Scan barcode
retroreader17's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Bullying, Child abuse, and Murder
Minor: Rape
emory's review
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
3.75
Very much enjoyed the writing. I would've liked more character work, but what was there was still nice, just felt rushed. Not sure if the story benefitted from its setting in the 1950s--made quite a few things seem anachronistic. Lovely story overall. I was a bit disappointed with the big reveal, but I loved the story building and the haunting tone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Child abuse, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, War, Physical abuse, Rape, Murder, Alcohol, Death, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment
Minor: Cursing, Slavery, and Xenophobia
Small bit spoken by a character who is of mixed race as a result of her slave trading grandparents having children with slaves can be rather upsettinghelenaramsay's review against another edition
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I didn't mind or dislike this book at all, but it didn't really get me invested or excited. The protagonist was a bit pathetic at times and had some questionable mothering skills, and some other characters had some interesting backstories but you were halfway through the book before you heard them, and they were simply dropped on you and not really explored again. Also the "magically remembering your past" bit is not very convincing in my opinion. The mystery at the heart of the plot was the same; could have been really something but ebbed along not doing much, then had a sudden surge and fizzle out before the end. The last hour of the book could have been a completely different novel.
The way Cornwall and its eccentric residents were written was very nice though, and its pagan history is fascinating.
The way Cornwall and its eccentric residents were written was very nice though, and its pagan history is fascinating.
Content Warnings
Minor: Abandonment, Rape, Child abuse, Murder, and Violence
tamara_joy's review
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Alcohol, Death of parent, Infidelity, Murder, Classism, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Child abuse
kari_f's review
4.0
A darkly spellbinding story taking place in a seaside village, The White Hare tells the story of three generations of women, the old house they have fled to after a shocking secret was revealed, and a long-held village secret. The setting is atmospheric and eerie, the main characters are flawed and secretive, and the house has a tragic history that is slowly unraveled.
Things I enjoyed:
⁃ Mother/daughter relationships are examined from multiple perspectives, with some generational trauma thrown into the mix. The relationships felt realistically flawed as mothers and daughters struggled to understand each other.
⁃ Real Cornish folklore fits beautifully into this fictional tale of a seaside locale with a complicated history.
⁃ Some of the side characters were beautifully quirky and provided a support system to this family who desperately needed it.
⁃ The atmosphere was done beautifully, with a perfect blend of loveliness and haunting eeriness.
A few things I wished:
⁃ There are several instances where the young child character speaks in a way that feels far beyond what a five year old would say, and I wish parts of it felt more accurate to a real five year old. (Some of this is explained in the book, but there were instances outside of this explanation.)
⁃ There was a section of exposition near the 3/4 mark that felt forced in how it was explained to the reader. I loved what was revealed but not how it was revealed.
Overall I enjoyed the quiet magical realism of this story and the unraveling of all of the secrets!
Thanks so much to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for the advanced readers copy!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Murder, and War
joann_l's review
dark
funny
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
5.0
It would be hard not to fall in love with this magic-tinged historical fiction. I loved this book so much I stayed up several nights to read it, refusing to bookmark it until I absolutely could not hold my eyes open any longer. The loss of sleep was worth it!
The White Hare is set in post-WWII England. The narrator, Mila, her daughter Janeska (Janey), and her mother Magdalena have left London and bought a large house in Cornwall, which Magda and Mila hope to refurbish and turn into a hotel. Mila also hopes the change of location will allow her to move on from a toxic relationship. Magda too has lost her husband of many years to the War and is seeking to rebuild a life for herself in a new place. The two women are Polish evacuees/refugees of the war; England is their home now.
As the story unfolds it becomes clear that it will not be so easy to shed the past for the three of them; it comes back to haunt them in real and imagined ways. The house and land too that they see as their revival brings its own hauntings and histories into the present. This magic interacts with Mila, Janey, and Magda in positive and less-pleasant ways; it becomes clear there is something afoot at the house at White Cove.
The White Hare is not only a tale of magic and myth; what drew me back to its pages night after night was the deep, terrible past between Mila and Magda, the angry relationship between Janey and her grandmother, and the wedge and glue that comes into their lives, causing friction and connection all at the same time, in the form of another character, Jack. In many ways, this is a novel of intergenerational histories; the ways in which understandings of the self and our place in the world are inherited. That said, Johnson does not suggest that the past dictates the characters' present or future; there is hope for change.
And there is plenty of change in this story. (The plot revolves around the revival of a place and its new denizens after all.) The novel is not a vehicle to retell history; it is much more subjective than that. This is a novel about how a group of people who have individually suffered ordinary and terrible events struggle to reconcile their pasts with their futures. Every one of the characters' actions and choices are imbued with a history, sometimes a good one, often a tragic one. As the novel progresses, the reader witnesses how the characters' histories and their knowledge of another's helps them shed those ghostly pasts and create a new future for themselves and each other.
