Terry MilesBesprekingen

dnf at 67%, tiring repetitive clue hunting, maybe palatable as YA

The Quiet Room by Terry Miles is a very highly recommended mystery following players in a secret world-wide alternate reality game. This is the second novel set in the world of the Rabbits podcast. The underground alternate game called Rabbits crosses inter-dimensional streams in the multiverse.

Why would the mysterious Rabbit Police be questioning Emily Connors when she appears to be trapped in a dimensional stream where the game Rabbits does not exist. Whether it is the universe she is in or the game itself, something feels off. Or is there some underlying conspiracy underway? If the game is still on, this would be the twelfth iteration. Emily came close to winning the eleventh, but has the next game started in her current dimensional stream?

Rowan Chess, a theme park designer, has never felt like he was in the right place, or totally part of the reality he lives in. This feeling continues when he begins to have some incredibly odd experiences. He has a blind date that is going very well when his date goes to the bathroom and disappears. This marks the start of Rowan being forced into a game he knows nothing about. And Emily was "coincidentally" there to witness Rowan's date disappear, but there is no happenstance in Rabbits. What will happen when Rowan meets Emily and other Rabbits players?

The writing is excellent. There are many of the same elements that I loved from the first novel. We have puzzles and clues, mysterious Rabbit Police, theories, enigmas, patterns, and oddities. There are also a plethora of references to all manner of literature, movies, music, pop culture, and gaming. Following clues and noticing any deviations is vital to the game and the novel.

Rabbits is a great sci-fi mystery series that will have readers questioning every little coincident, anomaly, and oddity in their lives while wondering if they are obscure clues they need to uncover something else. The Quiet Room could be read as a stand alone, but then you would want to go back and read Rabbits anyway, so I'd suggest starting with Rabbits and then jump into The Quiet Room. I'm all in for any and all future novels in this incredible series!

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Del Rey via NetGalley.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2023/09/the-quiet-room.html

There’s a game that may not really be a game. Players aren’t supposed to talk about it, at least not in specific terms. They call it Rabbits, and playing involves finding patterns in the world around you, coincidences or even discrepancies. Follow the clues and try to win, because winning means unimaginable rewards that no one knows for sure exist, just like no one knows for sure who the winners of the first 10 iterations of the game were. A man named K has been obsessed with the game for years, so when he’s approached by a man rumored to have won in the past and told that something is wrong with the game, and it’s up to K to fix it before the next iteration begins or the entire world is in danger, of course he has to try to help. But will he be too late?

The synopsis of this book (which is better written than mine above) really intrigued me. I loved the idea of a mysterious game with the entire world—universe, even—as the playing field. Unfortunately, the book was mostly just bizarre and repetitive and lacked the real punch and follow-through I was looking for. I read the book pretty quickly, not because I was excited and caught up in it, but because I was confused and a little frustrated and wanted to push to get to that place where everything is explained and suddenly makes sense. Sadly, that moment never happened.

After the possible former winner approaches K and tells him that he has to fix the game, the story mostly consists of the same format repeated over and over–K (and sometimes his friend Chloe too) researches/digs/looks for clues, hits a dead end and gives up, suddenly has a revelation that generally comes one of two ways—either someone randomly gives him a clue or he just happens to see a random item in the room he’s in that makes him think in a new way—then is off digging again before hitting that next dead end. During this repetitive meat of the book, K is remarkably knowledgeable about almost everything he needs to know to solve these things. He has to look up one or two things, but for the most part, he’s versed in movies, music, & books (foreign and domestic), art, architecture, and constellations. No real reason is given for him having all of this knowledge (he has an eidetic memory, but he’d still have to have been exposed to a lot), and to make it worse, the fellow-sort-of-player that is helping him through all of this, Chloe, never really has the surprising and sudden knowledge at just the right time.

