I grabbed this book because I am a Blake Crouch fan.... this was not my kind of book. I thought it started out great, but got way too “science fictiony “ for a person who is not a huge SciFi fan. I do however see the appeal, just not for me.

If you're a big nerd like me, who used to take notes during Lost, then you may love this. It's
science-y (physics lite) so you know it's right up my alley.

It resonated with me because I see these kinds of coincidences in life a lot. Kinda makes you wonder.

I'm so thankful to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for being given an opportunity to review this ARC.

I didn’t like this one at all. I kept reading hoping it would get better and it just didn’t. There is a game that isn’t a game that might actually be helping keep the world together. The idea of dimensions was interesting. But the characters are boring and I just didn’t care about any of them. This is a hard pass.

Rabbits by Terry Miles sounded like it was going to be right up my alley, but unfortunately it just never quite worked out for me as I was hoping it would. It seems like it's going for a Ready Player One, The Matrix, and Inception, but it never manages to live up to what could have been an epic combo. It wasn't just the plot that didn't work for me, but the characters are far too thinly drawn to catch my attention. If I'm being honest though, this gets a whole star for just mentioning The Night of the Hunter with Robert Mitchum.

Wow, this book was so unique, definitely one of my favorites of 2021. If you like mysteries with weird twists, Stanger Things, the Mandela Effect, Jumanji, or Geocaching, you're going to love this book. The ending was a tad disappointing but I couldn't put this book down. 5 stars for sure! FYI, go into this knowing as little as possible about it(Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review

Representation: No discernible diversity (that I remember), please let me know if I have this wrong!

"The door is open." We follow K, who is a pattern genius and a low-key obsessive about the legendary game, Rabbits. However, Rabbits is not a game known by all. It’s a mysterious game that only a few know about, and those people talk about it very carefully. There are a lot of questions about what exactly Rabbits is, but people know it’s been around since at least 1959, ten iterations have been played, nine winners have been announced. People wonder if it’s a reality-bending game or just something run by an extremely powerful being or artificial intelligence. Regardless, the winner is rewarded very well, but exactly how, no one knows. Wealth, recruitment into some top government agency, a key to the universe? It’s not all a fun game though. The more you play, the more deadly it becomes and players have died in the past. This has always been true, which is why K is surprised when Alan Scarpio, a billionaire, approaches him and says there’s something wrong with the game and it needs to be fixed before it’s too late. Then Scarpio goes missing and the deadline flies by. The stakes are higher than they’ve ever been.

Rating: 4/5 When I first started reading, I wasn’t sure if I was into it. But I kept reading, and next thing I knew, I was into it. This is set in Seattle, so it was neat to see all of the little nods to specific locations like the Fremont Troll, the monorail, and so on. It was cool because one part of this game is noticing when details aren’t quite right, and I was able to catch them all because I’m from here! Obviously, as I’ve said, this is about an alternate-reality game. There are a LOT of references to other games, most of which went over my head because I’m not a big gamer, but it didn’t detract from the enjoyment for me. A lot of times, you will question what’s real and what’s not, because of the recursive nature of the storytelling. K and his friends chase down one lead to find something weird at the end, and another to find nothing. It loops on itself quite a bit, can get a bit repetitive, and is very technical and detailed. Overall, I really enjoyed reading this and would recommend it if you enjoy sci-fi, gaming, and slightly weird stories.

This book made my brain work overtime with constantly thinking about the Mandela Effect and various conspiracy theories!

It felt like a rollercoaster tycoon game made by a teenager! Lots of twists and turns and exciting ups followed by repetitive hills down and then it came to a sudden halt and I'm still unsure about the end.

Definitely a book for fans of immersive sci-fi ish novels like Recursion and Ready Player One.

This is not a story about rabbits. Definitely not.

I enjoyed this! I’ve read a ton of books with similar themes recently, but this was a unique take on some of the same theories. The protagonist was compelling, and I found the relationships built around the center game (which is definitely not rabbits!) felt authentic, despite the uncanny valley feel of the environment.

Thank you so much Netgalley & Del Rey for this eArc!

‘I felt like I’d uncovered something in the arcane mythological puzzle that was Rabbits—an access point to a world as far away from our own mundane existence as Narnia or Middle-earth. It was a world of mystery that I desperately wanted to access.’


