ARC Review: Rabbits

 

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book or my review itself.

I remember listening to the Rabbits podcast when it first came out, and like essentially all of the Pacific Northwest Stories podcasts (The Black Tapes, Tanis, The Last Movie...) I found it absolutely fascinating, loved the twists and turns, and was left relatively satisfied but also confused and a bit frustrated.

I had a very similar experience with the Rabbits novel.

Our protagonist is K, who sees patterns and connections everywhere, and has been fixated on the game Rabbits since a traumatizing incident from his childhood. Rabbits is a game you don't talk in detail about, for fear of severe repercussions, a game most people have never heard of, but one that could take players anywhere. A clue could be a building that you swear wasn't there just a second ago, three people you meet in the span of three minutes who all share the same three-lettered name, or a hidden track on a vinyl record only available in one store you don't remember ever seeing before. 

This is the absolutely fascinating part, following along as clues are found, connections are made, and more is learned about the game. I love the idea so much of a mysterious game that is just hidden out there in everyday life, with what frequently seem to be the coolest clues and connections. I could read an entire series of novels where each book is a different iteration of the game, and we follow along with a player or players as they work their way through the clues.

Where the problem comes in for me, and has since the podcast (though it definitely felt more prominent here) is the extreme confusion that can come with some of the explanations and reasonings, in particular the reasoning behind the game and all the strange things that have been occurring. We get these explanations at various points in the story, but in particular towards the end. A lot of that aspect just did not make sense to me, I honestly could not grasp or understand what was being said. And I love a good fake out, or a twist within a twist, or a possibly unreliable narrator, but when in the last few chapters all that is thrown together plus maybe add in another level and some highly complicated scientific discussions, you have a story you still enjoy but that also becomes frustrating and somewhat unsatisfying.

I definitely liked the book. I was completely caught up in it, and enjoyed reading it a lot. It just felt like it fell into a trap-one that has led many fans of Pacific Northwest Stories' podcasts to get frustrated and stop listening to a show they once absolutely loved-of getting caught up in its own greatness and just not knowing when it's time to settle on one singular satisfying ending.