Rabbits by Terry Miles

Rabbits by Terry Miles

Terry Miles' first novel, Rabbits, has quite the following. Set in the same world as the Rabbits podcast, it was named one of the Best Books of the Year by the Wall Street Journal in 2021 and has since spawned a sequel, The Quiet Room. It also happens to be the book I was given for September's book club. It deals with the death of children (and adults), gun violence, grief, a car accident, and murder.

Imagine that you leave work a bit late, at 5:13 pm. You get into the elevator to go to the ground floor but there are already two floor buttons glowing: 5 and 13. You realize the date is May 13th, or 5/13. You walk out of the building onto the street to see huge banners showcasing basketball players for the upcoming game. The players are wearing number 51 and 3. Your phone says you've missed 5 calls, you have 13 unread messages. Weird, you should definitely play the lottery today. You walk to the nearest bodega and get in line, 5 people in front of you. The person in front of you has a total that comes to 13 dollars even. That's when you see it - the lottery jackpot is 51,351,153. Coincidence? Or did you just get a peak into The Game? Also called Rabbits, nobody really knows what The Game is, though some hypothesize that its a recruitment tool for something like the CIA. Nobody knows when it starts or how to start to play, you just have to follow the patterns. Nobody knows for sure who the winners are, but there have been nine winners so far and the tenth iteration of The Game is currently underway. K has been obsessed with The Game ever since they learned about it but they've never found their way in to play. Enter Alan Scarpio, billionaire and rumored winner of the sixth iteration of Rabbits. He tells K that something is wrong with the game. Rabbits has always been dangerous but now the death toll is mounting quickly. K needs to fix The Game before the next iteration starts or they're all doomed. A few days later, Scarpio is declared missing. And before K has a chance to even think about how Rabbits could be fixed, let alone actually fix it, eleven starts and the things get even weirder.

The concept of this book is so interesting and different, and I probably should not have listened to the audiobook. I liked it a lot but I think it would have been so much better if I had read it, I found the audiobook version to be a bit confusing and it's more difficult to go back and check previous parts of the book. Honestly, and this may be the first time I've ever said this in my life, I think this would make a better movie. It has a vibe like Inception or The Usual Suspects, it's all visual clues and I think a film would do a better job of immersing the viewer and allowing them to be a part of the story. That being said, this book has a lot of good about it. The characters are interesting but this book is too mysterious for it to come off as kitschy or quirky. However, there is so much information in this book that I found it difficult to identify or empathize with any of the characters. The writing is nothing exceptional but it is not bad by any means. The setting is well built and quickly holds your attention.

I'm giving Rabbits by Terry Miles 3.75 out of 5 with the caveat that I may have rated it higher if I had not listened to it, which is ironic since Rabbits started as a podcast.

For more from Terry Miles, check out their website at https://minnowbeatswhale.com/

Pairs well with a slice of rhubarb pie and forgoing your given name to go by something mystifying like the Enchantress or Countess Aubergine.

Favorite Quote: "Some true stories are easier to accept if you can convince yourself that at least part of them are fictional."