Rabbits, by Terry Miles is a very interesting book and for that matter, a wonderful podcast.. A game is being played by unknown persons and you cannot tell anyone about the game. If you do, you meet the grey men and wind up dead. If you win the game, great fortune is yours. It is also reported that there is a systemic problem with the game and it appears that if it continues our world may be destroyed.

While reading the story, I played the background music from the podcast and I liked it quite a bit. As I got further into the story and since the story is mostly set in Seattle, I used my Iphone to look up each landmark, location or person mentioned. When I connected the locations on a map it looked like the head of a rabbit.

It's a well written book and a lot of fun to read.

Overall, I felt kinda meh about this book. Not necessarily bad, but not particularly memorable either. Giving it 2.5/5 Stars.

Have you ever had a moment of disorientation that made you feel less attached to the world as you know it and more thrust into the Uncanny Valley of a world almost-but-not-quite the same? Where everything looks the same on the surface but, the closer you look, the more unnatural it feels? This uneven space of experience is where Terry Miles' Rabbits (set in the same world as his podcast of the same name) lives.

There is a game at work in the world. A game of patterns and differences that only a few notice. It leads to obsession, endless questions, and, lately, a lot more death than usual. K has been obsessed with the mysterious game of patterns known as "Rabbits" for years, so when reclusive billionaire Alan Scarpino-the game's creator and maybe one time iteration winner-comes to K for help explaining that there's something wrong with the game that may have consequences that will "well and truly" ruin the world as we know it and then mysteriously disappears, it sets off a series of events that leave him and his friends spiraling into obsession, conspiracy, and maybe even the deterioration of the multiverse.

Woven, usually deftly, with pop culture references galore, Rabbits is a mostly fascinating exploration of our sense of experiencing the world. It dives into explanations of such phenomena as the Mandela Effect and the concept of the multiverse with enough dedication as to be interesting enough to propel the story's mystery forward, but it can feel a little over the heads of people who may not have experience with the podcast. There is a great deal of repetition in the dialogue that can take readers out of the experience of the story at times, and the overall wrap up feels a little disorienting (thanks, probably, to the nature of the idea of "win the game, save the world" at stake in the novel), but it is a love letter to pop culture for fans of Ernest Cline's Ready Player One, albeit handled with a more skilled hand than the latter.

Admittedly I have no previous experience with the Rabbits podcast, but if the world and stakes and uncanny nature of this novel are anything like it, I'll soon be adding it to my rotation.

I want to thank NetGalley and Random House/Del Rey for the opportunity to receive an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Having listened to the podcast and loved just about everything Terry Miles is connected to, I was beyond excited for this book. I didn't know where anything was going to go and what was going to happen next. I highly recommend this book and anything else that goes along with it.

Thanks to #NetGalley and publishers for the ARC of #Rabbits in exchange for the review.

Thank you to Ballantine and NetGalley for an advanced ebook copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I came to this book a huge fan of the podcast of the same name and basically all of Miles’s work. I love the strange, complicated, and wacky. And Rabbits is that — more of a world that didn’t make sense the first time I entered it and sure does not make sense now. But this book is a good time, if that’s what you’re looking for. And if you’re willing to believe in the strange for a little bit.

This is a 4 star read for me because I am just so happy to have revisited the game again and learned more about how I can look for discrepancies in my own reality.

R U playing? That’s the question that runs through the entire book. Are you playing Rabbits?

There’s a quote attributed to Mary Kay Ash – yes, the cosmetics queen – that goes, “If you think you can. And if you think you can’t, you’re right.” (There are also variations attributed to Henry Ford, but I like her version better.) With Rabbits, it’s more that if you think you’re playing, you might be, but if you think you’re not, you’re probably right. But whether or not you are playing Rabbits, Rabbits is definitely playing you. You just don’t know it. By the time you do know, it’s too late. Too late for you, and possibly too late for the rest of us as well.

If you’re a bit confused by the above, you’re not alone. And you’re not supposed to be. That’s Rabbits.

What is certain, for select, certain, Rabbits-induced values of certainty, is that when the story opens, our protagonist K is not playing Rabbits. At least at the moment. Because the eleventh round of the long-running game – just how long its been running is a matter for serious debate – is about to begin but hasn’t – yet.

So K is in the middle of giving a somewhat roundabout introductory lecture into the world of Rabbits, being extremely circumlocutory because the first rule of Rabbits is that no one ever talks either directly or straightforwardly about Rabbits. He’s also passing the hat because being a Rabbits player isn’t exactly a way to make a living.