K has a lot of strange things happen to him throughout the course of this book, and Chloe often asks him if he’s okay. Even after he’s admitted to her some of the mind-bending things that he’s seen, he still inevitably lies to her when she checks on him and tells her he’s okay. Literally every time, it’s, “I’m fine,” with almost no variation. And then there’s the heavy language throughout the book. Even when I was in high school, I knew that people who liked to drop the f-word into every other sentence didn’t have much in the way of a vocabulary. Apparently that is the case with every single character in this book, without even the allowance for the possibility that anyone they meet along the way may not talk the same way that everyone else does. I don’t read a lot of books with heavy language like this, but never before have I gotten to the point where it felt like the author was an 11-year-old who was out of hearing of his parents and cussing just because he can. That’s what this made me feel like.

Even with everything I’ve said above, I probably would have given the book a little higher of a rating if it weren’t for the utter lack of a payoff in the end. There’s this science presented in the 2nd half of the book that was pretty baffling to me, but I was hanging in there, doing my best to understand just enough to see how the plot paid off. I’m not sure how much of what didn’t make sense to me was due to my lack of understanding of this kind of thing and how much was due to the author sort of hand-waving some of it, but I was hanging in there. Then we get to the end and…all of that, all of the science and urgency, is just…brushed off. We’re presented with 2 new theories about what’s been happening, and then the book ends with no real answers and with everything I was doing my best to understand is just thrown out the window. I don’t think I’ve ever felt like a book wasted the time it took me to read it more than this one did, and the only reason it’s 2 stars is because I really do think the idea is good, the beginning was good, and I’m sure a lot of work was put into writing and editing this book.

As for whether or not you might like it…if you’re a major gamer, into fringe culture, or know anything at all about the darknet, you really might like this book. It reminded me of Ready Player One, in that there were quite a few references to movies, music, and games, a lot of it vintage. And like RPO, a lot of it was completely unnecessary. A major setting in the book is an arcade, and when a character just happens to be leaning on a game cabinet, I don’t need to know what the name of the game is unless it’s going to matter to the story. On the other hand, my husband would probably love to know because he spent a lot of time in arcades as a kid (he also liked all of the references in RPO more than I did). So definitely make the decision for yourself, if this book sounds interesting. You can also check out other reviews on this site.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing me a copy of this book to review.

I received a review copy of this through NetGalley and had to go back and reread the first Rabbits because enough time had passed that I'd forgotten some details. It helped, a little, but the frame reestablishing only went so far. I've not listened to the podcast and admit that I still have some wonders about Rabbits.

This read like a middle book of a trilogy (and the cliffhanger tells us there will be another - sign me up!) Pace was slower, the twists fewer, the trickling of information just enough to further the story and lead speculation as to what's coming. Still, nicely done.

“They’re getting bolder,” Scarpio said, as he reached down into the fridge and pulled out a Corona. He twisted off the cap and handed the bottle to Emily, along with a pre-cut slice of lime from a bowl in the crisper. Then he took the Heineken from her other hand and opened it with a fizzy click.
{Rich guy drinks beer with a twist of cap. And from the bottle. Sigh.}

“There’s coffee. I made pour over, like an asshole. You want one?”
{So… crap beer, but good coffee.}

“You know I don’t need this shit,” Scarpio said, semiserious. “I could be in the South of France right now drinking four-thousand-dollar bottles of burgundy.”
{Um…}

And for the publisher/editor:
Page 49ish of my ecopy
“Sometimes it’s important to remember that both coincidence and confirmation bias do actually exist,” she added.
{Confirmation bias here should probably be availability heuristic.}

Page 236ish
"Looks like a company that makes car axels?"
Typo. Should be axles

I’m probably not smart enough to review this book….

Wanted to like this one, but it made it pretty hard. The whole book is about introducing ideas, but there's not really a plot to connect them. Ends with a huge exposition dump. Generally the concepts became less interesting the more they were explained.

If you don’t want to notice coincidences and synchronicities everywhere you go, then I’m still going to recommend you read this book because it’s too much fun to miss. Realizing that this is the second book in a row that I’ve read that is set in my home state of Washington already has me wondering if there is more truth to this book then what I’m being lead to believe . . .