Excellent premise, but the storyline feels disjointed, especially the characters’ reactions regarding what’s going on around them—palpable tension one minute and then nonchalant the next.

The mystery behind the game may be enough to pull me back in for a reread, but RABBITS is a DNF for me at 46% for right now.

Thank you, NetGalley and Del Rey Books (Random House), for loaning me an eGalley of RABBITS in the request of an honest review.

This was recommended to me because I had liked another book so I gave it a good college try. I think this is a good story but I’m not a huge sci-fi fan so it took me a long time to finish and it wasn’t my cup of tea. But thank you for the opportunity to read this.

Thank you to Netgalley, Terry Miles, and Del Rey Books for a digital galley of Rabbits. This was such a fun weird enjoyable ride.

My favorite newer trend in thrillers has definitely been techno thrillers- thrillers that lean on the sci-fi side of things, or that deal with social media. Rabbits has a little bit of both.

Rabbits is a lot like Fight Club; you don’t talk about it. This underground alternate reality, mind-bending game played by people of all walks of life is about to start it’s 11th iteration. K is our main character who has been dying to get into the game for years when he is approached by billionaire Alan Scarpio and warns K that something is wrong in the game and it’s up to K to fix it. What follows is quite literally a chase down the rabbit hole of conspiracies and coincidences, with a little hysteria and murder sprinkled in.

Sometimes when I’m going into a sci-fi book, I’m worried that I’m going to end up confused. Alternate reality, alternate timelines, time travel…it’s all so confusing to me and as someone who typically has to multi-task when they read it’s easy to miss key points that will make it even more confusing to me. However I did not get confused in Rabbits, aside from when Terry Miles specifically wanted to mislead us and make us think, “wait, what?”

This book was honestly just fun. There were some romantic elements, some family drama, and strong friendship themes all throughout a book about a game. It felt nostalgic with the mentions of arcade games and using forums to do research but also very modern with the idea of alternate reality.

Definitely enjoyed this read. While K is not the best protagonist they were still enjoyable to ride along with. But what kind of person knows so much electronic ins and outs and is a wee bit startled by a Vic20 (my first computer)? I was also surprised to find they didn’t reference the exact power station on that Pink Floyd cover, it’s pretty famous I mean. Kind of hard not to know. Then there is Chloe who is living off of music royalties, seems to know music, but doesn’t recognize or isn’t familiar with “a band called Toto”

But the big problem for me was K repeatedly saying how you don’t talk about Rabbits as it’s all fight club style etc but they make money from …talking to people about Rabbits. Just a bit confusing.

Felt bad for poor Emily and all the others who didn’t even win a booby prize.

Still, overall enjoyed this face paced read.

There are things I liked and things I didn't like. It's hard to rate this one because it is genre-bending, slippery, and a bit like a fever dream.

The premise drew me in (I'd never heard of the podcast), and I liked the puzzle aspect of the story (this is where it feels like Ready Player One, but that's where the similarity ends). The writing style was decent and propulsive; however the characters were pretty one-note and difficult to connect with, and there were several phrases and scenes that were repeated over and over which became tedious at times.

The story stalled around the middle and I almost abandoned it, but I pushed through. Around 75% the plot really picked up and started flying - I just held on for dear life and did my best to understand what was happening. I got a bit of intellectual whiplash that I'm still recovering from.

I didn't love the ending - it felt unsatisfying to me and a little contrived. But the journey to get there was fun. I think this will really appeal to a certain subset of SFF and RPG fans. I also appreciated that the gender of the main character is never established, leaving the interpretation up to the reader. (I listened to this on audio with a female narrator, so that influenced my experience a little toward K being female.)

Overall, I'd give this 2.5-3 stars. It was good enough to finish, and I would recommend it to the right person, but it's not for everyone.

This is one unique, hard to put down novel. It will draw you in and not let go.
Many thanks to Random House Publishing Group and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wasn't familiar with the podcast, but I couldn't resist reading the Rabbits book as soon as I read the synopsis. As a bit of a conspiracy nut, I cant help but love a compulsive read like this one. This stort was like Stranger Things, Ready Player One, The Adjustment Bureau, and Conspiracy Theory (Mel Gibson) intertwined. It certainly held my interest and I couldn't wait to see how this underground alternate reality-style game would play out.

I was excited to read this book. When I read the blurb, like others, I thought 'