I can only begin by thanking Random House Publishing for allowing me to provide feedback in exchange for an ARC of this fantastic book. I love to read, so it’s a real joy to feel like a part of the publishing process, even if I’m only the tiniest cog.

My first instinct is to compare Rabbits to Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. Cheesy and formulaic as it was, I adored Ready Player One. Books are supposed to be fun, and fun it was. I grew up in the ’80s so it was easy to feel exactly what Mr. Cline was putting down. The vibes I’m feeling from Rabbits are in the same vein; like I’m in on the game without really knowing what the game is yet. Terry Miles uses a deft hand and clear, straightforward speech to quickly pull us into the text, as if we know the main character, K, and we’re in the arcade with him having a conspiratorial chat.

Unlike Ready Player One which staked its claim exclusively to ‘80’s pop culture, all of the cultural references in Rabbits are much more obscure and require a bit of research to follow along with. Terry Miles uses the internet, gamer and coder stuff, the dark web, and conspiracy theories, all of which I’m completely unfamiliar with, but also didn’t stand in the way of the pure enjoyment of the story. (Go ahead and do what I did, look up the Berenstain Bears, I dare you.) The action is relentless. Moving from chapter to chapter is more like surfing than reading. Waves of data and storyline and new information pick up the reader and carry them along, thrilling and beguiling, endorphins flying off the foam.

The main character is named K, short for something I’m sure. K is a gamer and an eclectic nostalgia buff. He loves noir horror films, old video games, new video games, and alternate reality conspiracy theory, urban legend pop culture stuff. K lives in Seattle and chums with an equally eccentric mix of characters. A free-lance coder named Baron Corduroy, a musician friend Chloe who works in a vintage arcade for their mutual friend called simply, the Magician.

K, who was orphaned as a teenager, describes himself as an expert at pattern recognition, something he’s been drawn to since his childhood. His superpower is both a blessing and a curse. The pattern fascination he’s developed in his 30 some-odd-years hinders him as often as it helps. Working as a driftless daytrader, it’s a boon, but it can also spill him into bouts of crippling anxiety, which the author uses to great effect in keeping us readers on our toes throughout the story. K’s narrative is lucid and genuine until he experiences an episode, then the entire feel of the story gets twisted into something otherworldly, even horrific at times.

K and his friends are fanatics for a real-world-based adventure game called, you guessed it, Rabbits. We are fed a streaming history of the game throughout the early parts of K’s narrative, but the details, not unlike the game, are fuzzy and incomplete. The first rule of Rabbits, don’t talk about Rabbits. (Sounds familiar.) The telling of the tale becomes more of an experience as the story and the game become far more real. I’m just not going to do the whole synopsis thing, it’s boring and ultimately reveals more of the story than necessary. I will tell you it does end up down a particularly “far-out” rabbit hole, but that’s as far as I’m going to go. Whether or not it’s ultimately believable depends on your ability to suspend disbelief, an area where I excel. If the story remains intact, and the plot doesn’t fall apart when those vital details are revealed, it’s all good with me. If I can hazard a guess, it’s not a stretch to believe that anyone inclined to pick up this book won’t have an issue believing the unbelievable. It’s far more likely those individuals are looking for that exact thing and they will be as thrilled as I was progressing through this awesome book.

In the end, the measure of a book is whether or not its imprint remains on your brain for a period of time afterward. For me, Rabbits has lingered well into the next book I chose. I normally relish the new selection process, yet I found myself bored as I began the newest tale. Rabbits has lingered longer than most books, so far that reason alone I can unselfconsciously give it 5 stars. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