Running through Seattle on a conspiracy-driven scavenger hunt, losing time, being chased by shadows and darkness, and slipping through dimensions, is it a some nameless underground game, a means of keeping the world as we know it intact, or is it all just an elaborate hoax orchestrated by someone with limitless funds?

Not only is this story exciting, it’s also a beginner’s guide to theories relating to multiverses, conspiracies, ley lines, and so much more that will you scratching your head and doing a lot of Googling.

The mood throughout this entire novel is definitely written by someone familiar with the area, unlike many TV shows that throw a gray filter on a camera and put a few people in chunky sweaters and call it “Seattle”, Terry so accurately describes the sights and smells, the personalities that you meet, the numerous coffee shops, it’s obvious that he’s a local.

Knowing that I live in close proximity to the author (when he’s in Washington), may cause me to frequent some of his haunts while holding his book in hopes of running into him and obtaining an autograph. However, what I’m really hoping for is an onscreen adaptation, and seeing that Terry is already in the biz . . . well, let’s see what can be done about that, hmm?

An advanced copy of this book was sent to me by the publisher. The opinions are my own.

The Publisher Says: Conspiracies abound in this surreal and yet all-too-real technothriller in which a deadly underground alternate reality game might just be altering reality itself, set in the same world as the popular Rabbits podcast.

It's an average work day. You've been wrapped up in a task, and you check the clock when you come up for air—4:44 pm. You go to check your email, and 44 unread messages have built up. With a shock, you realize it is April 4th—4/4. And when you get in your car to drive home, your odometer reads 44,444. Coincidence? Or have you just seen the edge of a rabbit hole?

Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, ten iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. Their identities are unknown. So is their reward, which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past—and the body count is rising.

And now the eleventh round is about to begin. Enter K—a Rabbits obsessive who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. That path opens when K is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong with the game and that K needs to fix it before Eleven starts or the whole world will pay the price.

Five days later, Scarpio is declared missing. Two weeks after that, K blows the deadline and Eleven begins. And suddenly, the fate of the entire universe is at stake.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: There is no possible way to explain the effect of this book to someone who's never dropped acid, consumed ayahuasca, or been down the psilocybin road. If you know, you know; if you don't, quite a lot of what is happening here is simply...weirdness. Which, to be fair, it is; but it is so much more than merely ornamentally weird.

If you're the one who read [Ready Player One] and thought, "hey, that could be me!" then you're prime meat for the story's more esoteric references. And you'll probably like it even more if you loved [The Matrix] but less so the sequels. I'm betting that, if you've read [The Trial] and/or [Kafka on the Shore] more than once, you'll read this book with relish.

But, crucially, absent a strong desire to seek out and complete patterns in the world, and in your head, the main pleasure of the book will slightly elude you. K (hi, Franz!) who narrates the book to us, isn't gendered. K's girlfriend Chloe is not inclined, under the circumstances of the book, to compliment K on diagnostic body parts. When talking through the extreme weirdness of life inside the rabbit hole of a planet-wide conspiracy with the stakes being your very life, suchlike stuff ain't no big. But in fact, there are little indicators that K is more than a gendered presence, is in fact a Jungian archetype, several in turn by my count. But that's a discovery for the reader to make. I will say this: I liked the hunt for those tells, too.

What worked best for me in the read was that very sense of patterns hanging from the trees, drifting in the air, making explicit shadows on the sidewalk as you're coddiwompling among the words. I enjoy the sensation of being led and misdirected to get to a story that won't take a final shape. I don't know Seattle, I took a serious aversion to it during my 1990s foray there, so a lot of the subtext from the locale was simply lost on me. (Greenness and verdant growth are menacing in two places on Earth: The Pacific Northwest and Ireland.)