The White Hare immerses the reader in a poignant lesson of how the past and present are ever intertwined. Lingering in the latent, vibrating background is the White Hare herself, a spirit that inhabits the land and the haunted history that comes alive in her presence. The novel suggests that there is a world beyond our own mundane one, in which we are embedded. In The White Hare this is the magical, historical world, a state of being in which the past and present are not constrained by the physics of time.
What was also very satisfying for me was the way in which the novel resolves. Not only do the characters come to their own organic conclusions, but history also is validated and finds a place of belonging in the present in a very real, tangible way. It emphasizes Johnson's narrative: that the past is never as far away as it might seem, it is really buried -- sometimes literally -- in our contemporary moment. For readers who love long, nuanced resolutions and endings, The White Hare delivers in abundance; nothing is left hanging.
This is a novel that takes the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions, from sadness to anger to pity to redemptive hope. It is inspiring. It is queasy in some parts. Reader, be warned, there are mentions of abuse, gendered and sexual violence, violence and murder. Ultimately, for me, this was an inspiring tale of vindication and hope.
The White Hare is set in post-WWII England. The narrator, Mila, her daughter Janeska (Janey), and her mother Magdalena have left London and bought a large house in Cornwall, which Magda and Mila hope to refurbish and turn into a hotel. Mila also hopes the change of location will allow her to move on from a toxic relationship. Magda too has lost her husband of many years to the War and is seeking to rebuild a life for herself in a new place. The two women are Polish evacuees/refugees of the war; England is their home now.
As the story unfolds it becomes clear that it will not be so easy to shed the past for the three of them; it comes back to haunt them in real and imagined ways. The house and land too that they see as their revival brings its own hauntings and histories into the present. This magic interacts with Mila, Janey, and Magda in positive and less-pleasant ways; it becomes clear there is something afoot at the house at White Cove.
The White Hare is not only a tale of magic and myth; what drew me back to its pages night after night was the deep, terrible past between Mila and Magda, the angry relationship between Janey and her grandmother, and the wedge and glue that comes into their lives, causing friction and connection all at the same time, in the form of another character, Jack. In many ways, this is a novel of intergenerational histories; the ways in which understandings of the self and our place in the world are inherited. That said, Johnson does not suggest that the past dictates the characters' present or future; there is hope for change.
And there is plenty of change in this story. (The plot revolves around the revival of a place and its new denizens after all.) The novel is not a vehicle to retell history; it is much more subjective than that. This is a novel about how a group of people who have individually suffered ordinary and terrible events struggle to reconcile their pasts with their futures. Every one of the characters' actions and choices are imbued with a history, sometimes a good one, often a tragic one. As the novel progresses, the reader witnesses how the characters' histories and their knowledge of another's helps them shed those ghostly pasts and create a new future for themselves and each other.
The White Hare immerses the reader in a poignant lesson of how the past and present are ever intertwined. Lingering in the latent, vibrating background is the White Hare herself, a spirit that inhabits the land and the haunted history that comes alive in her presence. The novel suggests that there is a world beyond our own mundane one, in which we are embedded. In The White Hare this is the magical, historical world, a state of being in which the past and present are not constrained by the physics of time.
What was also very satisfying for me was the way in which the novel resolves. Not only do the characters come to their own organic conclusions, but history also is validated and finds a place of belonging in the present in a very real, tangible way. It emphasizes Johnson's narrative: that the past is never as far away as it might seem, it is really buried -- sometimes literally -- in our contemporary moment. For readers who love long, nuanced resolutions and endings, The White Hare delivers in abundance; nothing is left hanging.
This is a novel that takes the reader on a rollercoaster of emotions, from sadness to anger to pity to redemptive hope. It is inspiring. It is queasy in some parts. Reader, be warned, there are mentions of abuse, gendered and sexual violence, violence and murder. Ultimately, for me, this was an inspiring tale of vindication and hope.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Homophobia
estherb's review
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
The White Hare captures everything mystical and magical about rural Cornwall.
Set in 1954 Mila and her daughter Janeska (Janey) relocate to Cornwall with her mother, Magda, to start afresh from her ill fated marriage to Dennis in London.
It’s here, they move to a remote southern part of the county; a smell valley not far from Mousehole. As they arrive a white hare leaps before their car, causing Magda to serve and Janey feels a special bond with the animal.
What ensues is a discovery about the house they bought and its previous inhabitants, a sad tale which is slowly uncovered.
Along the way we are introduced to some great women (keziah and Ariadne whom I adored) in more than once sense of the word, which I felt built on the feeling of womanhood which the hare encompassed.
Lastly Jack, what a sweet, honest man who had Mila’s and Janet’s best interests at heart and who rabbit also seemed to like very much.
As I’m familiar with Cornwall I can imagine this story so clearly in my minds eye, and I’m going to investigate the place it was based on (St Buryan) when I go in a few weeks time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder
More...