A surrealistic and trippy novel filled with references to popular culture, artificial intelligence, assorted weirdness , and the possible existence of a multiverses and alternative time streams. As you can see .... a plethora of themes resulting in one quirky read. Our main protagonist is simply known as "K" , who is obsessed with the game of Rabbits... it started the night his friend Annie Connors died in a head-on auto collision in a vehicle occupied by her sister, Emily and himself. He has prided himself with his ability to see patterns and connections where others could not. In order to play Rabbits, connections and patterns observed lead to the discovery of clues, which propagates the game forward. The origin of the game appears to be ancient with the goal and purpose shrouded in secrecy with a complex series of uncertain rules. Game players start to disappear ... with the possibility they were killed. There have been ten iterations of the game ... with the beginning of the eleventh looming soon. K is approached by billionaire Scarpio who was a past winner and requests his aid in "fixing" the game before the new iteration begins ... otherwise dire and dangerous events will occur threatening the nature of our reality. Before a second meeting can occur the billionaire appears to disappear from existence. K and his girlfriend Chloe are thrust into a journey following bizarre clues, patterns, and coincidences, Suddenly they realize they are playing Rabbits and encountering a series of increasingly weird characters and situations.
Miles succeeds in entertaining the reader with a twisted and complex narrative that is plot driven with plucky references to popular culture and mystifying phenomena .... such as false memories. Who hasn't heard of the Mandela effect. The conundrum of the nonexistent film "Shazaam" starring Sinbad the comedian .... or the false memory of the children's books ... Berenstain vs Berenstein Bears. Expect to consider the possibility of alternate time lines or dimensions. What is the goal of Winning the Game ... wealth, health, or even saving the World.
This gem can certainly be devoured as a standalone novel. I have no knowledge of the Rabbit podcast but now will check it out to extend my adventure into fun and weirdness. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/ Ballantine for providing an Uncorrected Proof in exchange for an honest review.
( at readersremains.com)

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book received in exchange for an honest review.

Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game that takes place all around us. Anyone can join, you just need to know what you are looking for... What do you receive if you win? Maybe NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or the secrets of the universe...

I'm only giving this one three stars because while it started out strong, it seemed to drag out the narrative further than it needed. Overall, the concept was interesting, but I felt myself struggling to finish as the details and concepts seemed too into the weeds. It was an entertaining enough read, but I would not read it again.

Full review on goodreads. It didn’t really meet my expectations from the description and was really out there. I didn’t hate it, it it’s a hard sell unless you’re really a sci fi and matrix kind of person.

To read Rabbits, the forthcoming novel by Terry Miles (@tkmiles, Penguin Random House), is to play the game of Rabbits yourself. The novel begins with K., the protagonist and narrator, doing their best to describe the mysterious, ancient game, which may or may not be holding the universe together.

But it’s more than that.

When you play Rabbits, the mundane world fades away and an alternate realm of arcane knowledge and obscure connections rises to replace it–a realm where everything is connected and you’re clinging to what is true right now in a world that constantly shifts and changes.

The same thing happens when you read Rabbits, too.

As the story progresses, the narrative reticulates around what Rabbits is, and what the stakes are, but not before taking the reader through the same raucous discovery quest that K. and their friends and fellow players are on. Such a narrative would be hard to follow, disjointed and divided, so much muddy prose, in the care of a lesser writer. We are fortunate that Terry Miles is not a lesser writer.

Through arcane pop-culture knowledge, patterns and connections between albums, experimental novels, movies, films, and video games that may or may not exist — or are just slightly off — Rabbits players (and we, the readers) are off on a well-paced and all-consuming journey that promises… well, we don’t know what, exactly. And the plot moves so quickly that we don’t have time to care, but we trust that Miles will deliver on those promises in due time. (He does.)

The narrative flows seamlessly between worlds and realities, competing conspiracies and connections between events. Between interpretations. The narrative presents the flux inherent in a game of Rabbits with such clarity that we, as readers, know the characters are, themselves, as perplexed and intrigued as we are. We simultaneously know — and don’t know — what is going on with the game and are eager to keep reading to find out.

Fans of both character- and action-driven plots won’t be disappointed. From the outset, each Rabbits player — K., Chloe, Baron, the Magician, and even Fatman Neal (whom you’ll meet soon enough), among others — hum with life, with reality. They’re real people, whom you’ll worry about during those unfortunate times when you aren’t reading the book.

