Little Rabbit

DEBUT From Electric Literature managing editor Songsiridej, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, this puzzling if refreshingly risk-taking debut examines the complexities of love and desire via the steamy relationship between a wealthy, established male choreographer and an aspiring young female writer, the book’s unnamed narrator. After they meet at a residency in Maine, she agrees to attend a dance performance he’s staging, and they quickly plunge into a relationship thrumming with erotic energy. As she is bisexual and has had some bad experiences with men, this turn of events alarms her lesbian friend and roommate. It alarms readers, too; how can she fall for an imperious older man who’s nicknamed her Little Rabbit because she’s “small and wild and determined to survive”? The novel ends with a work he choreographs for her on his lead dancer, which makes her see their love as frightening. But it doesn’t frighten her away: “I thought I’d served him all this time, but he really served me. …All to figure out what I wanted and to give.”