depressing read, give it a go.
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