The action is well-paced, events correlate in ways neither we nor the characters anticipate, and backstory is handled and presented in such a way that it gives us a brief moment to breathe and reflect; it’s also clearly related to the main plot, which scores major points from yours truly.

“The door is open.”

So, what is Rabbits? For fear of spoilers, I’ll be brief. In its modern form, it’s rumored to be a recruitment tool for the NSA or CIA, an induction rite for a secret order of immense wealth and knowledge, or something more. It’s the something more that I’m not telling you about.

A new iteration of the game begins with that phrase: the door is open. Early in the novel, with the eleventh iteration of the game set to drop, the mysterious Alan Scarpio shows up and tells K. that something is gravely wrong with the game, something that puts the world as we know it in jeopardy. And it’s up to K. to figure out what’s going on and how to fix it.

Then Scarpio disappears. No pressure at all.

Throughout the novel, we learn why and how K. is the chosen one. Though that is a well-worn trope, Miles puts a fresh spin on it, making the story, and the the character K., so much more than a character type. We don’t know K.’s full name, or much of anything else about them at the outset, but they’re not a “chosen one” in any traditional sense, and the story is all the richer because of that. Perhaps we could call them “one chosen against their will”, though they certainly grow into the role, and into a greater understanding of their place within Rabbits and the rest of the world.

It’s a wonderful mix of conspiracy, science (pseudo and otherwise), action, self-discovery and friendship, all presented in a nostalgia-laced, LitRPG-feeling skin. Ultimately, Rabbits is the new standard-bearer for nostalgic, game-inspired fiction. Sorry, Ernest Cline.

Cool things about Rabbits that involve SPOILERS

Rabbits is as much a novel of self-discovery and formative relationships as it is a race against time and understanding to save the world. After Scarpio’s disappearance, the narrative goes into one of many flashback scenes that, though initially jarring, introduces us to K.’s family history, to his parents and their friends, and their friends’ kids, all of whom are obsessed with connections and patterns — with playing the game.

Though, K. won’t call it an eidetic memory, they do tell us they’ve always had a proclivity for patterns and connections, which is something their parents encouraged. Later, we find out the truth about how K. came to be the “one chosen against their will”, and all makes sense.

As I read Rabbits, each of these patterns, connections, and incongruities led me into my own game of Rabbits. K. describes a “gray feeling” while playing the game, for instance, and each time it’s presented, the reader can’t help but try to parse connections between the first instance and the next.

Against virtually everyone’s advice, and even when friends start disappearing — or worse — K. continues to play the game, with each clue and connection becoming more intense and informative as the game goes on. As they say in the book, Rabbits tends to guide players who are on the right track.

The characters K. meets in their journey help explain Rabbits and K.’s place in it. While playing the game — and meeting Fatman Neal, Crow, and others — K. ultimately understands Rabbits and see the current iteration to its end. Doing so also illuminates K. as a whole person, with a family, friends, and interests that have been shaped by obsession with, and perhaps addiction to, Rabbits.

Even Rabbits is more than itself, though. The game is but a small part of a much, much larger whole, one that a book review on a fledgling blog couldn’t do justice.

You’ll have to read for yourself to learn the game’s outcome. If you read closely, and if you’re good at playing Rabbits, there might be clues in the text. Maybe. Or maybe that was just in my copy…

(PS. Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC. And, if you liked this review, check out my others… like the indie author reading challenge, which I’ve just started.)

If all of my favorite books crawled into a blender together and got poured into a new book, Rabbits would probably be the result. A delightful mindfu<k full of gaming, theoretical physics, psychology and a heavy splash of trauma.

Wow, this really is tremendous fun where, in a story that involves anything but a fun premise, you might not expect to experience it. It's a cliche but I really found it hard to put this down and finished it very quickly.