Winning is even better than winning the lottery, but the odds of winning are probably equal to the odds of winning the lottery if not, honestly, a bit worse. Very much on that infamous other hand, playing the lottery won’t get you killed. Playing Rabbits just might.

Especially if, like K and his friends, you’re asked to investigate why Rabbits players are dropping dead at even greater than normal rates. There’s something rotten in the current state of Rabbits, and K has to fix it before it’s too late.

If he can figure out what it is. Or where it is. Or even IF it really is. Without revealing much, if anything about what he’s really doing. Because the game might be out to get him. Or it might not. After all, it’s Rabbits.

Escape Rating C+: Rabbits (the book) is, honestly, fairly confusing. The book is supposed to stand alone from the podcast of the same name by the same author, and I’m not 100% sure that it does. I’m also not sure it doesn’t, but that’s Rabbits for you.

I think part of my confusion with the story was that it was presented to me as science fiction, so I was expecting it to be more SFnal than it turned out to be. There is a bit of true SF, but that felt like handwavium rather than being part of the meat of the story.

The story, at its heart, reads like a thriller. K and his friends are tasked with fixing the game before it starts its next iteration and even more terrible things happen. They are under a tremendous amount of pressure and absolutely do not know what they’re doing.

They are paranoid, but there really does seem to be someone out to get them. And paranoia as a state of mind feels like it’s a requirement for playing Rabbits in the first place. Which does a terrific job of ratcheting up the slow building tension of the entire story.

There were plenty of points where the book reminded me of Ready Player One, but that’s also a bit of a misdirection. The stakes turn out to actually be higher in Rabbits, but the game itself is a conspiracy theorist’s dream. Ready Player One, after all, is a game where the players know they are participating, and where, while they may not share tips and tricks with their competitors, discussion of the game is going on pretty much everywhere.

Rabbits is a real-world game, where obsessed people find patterns everywhere in everything (like noticing that once you buy a car you start seeing that make and model of car EVERYWHERE). Some of the patterns that Rabbits players see are part of the game, but some are just the mind playing tricks and some are simply coincidence and the players seem to have very few ways of figuring out which witch is which or even if there are any witches at all. (Mixing metaphors to the point of absurdity.)

So I finished Rabbits feeling not exactly satisfied. As a thriller the SFnal handwavium didn’t quite work for me. As SF, there just wasn’t nearly enough SF there. I liked the characters, but the story didn’t gel because of the handwavium.

But it’s fascinating if you enjoy stories that are chock-full of conspiracy theories, where the stakes are high and the characters are never sure which way is up. Or even if there is an “up” at all. If you threw Ready Player One, The Matrix and and the TV series Lost into an extremely high-tech blender fueled by whatever was fueling the Heart of Gold in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy you might get something like Rabbits. Play if you dare.

Rabbits by Terry Miles is a great novel! I loved the mystery aspect of it. I had no idea what was going to happen next and I found myself enjoying not only the story but the writing is excellent.

Rabbits is a highly addictive read. The mystery pulls readers in the same way the game pulls in the gamers in the book. Gamers are warned to walk away from the game, but they find it irresistible.

First off, I'll reveal a few important points without revealing too many spoilers (caution: read other reviews at your peril, as some reviewers give away the ending without any spoiler alerts). I will reveal this: the main character, simply known as K, gets sucked into the game of Rabbits to the point of interfering with all other aspects of his life. The reader can identify with a character who is so determined to solve a deep mystery, but the reader begins to question K's mental health early in the book. This is something the reader figures out within the first 50 pages of the book, so this isn't a huge spoiler. I will say that there are several key twists after this in the story.

Like Fight Club, Rabbits is a game no one talks about. To do so may jeopardize a player's personal safety. Of course, this element gives it that much more appeal to the cult-like following of the game. I've never heard it, but apparently the book is based off Miles' popular podcast of the same name. Miles does a nice job of littering the book with pop culture references. Sometimes, such things annoy me, like in Tarantino films where he uses pop culture references as a way to "Look at me, aren't I cool?" Miles uses them in a way that adds to the story. I can totally picture someone blasting Band of Horses in a hipster part of Capitol Hill in Seattle. I can also picture someone working at an arcade and wearing a vintage Teenage Fanclub shirt.

Miles nails a lot of the details. Many authors like to write about the rain of Seattle without having actually live in the Northwest. Outsiders act like the rain is some sort of monsoon, but Miles knows the rain is more insidious, small amounts spread throughout the year. Outsider authors have characters whip out an umbrella at a moment's notice, but Miles knows Northwesterners are much more likely to not even own an umbrella and instead wear hoodies. Obviously, I enjoyed modern-day Seattle as a setting in this book. He melds together the idea of the high-tech of today with the '80s nostalgia of the gaming community. At the same time, he finds a similar blending of old and new in Seattle, where tech companies in glass skyscrapers have overtaken the old, blue collar, brick buildings that dominated '80s Seattle.

