Family can be difficult to deal with, especially when your parents are serial killers.
After years of rejection and trauma, Rachel has finally found a home with people who love her and listen to her, but the couple who took her in, Marcus and Linda, have the habit of killing people who trespass in their woods. Will Rachel let them continue and lose who she is—or will she run the risk of being alone again by standing up to them?
The book can be found here
.
Rabbit Heart contains examples of:
- Accidental Murder: Rachel accidentally kills Marcus while trying to defend Davey.
- Affably Evil: Linda is very accommodating to those she likes.
- Animal Motifs: Rabbits are, as expected, the most common motif, but deer also come up.
- Asshole Victim: Linda believes she kills people who deserve it, often blaming them.
- Bears Are Bad News: The Thing-in-the-Woods Rachel sees looks like a bear.
- Bittersweet Ending: Rachel and Davey both survive, but Rachel loses two people who deeply cared for her. Linda’s fate is unknown.
- Bright Is Not Good: Linda, besides having an outgoing personality, tends to dress in pastel colors. She’s also a serial killer.
- Bystander Syndrome: Rachel normally does nothing when her parents try to kill people, until now.
- Cannibal Clan: Rachel and her family fit, minus the typical trope of inbreeding.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: The characters either don’t have cell phones or immediately break them.
- Child by Rape: Rachel decides against having one.
- Color Motifs: Black, white, and red. Black, while symbolizing darkness, also symbolizes innocence, and white is not necessarily a good color.
- Deadly Doctor: Marcus and Linda have both put their degrees to ambiguous use.
- Deep South: The story takes place in the North Georgia woods.
- Don't Go in the Woods: Going into the woods gives you a very good chance of running into cannibalistic serial killers, so it’s best to stick to Pendlewood.
- Driven to Suicide: Because of her trauma, Rachel attempts suicide by staying in the woods during freezing weather, but she ultimately decides against ending her life and returns to the cabin.
- Dysfunctional Family: Besides the emotional turmoil and complications one might expect after everything Rachel has gone through, having her adoptive parents eat people causes conflict.
- Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Linda and Marcus genuinely care for Rachel.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Linda and Marcus may be cannibalistic murderers, but they very strongly believe that
- Face Your Fears: Rachel has to face her fear of blood and losing her family in her efforts to save Davey.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Averted. Rachel decides to have an abortion because she thinks it’s for the best for both her own health and the child.
- Happily Married: Though they didn’t start off loving each other, Marcus and Linda have a genuinely happy relationship.
- I'm a Humanitarian: Marcus, Linda, and Rachel all partake in cannibalism with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
- I Miss Mom: Rachel misses her biological mother and father after she saw them die in a robbery.
- It's All My Fault: Rachel blames herself for both her rape and Marcus’ death. Over time, with Marcus and Linda’s help, she starts healing and stops blaming herself for the former.
- Long Hair Is Feminine: Both Rachel and Linda have long hair, and the latter is especially feminine.
- Mama Bear: Linda doesn't take kindly to anyone she thinks will hurt Rachel.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: The true nature of the Thing-in-the-Woods is never explained. It could be a manifestation of Rachel's fears or an actual threat.
- Messy Hair: Post-trauma, Rachel doesn't brush her hair much, to Linda's dismay.
- Morality Pet: Rachel is this to Marcus and Linda.
- Not Afraid to Die: Rachel does not care if she lives or dies shortly after her trauma.
- Outlaw Couple: Marcus and Linda operate outside the law, though the law doesn't seem to care.
- Rape as Backstory: Not only does Rachel endure this before she meets Marcus and Linda, but both Marcus and Linda have endured this, which further isolated them from society.
- Reminiscing About Your Victims: Linda reminisces on killing her rapist and wearing his face as a mask.
- Parental Substitute: Marcus and Linda take Rachel in and act as her parents; her biological parents died when she was eight.
- Police Are Useless: Davey tries to get the police involved when she searches for her boyfriend, but to no avail.
- Survival Mantra: My name is Rachel and it’s not my fault.
- The Stoic: Marcus is very quiet and reserved.
- Too Dumb to Live: Davey makes some questionable decisions, including having a habit of bad-mouthing the people who want to kill her.
- Trauma Conga Line: Rachel goes through a lot during the course of the story.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Linda states she and Marcus kill others because those people will harm others if left alone. Though Davey seems to pose no threat and wants to find her boyfriend, her proximity to Rachel and possibly seeing or hearing the family hunt Noah is reason enough for Marcus to attack.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: Davey thinks she’s in a cozy mystery where everything will turn out okay, but she’s in a gruesome horror story.