There's something very soothing about conspiracy theories. One is assured of being Right: no evidence will ever penetrate the bunker mentality. There's a Reason for the random shit that happens: THEY want it to! And, if it's too random to fit into the pattern, THEY lost a round (which is scary and satisfying) or the computer introduced a new variable. Standing on the edge, looking down, and seeing Something is the only way most people can keep going. (I myownself see nothing, and absolutely vibrate with eagerness to lose myself in it.)

So on so many levels, this isn't a book aimed at me...I'm too old, too cynical, and too disinclined to believe there's a Purpose...but it's told in that densely imagined and deeply felt way that draws me in every time. That there are trappings I could do without, well, that's because they're there for others to enjoy. That there is no rush in Author Miles's unfolding of the story is a net good thing. He could've told the whole megillah in 200pp and had room for the publisher's entire catalog of SF/F titles. But the point of the story would've been violated.

Go on a journey. Listen to the people around you. I don't mean keep your ears open, I mean *listen* as the words come towards you. It takes a lot of practice to get good at listening, but this book is both a good place to practice and a rewarding discovery when you practice the skill here. I expect a lot of readers didn't fare well with the book because it simply doesn't follow ordinary trails to get between the start and the finish. If you're a Neal Stephenson reader, if [Cryptonomicon] and [Reamde] delighted you, here's another scratcher for that itch. You're not likely to be disappointed, either, Murakami readers. And best of all, you can get a paperback to take to the beach for Labor Day!

Dystopian conspiracy theory mystery. I can't say I always knew what was going on, but I wanted to keep reading.½

One Sentence Summary: A Rabbits fantatic, K is thrilled to meet Alan Scarpio, the potential winner of the sixth iteration of Rabbits, until Scarpio tells him he needs to fix the game before the eleventh iteration starts, otherwise everyone could be in danger.

Overall
Reading Rabbits is like falling down the rabbit hole. I expected a book inundated with video game, tech, and pop culture references that I probably wouldn’t understand, but, instead, I got a crazy journey where it didn’t matter if I understood any of it at all. I was lost and confused by the end, especially by how it all actually worked, but it also turned out to be an incredible adventure I don’t regret. It’s twisty with alternate dimensions, missing time, strange dreams, and even stranger clues. It was often hard to tell what, exactly, was going on. But the trip is definitely worth it.

Extended Thoughts
There’s a game that uses the real world as it’s playing board. It’s called Rabbits and is all about finding the clues, finding the discrepancies, finding the coincidences, and following the trail to whatever the conclusion of the game is.

K has been obsessed with it since he was a teenager, since he was in the backseat of a car with sisters who were just getting started in it, until an accident suddenly halted them. Not long after, K’s parents die and he’s left on his own. Years later, he holds informal sessions about Rabbits in an arcade run by the Magician and where his friend Chloe works. Everything is normal, until K meets the legendary Alan Scarpio, the rumored winner of the sixth iteration of Rabbits, and Alan tells him K needs to fix the game before the eleventh iteration starts.

But, before K can learn more, Alan goes missing, and K has no idea what to do. With his friends Chloe and Baron, and the Magician doing his part to find information, K haphazardly tries to follow clues. Too late, though. The next iteration has started and players start dying and disappearing. K might be the key to fixing the game and saving the world.

Rabbits has to be the twistiest, craziest story I’ve ever read, but I loved it so much. It required me to read it closely so I wouldn’t miss any clues. Still, by the end, I had no idea how all the alternate dimensions worked so the end felt like a bit of a mess to me. But I think it was more fun to go on the journey with K than to really figure out what was going on. Following the clues was nutty, and I’m actually really glad the story didn’t go into too much detail to explain how each leap was made because it would have completely lost me.

K and Chloe are repeatedly told to stop playing the game. Of course, for two Rabbits addicts, it’s hard. It seemed even harder to stop when it felt like every clue, every discrepancy, was falling right in their laps. I loved how it both did and didn’t feel like they were playing. Playing the game just kind of happened. It felt like it was just something they were caught up in and couldn’t stop no matter how they tried.

