The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes

July 6, 2015
McPartlin's novel does not tell the story of 44-year-old Rabbit Hayes's death, but relates the experience of savoring the final days and moments of a life lived with purpose and intent. Succumbing after a second bout of breast cancer metastasizes to liver, then lung, then bone, Rabbit leaves behind friends and family, including 12-year-old daughter Juliet. The setting switches among the present and two points in the pastâRabbit's spirited teenage years, when she was consumed by her first love, and the cancer blog she began when first diagnosedâand Rabbit and her family share narration throughout. The characters and their relationships with Rabbit gradually come to life, especially Rabbit's brother, Davey. McPartlin (Pack Up the Moon) very effectively captures a family during a traumatic moment. The novel is kept light with a measure of dry humor and many beautiful instances of love, leaving a lighter impression than one might expect. This novel will be torn from the shelves by fans of tearjerkers such as P.S. I Love You.

May 15, 2015
Her cancer is back, and all the love, humor, and stubbornness in the world won't save Rabbit Hayes this time. When 40-year-old Mia Hayes was a little girl, Johnny Faye, her brother Davey's friend, dubbed her "Rabbit" for the pigtails bunched on her head. The nickname stuck. Johnny was the lead singer in Davey's band, the Kitchen Sink, and the love of Rabbit's life. From Johnny's defending Rabbit from school-age bullies through the rise and fall of Kitchen Sink-a fall perpetuated by Johnny's terminal illness-theirs was a true and clear love. Now Rabbit faces her last days in hospice care as she approaches death from metastatic breast cancer. Surrounded by her raucous family and friends, Rabbit tries to rally. Jack, Rabbit's father, is devastated not only that his youngest will die, but also that his wife, Molly, seems to have given up on Rabbit. Yet Molly rarely leaves her daughter's side. Davey returns to Dublin from America, mourning for his sister, but finds some comfort in playing a paternal role for his 12-year-old niece, Juliet, whose biological father disappeared well before Rabbit gave birth to her. Rabbit's older sister, Grace, tries to buttress the family, and everyone descends upon Rabbit's room, holding a rather hilarious wake before her death. Although the ties binding her to her family pull taut, it's the memories of Johnny that beckon more strongly. In Rabbit's dreams, the narrative slips back in time to tell the love story between Rabbit and Johnny. McPartlin (The Space Between Us, 2012, etc.) deftly balances Rabbit's disappointment and her family's grief with humor. She possesses impeccable timing, creating rhythms of conversation that can evoke the banter of screwball comedies as well as the mournful dirge of loss. By turns laugh-out-loud funny and weep-into-your-hanky heartbreaking, Rabbit's story is a powerful catharsis.

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July 1, 2015
Mia Rabbit Hayes has lost her four-year battle with breast cancer and entered hospice care. A sad subject for a novel, but McPartlin (Alexandra Gone, 2010) brings heart and humor to her account of Rabbit's last days as lived not only by her but also by her loving family of parents Jack and Molly, sister Grace, brother Davey, and 12-year-old daughter, Juliet. Jack and Molly still hope for a miracle. Grace copes with her own brood of four boys. Davey, a musician who has been living in the U.S., flies back to Dublin and reunites with old friends. Juliet just wants her mother to come home. Rabbit herself finds solace in escaping into memories of Johnny, one of Davey's band mates and the love of her life; it was Johnny who gave her the nickname, Rabbit. As Rabbit relives the past, her family struggles with how to go on. One quibble: Rabbit was writing a blog about her experience with breast cancer, but this aspect of the book is undeveloped, and little is added by the few blog posts that are dropped into the text.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)