THE HAWK AND THE RABBIT

Twin sisters on the lam and a graduate student try to escape from a bear in this debut illustrated novella.

Voted “most likely to kill someone” in high school, identical twins Ella and Etta, 24, haven’t had the most wholesome upbringing with their meth-dealer parents. When their drunken father tries to rape Ella, Etta attacks him with a hunting knife, with her sister joining in: “It was a real Julius Caesar situation.” On their way to prison, the young women manage to escape; equip themselves with food, clothes, and knives; and hitchhike west toward New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee. They previously camped on the lake’s Bear Island (once a rich man’s country retreat, now a Yale forestry station) and know it well, so they steal a canoe and make for its shores. On arrival, they discover a 20ish couple having sex near a tent—until the lovers are interrupted by a black bear. Her partner dead, Yale grad student Frankie races along with the twins for the canoe, but the bear cuts them off. They flee, pursued by the bear all over the island, its moldering mansion, and up some trees, where the girls hope at last to put their knife skills to good use. In this enjoyable adventure, Edelson deftly employs the punchy, staccato rhythms of noir fiction, often punctuated with violence, as when describing the island’s past conflicts: “Settlers were mangled. Bears were shot up. Cut up. All kinds of good stuff.” While the twins are never less than tough customers, as the tale develops they also display resourcefulness, courage, humor, and camaraderie. Cartoonist and illustrator Chiechi supplies comic-style illustrations whose rather pretty main characters clash somewhat with the story’s hard-boiled tone, but she captures action well.

A darkly comic, engaging tale of adventure and female bonding.