I have to say the writing was good and I needed to find out who the killer was. And the author has real potential. However I almost quit several times. The angsty, poor me, whiney character drove me bonkers! And most of the characters were terrible people who did I believably stupid stuff. Also, the flashbacks in the first half really distracted from the main story.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

DNF

Read 18% Writing a bit overblown with obnoxious cuts to flashbacks in the middle of every chapter. Rufus and Sebastian agreeing to help April, who isn't even nice, is unbelievable.

It took me entirely too long to read this book which was weird because it wasn't bad, I was actually really invested in the story and the main relationship. So I am not sure what made me keep putting the book down. Maybe it was the unfairness of Rufus's life that just kept hitting me pretty hard, either way I enjoyed the way the story progressed and I truly was no expecting the murderer to be who it was.

Overall, I gave the book 3.5/5 stars.

“White Rabbit” at first glance has everything that I love in a good mystery thriller: murder, suspense, and even romance. I enjoyed the book, but the writing style was a bit hard to keep up with and the various puzzles were not laid out neatly enough to keep easy track of.
The book does have a few notable trigger warnings, including rape/non-con, homophobia, narcotics/drug abuse, eating disorders, and sexual assault.
I loved the pacing of the book. It was fast and let you blaze right through it while still keeping you enthralled throughout. The characters are interesting and morally grey. It forces readers to question what they believe to be morally right or wrong and the characters themselves are unreliable at times. It adds to the intrigue of the novel.

A copy of the book was provided by the publisher in return for an honest review.

I found White Rabbit's backstory distracted from the front story. The writing was phenomenal with great attention to detail as I've come to expect from Caleb Roehrig but the pacing suffered because of the elaborate structure of the back story and slow pace of the front story.

Considering how much I adored my last Caleb Roehrig work, Last Seen Living, a book that had me completely entranced and aching for more from the same mind I was so ready for White Rabbit. I am happy to report I was not disappointed. This follow up to one of my favorite works was just as good as its predecessor. Haunting, well written and full of mystery it's one you're not going to want to miss.

Plenty of twists and turns in this thriller will keep readers on their toes. Towards the end things became a bit confusing.

I love the whole working backwards to uncover what happened and also unreliable narrators, which are both used in White Rabbit. I never knew what the real story was and who was being truthful. So much suspense. I also absolutely love the characters Caleb creates. They feel so real, and Rufus is a total cinnamon roll. So if you want mystery and strong characters, there’s two books you need on your shelf now (and one coming next year).

I never knew anyone hated what boat shoes represent as much as me but then Caleb just made me feel SO SEEN. Ok, besides that, how many thrillers do you know have a cast full of LGBT characters? Not enough and that’s why you should be reading this.

This book is so intense and I loved it. The compressed timeline and the twists and the sexual/romantic tension between Rufus and Seb kept me flipping pages so fast, and I loved how the bigger picture of the mystery and drug crimes emerged alongside the personal drama and the messed-up family dynamics. By the time July 5th dawned, I was breathless. I am really impressed with how Roehrig took a real issue in society and thoughtfully turned it into an all-too-plausible thriller.

Unfortunately this was not a book for me and I'd rather not say why. Some people will love this book and that's fine, but I was not the correct audience for it.

I thought Last Seen Leaving was a great YA Law and Order SVU type book so I was excited for Roehrig's sophomore book. The idea of the book taking place all in one night is great, but I felt like I didn't really know any of the characters and there was just so much extra stuff in there that it fell really flat.

I really enjoyed Roehrig’s debut novel, Last Seen Leaving, so was very excited to pick up his sophmore novel White Rabbit. I had high expectations for this book and Roehrig blew them all out of the water!!! I loved this book and had a hard time putting it down. The mystery keeps you guess throughout the story and the character dynamics will just hit you right in the feels. I loved Rufus and his journey. I loved how this book also dealt with a relationship that ended but how those same two people were able to talk about the past, pick up the pieces and move forward. This isn’t something you see often in books but much needed within the sea of new love that populates YA books. New love is always great but it’s nice for teens (and the adults that read teen books) to see that hurts can be mended and that breakups aren’t always forever.

