Tess Gunty’s debut novel initially focuses on the inhabitants of a building known as the Rabbit Hutch in a run-down town in Indiana. Eighteen-year-old Blandine Watkins has had a hard life and is interested in mysticism. One neighbour is busy navigating the unkind world of dating apps and another occupant is an online obituary writer in trouble at work.

These multiple storylines do not come together as one might expect. Blandine meets the obituary writer and discusses female Catholic mystics with her, but then they part ways. An almost entirely different novel develops, concerned with young adults, including Blandine, who are emerging from the care system and struggling