It's a complicated tale of coincidences (or are they?) and games but so well paced and written that I could comfortably keep up with it. Well, most of it. There were a few places where I needed to reread and still found myself somewhat lost in a maze of possible timelines but it genuinely did not detract from my enjoyment of the book. There's a really original story here but with sprinklings of Neal Stephenson, Neil Gaiman, and I've also, correctly, seen it compared to Murakami which I'd agree with for its off-kilter nature.

The main characters are really well drawn and very likeable, particularly K, Chloe, and Emily. There's a host of additional characters making up the light and the dark side (or challenging your perception of the light and the dark side) which also help to draw you in.

I discovered after reading this that it's based on a podcast. I don't know if that lends a deeper level of understanding or maybe expectation to the reading of the book but I can attest to the fact that it's coherent and cohesive and , as I said, really great fun as a stand-alone novel.

Not sure I understood everything in this book, but it was amazing!

K, yup that is his name... the only name we know him as in this book, loves games. They have helped him to deal with the untimely loss of his parents, and kept him, mostly, from going insane as he moves through life. One game, however, has his attention more than any other and that is the game Rabbits. Rabbits is a game in which you look for patterns and follow clues.... if you are lucky enough to win, then amazing things happen in your life. First though, you have to survive... as some people don't and when Alan Scarpio, one of the richest men in the world, rumored to be one of the game winners, approached K and lets him know that something is wrong with the game... and K needs to fix it or something terrible may happen, K is thrust into a world different than he has ever been in before... one where things keep changing and life as he knows it is shaken and threatened. However, this will not stop K because there is a game of Rabbits to play.

This is a book like no other book I have read. It is sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, intrigue, romance and so much more. It grabbed my attention from page one and I could not put it down. LOVED IT! Read it. Devour it. Enjoy it.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

I had not listened to the Rabbits podcast, but the cover and the description drew me in and I'm so glad that I kept with this one!

I like a good conspiracy theory and the world of the strange and supernatural. Seeing mentions of things like the Mandela effect and the Berenstain/Berenstein Bears theories made me smile. After figuring out what the heck was actually HAPPENING in the plot (which, admittedly, took about halfway through the book), I flew through the second half and was pleasantly surprised at how things ended. Part "Ready Player One" with references to older games, music, movies, etc. and following clues to win a game.

(Thank you to NetGalley and Random House / Del Ray Books for the eARC in exchange for a honest review!)

It was stated that you do not have to listen to the podcast Rabbits to read this book. As such, I went in blind. The pacing was inconsistent. Things would start to rev up in the plot, and I would be excited to keep reading. However, the plot would then fall flat again. This was disappointing and almost led to a 90% in DNF.
The story follows a consistent formula of, K and Chloe find a clue, they then look for the next clue. K loses reality or time or both, and somehow finds said next clue. Chloe asks K if he is ok. Rinse and repeat for 400+ pages and you have the book.
There is no real character development to speak of here. K and Chloe feel flat personality-wise. This story genuinely had the means to be amazing. The execution, however, stifled all of those chances.
Full review will be posted on my blog on June 18th, 2021

if you combined This Is Not a Game, Dark Matter & Ready Player One (sort of) and then took shrooms, this is what you would get. in a good way.

Wow! A fast-paced, plot driven drive through the world of gaming, AI, multiverse physics and magic using a female protagonist akin to Alice of Wonderland. Well done. Can’t wait for the TV series.

Rabbits is like if Ready Player One and Dark Matter had a book baby together.
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Set in Seattle, K, is an eccentric guy that has an uncanny ability to spot patterns and coincidences. But what if there is no such thing as coincidences, but rather those are actually clues to a mystery game known as rabbits. And what if the game of rabbits isn’t only real, but also is can be deadly.
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This trippy sci-fi thriller kept me interested to try to find out what’s going on, and interested enough did make me catch some coincidences in real life so clearly the story was sticking in my brain. I’ll admit stories like this can be a bit confusing for me, but it was still a very entertaining read! I’d recommend for people who enjoy this genre and looking for a change of pace from non science fiction books
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Thank you to #Netgalley, Terry Miles and Penguin Random House for an advanced copy of this title!