Not my favorite but I was still invested enough to want to finish this book. Looking forward to see what else this author comes up with.

Rufus Holt is having a hard time: he still hasn’t gotten over his ex-boyfriend, his dad is a terrible person, his mom is struggling to pay the bills, and his half-sister needs his help to prove she isn’t a murderer. Trying to solve a murder is hard enough as a teen that has no training in sleuthing, but it’s even harder to do with your ex-boyfriend (whom you’re clearly not over) and for your sister (who isn’t very nice and comes from the family that pretends you don’t exist because they’re rich and you’re not). But Rufus has to help because his sister dangles the carrot of money in front of him, which he needs to help his mom. And so did Rufus’s sister murder her boyfriend and now she’s playing Rufus? Or did someone else kill Fox? Either way, Rufus is gonna be kicking a hornet’s nest when he starts investigating…A good mystery with a horrorish feeling, that has a great main character to follow as he struggles through family, relationship, and anger issues.

So… White Rabbit has a bunch of things going on. It’s a murder mystery. It’s a “happened in one night” story. It’s a sparks-fly-between-exes story. It’s a little bit of a family drama for Rufus. And a little bit of a coming out story for Sebastian.

White Rabbit started a bit slowly for me, considering the fact that it kicks off with a dead body! Rufus is the product of an affair between his mother and a married man. Rufus’s father had a son with his wife before Rufus was born, and a daughter, April, afterwards. Rufus and his mother don’t have a good relationship with his father, who is still married. April calls Rufus after she wakes up next to the dead body of her boyfriend.

The story has to get us all to speed on the family stuff and also on all the possible suspects in the murder of April’s boyfriend. It’s a lot, because the suspects are all friends that April and her boyfriend were hanging out with at her father’s vacation home. The book also includes some flashbacks about Rufus and Sebastian’s relationship.

The initial set-up and mystery-solving made the first third of the book feel a little slow to me, but then there was a development that raised the stakes so I was happier
While I enjoyed the flashbacks about Rufus and Sebastian’s relationship, I also felt that they slowed down the pace of the suspense plot. In addition, Sebastian had also dated girls and his family didn’t know about his relationship with Rufus, so he had some personal stuff of his own going on.
I usually love “happened in one night stories” but I think they work better when the plot is more streamlined. With the addition of all the extra “stuff” I kept feeling like it felt like a very, very long night.
I’m not usually a reader who loves extended action scenes, but when the story focused on action I thought things got a lot more absorbing, and the writing was stronger.
I really liked the relationship between Sebastian and Rufus, but at times the relationship talk and flashbacks derailed the suspense. (But the way the romantic plot ended up was great.)
So I’m a little conflicted on this one. I liked all the story elements but didn’t always feel that they worked together to make a seamless whole.

If, like me, you read and enjoyed Last Seen Leaving, definitely give White Rabbit a try, as it has some similar elements – mystery and LGBT themes. If you haven't tried Last Seen Leaving, definitely check it out!

Drugs, rich people, and murder. The fodder of mystery writers. You seldom get two of these elements without the third.
I have a lot of questions reading this book, most tied to Rufus and his half sister. SHe clearly uses him and yet he falls all over himself to help her.
There aren't any glaring logic or writing failings. It just fails to engage.

I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley for an honest review.

Well, this was highly disappointing. I really liked "Last Seen Leaving" by the same author and was expecting this to be of the same quality. There was still some sarcastic and witty dialogue reminiscent of the first book but that was about the extent of its similarities. The beginning is just silly, who would react like that when they find their sister with a dead body? The rest is just downhill from there. Pass this one up and read "Last Seen Leaving" instead.

