Are you a gamer? Are you into conspiracy theories? Do you tend to see patterns everywhere, or you know someone who does? Maybe you simply enjoy thrilling books? If any of those things are true, and even if they are not, you could read “Rabbits“ by Terry Miles.
I tend to be suspicious if a book has too many superlative praises on the cover, but this time I have to agree with those. This really is a thrilling mystery book.
Welcome to the geek-world of “Rabbits”, where everything seems to be just a little bit off. It’s a retro-tech world full of meaningless coincidences and sinister forces working in the background. The story revolves around the mysterious game called “Rabbits”. The protagonist and his friends are spending their time trying to find clues, and solve secrets, of that game, that might or might not even exist, but seems to be threatening the very existence of the universe itself.
It raises many questions, and not all are answered.
Every reader can understand after ten pages if the book is “his cup of tea” ́or not – it most certainly was mine. You don’t really need to know anything about quantum physics, conspiracy theories or gaming to enjoy the story – but it does help.
The book is written as a compelling thriller. No unnecessary embellishments, just a plain story. Would make a good film. And the whole book is full of references to different games, movies, music and pop culture. It is not necessary to actually know all of these, but it definitely adds an extra layer to the book. There were references in the book which I found myself Googling and I am pretty sure there were more references which I missed.
Even though the style of storytelling is quite straightforward, the story itself can be rather confusing and needs to be read “in one go” or going back and reading some parts again, so as not to lose track of things.
So want to go down the rabbit hole? As they say in the book “The door is open.”
By the way there is a “Rabbits” podcast as well. It’s a pseudo-documentary by the same author with a rather large following. The podcast contains two seasons – but that’s a completely different story.. (The book came after the podcast but no previous knowledge about the podcast is needed to read the book).
London : Pan Books, 2022
Check from e-catalogue ESTER.
Ursula Aavasalu
The Department of Literature in Foreign Languages