In Melanie Finn's entrancing literary thriller The Hare, Rosie Monroe seems broken. The victim of a disgusting assault during her listless, lonely childhood, she becomes a promising art student at Parsons School of Design. But the career that could sweep her away from the grief that trails her instead slips through her fingers when she meets Bennett, a charming and tremendously rich con man whom Rosie convinces herself she loves. Obliged to follow him, to love him, to give him her body repeatedly--even after she's sure he's committed a terrible crime--she follows him to Vermont, where she's forced to acclimate to the cruel winters and even crueler company.
Decades later, she's become Rose, a hardened woman, her body struggling through menopause, toughened by years of paltry income and a life derailed by the whims of men. Her adult daughter is embarrassed by her: her bad haircut, cheap clothes and drafty house. She survives through sheer grit, depending on the mountains around her, multiple low-income jobs and a single sincere friendship. Through it all, she's hiding a secret, one she can't afford to confess lest she lose the daughter she's sacrificed everything for. Exhausted but determined, she makes one last stand against the hierarchies of wealth and gender that have conspired to end her life--and decides to burn the house down with her. This is a thrilling story that sucks readers in almost immediately, its protagonist as fascinating as she is flawed. --Lauren Puckett, freelance writer