Rabbits kept me on the edge of my seat. Part science fiction, part fantasy, part thriller, it even had some horror elements. All of it blended together perfectly to create the perfect tension, the perfect atmosphere, and the perfect way for me to blur reading fiction and living in reality.

But what was happening to K was incredibly wacky. The why behind it was a bit of a let down as I felt it took the easy way out, but I still really liked K, even if I had an easier time imagining him as a twenty-something instead of someone in their thirties or forties. All of the characters felt a little younger than I had calculated them to be, but I also frequently conveniently forgot that.

K has no one except his friends, so I liked how he felt quite comfortable on his own and with Chloe even while crazy things were happening around him. He definitely has a self-preservation streak, but his curiosity often got the better of him. Chloe, though, was a good partner for him. She kept him grounded and he watched out for her. They were an amazing duo who seemed capable of pulling everything off. I liked how they thought similarly, but also managed to add to each other. There was a light romantic edge to their relationship, but the romance is faint and nicely woven in without overpowering at all.

Set all across Seattle, I was a little disappointed it didn’t wander too far out of the city’s limits even though some clues indicated the larger world. Since Rabbits is a world wide game, I hoped for something more far flung, but it turned out that what was introduced was just right, even if it did seem just a little too convenient. It was fun to travel around Seattle.

All in all, Rabbits is not just a crazy game, but a crazy book I struggle to describe. At one point, it did feel like it was getting a little outlandish, but managed to kind of reel itself in. Full of alternate dimensions, time warps, old technology, and coincidences and discrepancies, Rabbits often felt like a mind boggling book, but will definitely take the reader on a journey.


Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

This is a great book of mystery, science fiction, and puzzles. The story is meandering, but never boring, and what is real, or not real, is always on the readers brain - is K crazy, or crazy smart?

What exactly the game of Rabbits is, no one knows. Even those that study it. Maybe its a way to align ancient paths so the realities can exist. Maybe its something else entirely.

The plot is tight, but meandering. The twists and turns make sense, the character of K is well written and mental illness is explained respectfully and never dismissed by others. The secondary characters are just as interesting. I especially liked the cultural references, from old school computers, to dark-web searches. At times, there seems to be too much explanation of technology (old and new). But, it doesn't detract from the story.½

A twisty, well executed expansion of the universe created by the podcast of the same name. Puzzles, the Mandela effect, and strong central characters, but the ultimate payoff isn’t satisfying enough to put this in the the circle. Still, worthwhile for fans of the podcast and the world of AR games. The audiobook is well done. (I wish Goodreads allowed 1/2 star increments… wanted to go with 3.5 stars).½

I got very muramaki vibes from this which is sometimes nice but I have to be in the mood. Also like murakami it comes to a fever pitch at the end but very ambiguously which is slightly unsatisfying. Also at times I felt like I was reading about someone suffering from schizophrenia with a magical realism twist which I didn't enjoy. The characters react to a wide scale of different weird things with uneven emotions which is mostly just weird to read. But overall sorta cool, it was fun to trace back the last 5 minutes of reading and follow their trail, it for crazy the coincidences they followed. I can see how it was better in podcast form like welcome to night vale, where there's less long term consistency than in a book

This was fine. I went into this knowing nothing about it. My library had it available and the summary seemed interesting. I didn't even realize that this was based on a podcast until after I started reading. I did listen to the podcast while I was reading to get a better sense of the source material. Overall I found this to be entertaining but flawed in a way that started to bother me more and more as the story went on.

I think the best thing about this book is there are a lot of interesting ideas and that does keep you reading. Even when I was frustrated with certain parts of this book, I never wanted to put it down. I really like sci-fi and speculative books and this had a lot of the tropes of books I enjoy in that genre. I think the first fourth of the story is especially good and really enjoyable to read.

One issue I did start to have as I went on in the book is that it did start to feel like a bunch of events that were barely connected. The nature of the story does kind of call for that type of story but the problem was that many of them were never revisited or they left no emotional impact so they ended up feeling superfluous. This was made especially true by the repetition of some elements of the story. This book is nearly 450 pages and it did feel like additional editing to tighten the story would have improved this a lot.