If you are a fan of Inception and the rest of Christopher Nolan’s movies, I am sure you will love this book. Personally, I avoid his movies unless I have trouble sleeping. While I succeeded in finishing Rabbits by Terry Miles, I really couldn’t explain why I bothered. I read the book courtesy of Penguin Random House and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It is very hard for me to write about this book. Some people are playing a game called Rabbits. Or, maybe they aren’t. No one talks about the game because there is a chance they will die or disappear. Some people have already. Maybe. There seem to be multiple realities that people cross in and out of. No one knows what is really going on, or why, including the reader. Maybe it’s just me. There is a lot of action, high-speed chases, attempted murders, and dangerous creatures from somewhere. It is difficult for me to enjoy a book unless I care about the characters. I didn’t as the characters had no discernable character.

Confused? Good, get used to it. I really can’t recommend a book I truly didn’t understand. I never played multiplayer games online, maybe that’s the problem. I don’t fall into the book’s demographics. The most positive comment I can offer is that it saved me from taking Melatonin that evening. ,

Good luck.

Let me begin by thanking Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine Del Rey for an advanced copy of this book. With that said, let me preface this review by stating that I'd never heard of the podcast Rabbits in the past thus was not directly influenced by being a fan. Rabbits begins with our protagonist,  K, who finds himself being asked by an incredibly wealthy man to help him fix an incredibly secret,  illuminati a-la- Fight Club type game that is played live action style called Rabbits. K soon finds himself following countless clues along with his love interest Chloe while simultaneously experiencing time lapses in his memory and supernatural type events. While all of this may seem enticing and Murakami-esque, the writing style was somewhat problematic.  One paragraph would describe being in a certain location and suddenly the next has the reader wondering what happened. Often times a lot of the characters seem to be repeating what they say over and over again throughout the novel so we see a lot of redundancy. While I'm all for trying new syntactical writing styles, this often went on for pages especially about the technical jargon of some scientific endeavor or other. I do believe this novel would have benefited from a lot more editing and possibly some kind of better closure other than "we are saving the world and hurray we did it but have no idea why we did it or anything involving the multiverse or the game itself." If this was truly the author 's intention,  to lead us down a literal rabbit hole and surface 400+ with no more information than what we started with on page one, then by all means he succeeded.  I wanted to love this story so much but unfortunately fell incredibly short.

Books based off of podcasts seem to be all the rage these days. For the longest time I couldn't really understand why. There are a limited amount of books to read so why waste my time on a story that I'm already familiar with? Well I was wrong. Not only did I learn a lesson in humility but I found a new book that I really loved. Rabbits works whether or not you are a fan of the podcast. In fact I'd say it's probably better to start with the book and then proceed to the podcast when you finish. When this book ends you're going to look for any excuse to enter this world again. It's that good. Though it's worth mentioning that the book is entirely separate then the podcast as far as characters and plot. There are Easter eggs, but that's really it. What's it about? It's a mystery about a secret organization/company tied to a game that may be more sinister then it appears at first. The Mandela effect and alternate realities play a role. The world building was great and the mystery unravels at a perfect pace. Never did i feel overwhelmed or over burdened with an info dump. This story exceeds at "show, don't tell". The ending left me a bit confused, but not in a bad way. More to come as it gets closer to release. I would definitely recommend.