I also liked how Miles used numerology. He makes the reader question whether it is very intentional or are they being paranoid, and it is a mere coincidence (the 11th iteration is forthcoming and our narrator goes by K, the eleventh letter in the alphabet--coincidence?). A great mystery full of twists and turns.

Rabbits, a mysterious alternate reality game, has been played since 1959. Nine winners have been declared, although their identities are unknown. The exact prize isn't even known. There are rumors of course... rumors of NSA or CIA recruitment, riches, even immortality. The eleventh round is about to begin. However, something is seriously wrong with the game, and it needs to be fixed before round 11 begins. Billionaire Alan Scarpio, rumored to be the winner of the sixth iteration, approaches superfan K to do just that. The problem is, they are too late. The game has begun......
This book was SO good. It was the biggest mind*&^% I think I have ever read. The book was as addictive as the game that the book was about. I powered through it it in just over a day because I didn't want to put it down. If you are a fan of fantasy fiction and you only read one book this year, then this has to be THAT book. You will regret it, otherwise. (I could see this having great movie potential as well, so fingers crossed.!)

DNF @10%

The writing style of this was very weird and clunky and very much not my style. Also, the main character just wasn't clicking with me so I'm putting this book down.

5 hard earned stars!!

This book was SUCH a mind f*ck and I loved every single second of it. This story is for those who loved the TV show Lost, stories like Blake Crouch's Recursion, and other mind-bending thrillers. Also, "The Game" from your childhood (sorry!).

Thank you to the author, publisher, and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What do you know about the game?

First, Big thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing for an advanced copy of this Marvelous book, Rabbits by Terry Miles.

This story centers around a thirty-something adult named K. K does stand for an actual name but the reader unfortunately will not learn this bit of information although I have a few guesses. He has serious anxiety causing him to dissociate for periods of time, however, he also has an incredible knack for finding patterns in an amazing way. This idea of not only finding patterns but following them to new "clues" is the basis of the game.

This book is simply fascinating and mind-boggling to say the least. Full of intricate details that will lead the reader into all kinds of different directions. I thoroughly enjoyed this and highly recommend for fans of mind trip style books!

- absolutely positively hooked from the VERY beginning
- named chapters always make me laugh
- math and patterns and codes
- i haven’t read ready player one but i feel like this is a similar vibe?
- ready player one meets black mirror with a splash of national treasure and a mix of stranger things
- very complex topics and concepts but they are explained in a way that (mostly) makes sense for an average reader
- absolutely loved it !!! a favorite for sure

RABBITS

If you liked Ready Player One, you will love this book. At least I did. It was a scary, menacing ride through a video game called Rabbits. K and Chloe have been warned: Stop playing the game. But despite those warnings and signs along the way, the pair is committed to beat the game to save the world.

Rabbits is an underground computer game. Coincidences, patterns and sequences are the name of the game. As K and Chloe get further in the game, they the game is an interdimensional tool and that the very stability of the universe is in jeopardy because of one selfish man who wants to restore a time when his daughter was still alive.

The action is nonstop as K loses time not to mention Chloe. The narrative investigates alternative lives, a mulidimensional universe, the meaningfulness of coincidences, and the nature of reality itself.

The action was specifically described with details that made me feel like I was right there with K and Chloe and each part of their journey to save the multiverse. What the text lacks in finesse, it makes up for in exciting action.

I am a fan of books with pop culture references, puzzles, codes, and the like. This one was one of my favorites. It is a quick read.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy of this novel. "Rabbits" by Terry Miles was definitely suspenseful and plotted well, and it was overall a good adventure. The story splinters a few times, in places where I think it was supposed to do that—the splintering of the storyline echoes the main character's state of mind, which leads down some questionable alleys and paths along the way to finding out the reality of his memories. A sense of impending doom is palpable throughout the novel, lightened only by various techie and nostalgic references that Gen-Xers like myself will appreciate. It's not so heavy-handed as in "Ready Player One" though, which is a positive note in my opinion. There was one revealing snippet well into the climax that I thought went a twist too far, but it could potentially be passed over easily, and I won't spoil it for the other readers. Overall, "Rabbits" was a dark and brooding adventure, somewhere between dystopia and utopia, with lots of video game references and general geekiness scattered throughout.

About ten years ago, I read a little book called Ready Player One. You may have heard of it. A young, up-and-coming director named Steven Spielberg made a movie about it. You know, R2-D2 was a DJ in it. For some reason.