My favorite thing about this story was Rufus. His voice was very unique and I think the author did a fantastic job creating his character. I could feel his anger at his life, but I could also feel how he finally wanted to let go of his past and become something better. Only problem is that his high school and dad refuse to let him become something other than what they see. Rufus will for sure stay with me for a long time.

My biggest complaint with this was that I didn't want to feel like the killer was right. It was so hard to hate them and I know I should've but after everything is revealed I just felt like I wanted to be their accomplice. And that's not the way I think the author intended for the reader to feel. Peyton was horrible, but she was used and she felt like she couldn't get out from her predicament. Was she right NO, but again because this is fiction I can see where is came from and am glad she did what she did. Now that being said I don't agree with her killing spree so that is where I draw the line. Maybe that is where the author wanted the reader to hate her I don't know, but it was just really hard to hate her.

I also wish we wouldv't gotten a bit more backstory with this group. I felt like so much more could have been explored, but I can understand why the author chose to just give important facts. The story definitely moved and probably with any added history it would have dragged on. I did enjoy the Bash and Rufus history and thought that was a nice way for the author to give the reader breathing room because this book was intense.

I didn't guess the killer which was nice and unexpected. I had my money on Peter which would have been a let down so I am glad the author chose to go with who he did. All in all I was on the edge of my seat and read this in one day so I can't say I hated it by any means.

I usually tend to shy away from books written by male authors, but this has shown me I need to widen my horizons because Roehrig definitely has a great voice and his books should be read.

Rufus Holt started out having a great evening at his best friend's birthday party, but things have gone downhill pretty quickly. His ex-boyfriend, Sebastian - who ghosted him after Rufus told him he loved him - showed up at the party, looking for him, and his younger half-sister, April, called him and begged for his help. When Rufus and Sebastian head over to Fox Whitney's place, where his sister was partying with the other rich, in-crowd teens, they find April holding a bloody knife, and Fox, laying dead in a pool of blood. Thus starts White Rabbit, a first-person narrated whodunit.

Rufus is the bastard son of a wealthy lawyer who refuses to acknowledge him. Unfortunately for Rufus, his half-siblings notice him just fine. He's the school outcast, bullied and harassed by his borderline sociopath half-brother and his friends, and their rich kid crowd. When he came out, the abuse ratcheted up several notches, but Rufus refuses to break. He starts seeing Sebastian - one of the rich kid in-crowd - on the down-low, but Sebastian broke things off in a panic, afraid of how his parents would react. But Sebastian is back, and wants to try to patch things up with Rufus, so he rides along as Rufus spends the night frantically trying to clear April's name so he can get a payoff from her mother. The killer is still lurking, and systematically killing off anyone who can tie him - or her - to the night's events, and Rufus is asking way too many questions.

White Rabbit is similar to Natasha Preston's The Cabin: a group of awful teens with too much money get into trouble and the outcast has to save the day. The pace is fast, and the subplot surrounding Rufus and Sebastian's relationship will pull readers in and keep them turning pages. Rufus can be a frustrating hero at points; his motivation to help April before the money came into play still makes me scratch my head, but Sebastian emerges as the deeper, more interesting character to follow here. Give this book to your thriller fans.

*eARC kindly provided by Macmillan Children's Publishing Group via NetGalley*

Not as good as his debut, but I do really like Caleb's writing. It made me want to keep reading, so I'd know who dun it. But the actual mystery left a lot to be desired. It wasn't as thrilling as I'd hoped, and it felt like mysteries I've already read before. And I just didn't really care for the explanations of the killer and thought it was eh. There wasn't much about it that was different, and I did not like any of the characters except for Rufus, Bash, and Lucy (who only had a few cameos, which made me sad because she's the best). I did love that Rufus and Sebastian were able to work through everything that had happened and get a second chance. They were SO CUTE. Anyway, I'm looking forward to the author's next book!