Weird! That’s the first word that comes to mind with this book but I mean that in the best way. I had never heard of the podcast so I came into this book with no background knowledge and it was a fun ride as I found out along with K what was going on. The opening was a little confusing before things started to take K along on his journey. There’s a lot of craziness in this book and it’s a very outlandish plot that’s unlike anything I’ve read before. If, like me, you are new to Rabbits I suggest just diving in and enjoying the mystery. There are so many possibilities in this world and I think a large question mark at the end that this could easily be a series of books that I would eagerly devour. I will definitely be starting the podcast next. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This wildly inventive roller coaster ride of a book will take you on a quest for seemingly random clues through an alternate universe. Calling on the morbid curiosity that many of us have felt about the bizarre world of QAnon, Miles has developed a similar world that plunges those mesmerized by its drama and powerful sense of community into a vortex of psychic and even physical danger. There is obviously more here than meets the eye, but I'm not including spoilers. Just know that you should grab this book upon its publication if you like puzzles, alternate reality games, or that uneasy shift of perception that can strike when you venture into liminal spaces. Thank you to the publisher for providing an advance reader copy to allow me to express my opinion. @DelReyBooks #Rabbits #NetGalley

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for sending me an ARC of Rabbits in exchange for an honest review. Rabbits is being marketed for fans of Blake Crouch, Ernest Cline, and Black Mirror. While I am a fan of all three (even if I was disappointed by Ready Player Two), this novel just didn’t work for me at all.

Rabbits is a difficult novel to describe. There’s allegedly an underground game called Rabbits that takes place in the real world from time to time right under everyone else’s noses. There aren’t any formal rules or structure to the game, but if you start noticing odd coincidences (the same number appearing again and again around you) or discrepancies (a building that you’re sure used to have two windows now has three) around you, you can follow those clues and find ... other clues. And if you get to the end of this string of clues then you’ll win ... a prize, maybe, no one’s really sure. The game is believed to be dangerous to play, but when a former winner turns up and tells our narrator, K, that he has to fix the game or the whole world may be destroyed, K and his would-be girlfriend Chloe try to “Win the Game, Save the World” (an actual chapter title).

And that’s pretty much it. I mean, other characters get involved and K has a backstory. But the plot is basically just K and Chloe talking, then noticing something weird, following it for a while, stopping, then noticing something else weird, lather, rinse, repeat. The book honestly could have been 200 shorter or 200 pages longer without any real difference to the story—it just seemed to be a matter of how long the author felt like telling the story.

Compounding the problem of the repetition was the unreality of it all. If you never really know what’s real and what’s not, it’s very difficult to become invested in or attached to any of the characters. While the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon and Mandela effect discussions were interesting, the happenings here were extreme to the point of absurdity. If a friend of yours in real life started telling you that they were seeing connections between unrelated events the way K and Chloe do, you would call to get them psychological help.

Rabbits is set in the same world Mr. Miles created in a 2017 podcast. The publisher says you don’t have to be familiar with the podcast to enjoy the book. Perhaps, but all I can say is I wasn’t familiar with that podcast and I unfortunately didn’t enjoy the book. If you really liked the podcast, I guess I’d say give the novel a try. Otherwise, I can’t recommend it.

Is it possible to loath a book just as much as you adore it? That was Rabbits for me. Rabbits is a game. But not just any game. It is secret and underground. And sometimes dangerous and life-threatening. You won’t know what you have to do to win and you don’t know what the prize is while you’re playing. Find the signs, follow the clues, win the game, save the world.

Is the book sci-fi? Is it fantasy? Does the MC, K, have a mental disorder? I can’t answer any of these questions. Following K has he played the game was SO SO interesting and I found myself obsessing over the game right along with K. As the book goes on, the components of the game become more and more confusing. Is K even playing the game anymore or is he driving himself insane? You’ll have to read to find out. All of these things made me adore the book. But the ending of the book left a lot of things unanswered as K doesn’t know the answers so we as the readers never find the answers either. You will end the story without really knowing what happened. What was real and what was imagined. Omg, it was so good! I know this review basically does nothing except for ramble and tell you how I have no idea what the eff I just read but I just can’t say it enough how much this story drew me in and left me so completely engrossed that I might as well have been playing the game as well, I became so distracted from my own reality.

If you love mind-bending, speculative fiction then I would give this a try. I finished reading this a week ago and it is still in my head. I’m still thinking about the craziness and trying to make sense of so much. I’ll definitely be re-reading this again in the future.

Releases June 8, 2021

Received from Random House Publishing via Netgalley