The issue of emotional impact was a big one for me. Several times in this book, something really bad happens to the characters and we just move on. It made it feel like the main characters didn't care about anything and that made me not care. Sometimes we will be told that the characters cared, but we wouldn't be shown it. It made the stakes feel a lot lower, which is not good with this type of story where it's trying to set up extremely high stakes.

I'm usually not one to complain about telling and not showing because I don't thinks always the best advice. But I did think it became kind of a problem here. There was one section that had this quote.

The Magician’s warning was sobering. His had been by far the most knowledgeable and encouraging voice when it came to the game.

This is 35% through the book at this point. We know who the Magician is and that he's the authority on the game. We were shown that already. This is the kind of repetition that started to really grate on me. I just felt like the author didn't really trust his readers or, he's used to podcast writing and didn't adjust super well. Since I listened to the podcast at the same time, I did notice that certain introductions or descriptions in the book were almost identical to the podcast. I do think this story worked better as a podcast but I do think a lot of these problems could have been fixed with just a bit more editing.

This book definitely leaves a lot of unanswered questions. The ending isn't bad, but I definitely wasn't fully satisfied. The reason I can still give this three stars rather than something lower is because I was still entertained by most of the story. Having now both read the book and listened to the podcast, I will say there's not a lot of additional world-building in the book that isn't in the podcast, so if you're looking for more of that, you might not be satisfied. I would say that if your interested in this and haven't listened to the podcast, you should wait to listen until after finishing the book. I think a lot of people will be entertained by this and I would still say go ahead and read this if it seems interesting but maybe keep in mind some of the issues I pointed out.

2021 books #58. 2021. A mysterious real-world game called Rabbits, may or may not be real. But if it isn't won by someone the universe will end. The protagonist seems to have a serious mental illness and believes he won. Poorly written dialog. I didn't really like this.

A cross between Blake Crouch and Ready Player One. Conspiracy theories, pop culture, gaming culture, and flat out weirdness. So much fun!

I am not a gamer, neither have I listened to the RABBITS podcast, I am nonetheless instantly gravitated to the mystery and intricate matrix of this sinister underground alternate reality game! Oftentimes, I’m chilled to the bone and my nerves are on edge constantly!
With his unlimited imagination and his extraordinary gaming mind, Terry Miles has masterfully crafted this highly dangerous and extremely complicated techno-thriller RABBITS that will take one on a high-octane, twisty and heart-pounding ride!
I would like to thank Del Rey / Penguin Random House and NetGalley for this thrilling ride!
#Rabbits
#NetGalley

4- review here

Miles, Terry. Rabbits. Del Rey, 2021.
The plot of Terry Miles’s Rabbits had a surface resemblance to Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One. There is a secret game called Rabbits that attracts only the most committed gamers.” Rabbits is filled with references to pop culture, though they never distract from the story, as I think they did in Cline’s book. The tone of Rabbits is much darker and uncanny than that of Ready Player One. Our narrator protagonist is called simply K, which may be an allusion to Men in Black, but it could as easily be an homage to Franz Kafka. We are never sure whether our hero’s experience is a product of the game or the result of a real psychotic break. The game encourages players to follow clues that lead them to discrepancies in what seems to be the real world. For instance, they may find an online image of Andrew Wyeth’s Christina’s World in which the farmhouse in the background has the wrong number of windows. Disturbingly, game players have been known to disappear or die in mysterious circumstances. Our hero experiences blackouts and time loss, which may or may not be an actual disturbance in the multiverse. Another allusion in the novel is to the TV series Heroes, whose tagline was “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” The tagline of Rabbits is “Win the game, save the world.” And that may, or may not, be literally true. 4 stars.

For more reviews and bookish posts please visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

Rabbits by Terry Miles is a mystery revolving around a secret game taking place in an alternate reality. Mr. Mmiles is a published writer, podcaster (Public Radio Alliance), and an award-winning filmmaker.