When I first read it, I thought it was so groundbreaking. I like video games and movies from the 80s! Finally, a book that makes references for me! I really hadn’t read anything like it. It’s a book that focuses on gaming and talks about the merits of being online and gaming and also how bad that can be for you. As you can see, I didn’t read very much when I read RPO.

Now, I think it’s a pandering and quite frankly really dumb piece of writing. But did I buy Ready Player Two, quite possibly the worst title for a book sequel ever? Of course I did. My current feelings towards the book notwithstanding, I remember the feeling I got when I first read it. It was incredible. I truly felt seen. I’ve been chasing that feeling ever since.

Rabbits by Terry Miles is everything that RPO wanted to be and then some. This book is really goddamn good.

The story centers around K, a depressed oddball who plays an underground ARG called Rabbits. Rabbits is a secret real-life game that is based around connections and clues that don’t quite make sense. One night, K is approached by Alan Scarpio, an off-the-wall billionaire that is rumored to be one of the winners of a previous iteration of Rabbits. He tells K that there is something wrong with the game and he needs his help to fix it.

Then, Scarpio disappears.

What follows is an absolutely bonkers series of events that I really can’t even begin to explain and, honestly, I don’t really want to. I want you to know as little as possible going into this book. I want you to get to know K and his motley crew of weirdos on your own.

Speaking of this crew of weirdos, we have Chloe, the love interest/genius; Baron, the best friend; The Magician, the owner of a local arcade that is also a meeting spot for Rabbits players; and so many other strange tertiary characters. This book deals with some really heady topics that have to deal with quantum mechanics, memory, the Mandela Effect, and some stuff called Radiants so try to pay attention while reading it.

I said to my wife while I was reading this that I really hope the book sticks the landing at the end and, well, it kind of did? Like, I’m satisfied enough, but I felt like it needed another fifty pages to really flesh everything out. It’s not a bad ending, just… Not great?

Anyway, why am I comparing this to RPO? Other than the gaming connection, this book has a lot (A LOT) of pop culture references, which it shares with RPO. However, Rabbits does this so much better. With RPO, the references were more like your uncle trying REALLY hard to show how with it he is and peppers every conversation with a pop culture reference or twelve. You couldn’t go one page without a Delorean making an appearance next to the goddamn TARDIS. It’s lousy with references for the SAKE of references. Ernie Cline was trying to break some sort of record when it comes to making references in a book. ((Alternate Joke: Ernie Cline looked at the Reference section of a library and said “Wait a minute, there isn’t a whiff Star Wars here!”) Alternate, Alternate Joke: Ernie Cline took the term “Reference Book” to heart in the worst possible way.))

Rabbits uses references in a way that is integral to the plot. It’s not just regurgitating facts onto the page, it’s using knowledge about the source material to make a connection. It’s not “Look at that BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA over there!” It’s more “Oh, that is a weapon used in an obscure book which is being used as a map to get to the final part of the game!” It’s necessary to the plot. It’s not just saying something referential, it’s using the reference as a starting point.

Overall, I really loved this book and I will be giving it to my friends who liked RPO. It’s a good read-alike that actually doubles as a good book. 5/5, 9/10.

Make sure to pick this up from your favorite indie bookstore on June 8th, 2021.

Thanks to Netgalley for the eARC!

The story is there. And when I actually sat down and focused, I had a pretty good time reading it. It always seems to go into detail on what characters a wearing, which is always something 80's or 90's inspired, and yet it' set in todays time. Personally, it felt like it didn't know exactly what time it wanted to be set in. However, it was really fun. This is actually very, very close to a four star rating and hurt my feelings a little to only rate it a 3 because it was good. I did have a good time. However, it isn't my favorite and I could have been perfectly fine without reading it. I can see very well how it could be on someone's top 10, though. I think most of this is just about me personally with the timing and video game setting. It was fun, it was interesting, and it was wacky. I definitely have a few friends I would recommend it to.

This was definitely a fun read. The beginning was a little info-dumpy and took me a little bit to get into the writing style but things moved along at a really good pace and I became intrigued really early on. This feels like the beginning of the first Matrix movie expanded into something bigger and I really enjoyed it. The concept was really interesting and I loved the mystery behind this whole game that nobody really knew how to play and win but a select few even knew of its existence. The ending wasn’t my favorite but I didn’t hate it by any means. It’s definitely worth a read.

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.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Google Books, and submitted to Amazon.

Didn't like this one as much as I thought I would. Wasn't able to finish it honestly, may try again but it just wasn't my cup n of tea.