K is a player of the Rabbits, the secret real-life game, with real life consequences. The winner gets huge amounts of money and fame, but it could cost the players everything. For years K has been attempting to play Rabbits, but in order to play you first have to find your way into it.

Billionaire Alan Scarpio, rumored to have been the winner of the previous iteration approaches K. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong and needs to be fixed or the whole world will end.

Scarpio disappears.
K blows the deadline.
The game starts – suddenly reality itself is shifting.

Rabbits by Terry Miles is a very creative book, especially for gamers. It feels like a mix of 80s/90s nostalgia, conspiracy, mystery, as well as the new exciting video games of today.

The nostalgia factor, explicitly for me was the arcades, which I spent too much time and money in. I remember how amazing Dragon Lair was, as well as the Atari 2600 system. Today’s fantastic graphics of games are astounding and immersing, something I only wished for as a teen.
So why Minecraft became so popular, is a mystery to me.

Even though this novel has a somewhat complicated plot, it was not a difficult read. The puzzles are in the context of the game, which we view through K’s eyes. Seeing patterns is a theme in the book, but there are not mental gymnastics one needs to do to enjoy the narrative.

The story-line is driven by the game, however the characters are developed as well. Albeit, when we think we know something about K, or Chloe, or another character, the author takes a 90 turn. A surprise to the reader and to the character as well.

I enjoyed the aspect of forced-nostalgia, something that was always prominent in human behavior. I was trying to remember if aspect described in the book was the author’s invention, an Easter egg in a game, an accurate description, or simply disinformation. Maybe I just didn’t remember it properly, or a different version, or maybe the author combined fact and fiction to really mass me up.

The novel does jump around, and when that happens the reader has to pay attention. Even if you do pay attention, what’s real and what’s not is always up for questioning. There are many obscure game clues in real world setting. I don’t know if people like K exist, who see disjointed patterns everywhere, but life cannot be easy for them.

I was approved to receive an e-Galley ARC of Rabbits, authored by Terry Miles, from the publisher Del Rey, and NetGalley, for review consideration. What follows below is my honest review, freely given.

I rated this novel 5 stars. ‘Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean people are not out to get you’, is a saying that feels right at home with a story like this; anything is possible and everything can have meaning. Deja vu, the Mandela effect, every dance down the rabbit hole of internet conspiracy theory may have a place within an iteration of Rabbits.

The first rule of Rabbits is that you are not supposed to talk about Rabbits, not by its name, not to directly to draw attention to yourself. It’s basically full on bonkers from the get go and I loved it. You’re riding shoulder of the MC, who knows enough about Rabbits to get into trouble while waiting for the next round to happen. It’s a dense read, but in the best way because the author tucked everything up nice and neat for us readers by the end; just magic and sorrow, hollowed chests and static minds. I got to the end and wanted to the throw my Kindle, a first for me. Not in anger, but just the build up of emotion from the story, and how it all played out… I cannot put spoilers, I will not put spoilers… but this story grows and becomes more than just about a game, obviously. The end, man, the whole novel is this wonderful, gorgeous story that makes you think; it’s a person-changing story. Maybe not for everyone, but for some people, this is going to hit you by surprise. I’m going to get this in hardcover, I’m going to have to own a physical copy.

Rabbits by Terry Miles is a very highly recommended mystery involving players of a secret alternate reality game.

Rabbits is the unofficial accepted name of the mysterious underground adventure game, but players are never supposed to talk about it. The game can become an obsession to the players and rabbit holes, clues or observations that seem connected, or obscure riddles, or coincidences, or obvious alterations of a known thing, etc., are followed by the players to the next clue. The game is rumored to have started in 1959. Since then ten iterations of the game have occurred.

Now a new game, number eleven, is about to begin. K, a man who has been trying to get into the game for years, is asked to meet with billionaire Alan Scarpio, who is rumored to be the winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio tells K that the game is broken and he needs K to fix it before the new game starts. Soon after this Scarpio is declared missing and a few days later the new game starts. The plot follows K and his friend Chloe, who works at a retro arcade, as they manage to enter the game. The two follow cryptic clues and patterns, solve puzzles, notice coincidences, and try to stay away from an unknown danger as an increasing number of players are dying or disappearing under mysterious circumstances.

The plot of this novel is going to pull you right in and immediately grab your attention, especially if you are a long time gamer or someone who enjoys playing cerebral games and following obscure clues. And there are so many enigmas and conspiracies to follow. There are references to all manner of literature, culture, and popular and gaming culture. Some of the gaming references went over my head but I've been exposed to enough to gamely follow along. Even the thought that noticing patterns and coincidences in real life, made me briefly wonder "is the game real?" as reading. The whole novel and plot is addictive and I thoroughly enjoyed Rabbits.

K is developed as a character, but throughout the whole novel as parts of his past are woven into the plot while he and Chloe play the game. Other characters are introduced, but in the context of this novel only the information we need or that K can uncover is disclosed. Following along with K's thought processes as he follows clues is really all the character development that is needed. Terry Miles is the creator of a podcast called Rabbits too, which apparently will compliment the book, but isn't necessary to listened to in order to enjoy the book.

Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of the publisher.
http://www.shetreadssoftly.com/2021/05/rabbits.html
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4025273637

RABBITS, by Terry Miles, is about a game nicknamed "Rabbits" that is shrouded in mystery and there seems to be a never ending supply of clues everywhere, The trick is to find those clues through patterns and hints that are discreetly hidden all around us. As K, who is an obsessive follower of "Rabbits", starts to see clues at an accelerated pace, he becomes both excited and nervous that he is now a part of the next round of "Rabbits". Or is he?
This is a conspiracy thriller like no other. There are dozens of nostalgic references that will make the reader smile like early home gaming, retro arcades, movies that everyone knows, and books we have all read. The reader is forced to rethink their past and whether they remember this nostalgia like it really was or whether false connections and hidden imagery were present and their memories were imprinted incorrectly. There is a franticness to the style of writing that starts slowly, but as the stakes of the story increase, the pace and the need to get to the next clue becomes faster and faster. It starts to feel like there is a chance that if the book doesn't keep up with the story, the reader will be left behind and lost forever, if that makes any sense. I found myself have to backtrack and reread sections to be sure I wasn't missing anything because just like K in the story is trying to do, I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing any information relevant to the plot moving forward.
RABBITS is exciting and completely unpredictable and I loved it. I kind of want to read it again to find any clues I missed the first time. Maybe I didn't miss anything, but the nature of the story compels me to wonder what is hidden out there that I don't see.
I received a copy of this book as part of the Goodreads Giveaway program.

Rabbits by Terry Miles

Great for fans of Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This book takes you on a rollicking journey friends m the very beginning. Touching on numerous fields of study, there is a little something for everyone. Just when you think you've grasped the premise, everything you know shifts to another dimension of reality, leaving you adrift in more questions. With engaging characters and creative concepts, this story will keep you reading well past your bedtime.

Excellent gripping novel. There already are the inevitable comparisons to RP1, even the television series Lost, but Miles' debut work shouldn't be compared...it stands on its own. Miles doesn't overwhelm the reader with such as he unfolds the world and mystery surrounding the protagonist with a slow pace that accelerates until a frenzied whirlwind of surreal twist after twist. And the ending? A twist and a half. I am not familiar with the podcast on which the world of this novel is based, but I can say this had me rushing through pages to find out what happens next, what the next clue...or twist... was going to be. Readers of RP1 might enjoy this, but it is only tertiarily similar. As I said, it stands on its own.

I received a review copy of this from NetGalley

[I rarely summarize fiction plots, mainly because I think it unfair to the author - there are plenty of people who do for those on the hunt, and there is almost always an extra teaser blurb somewhere - and I think it unfair to the reader who, like me, dislikes spoilers.]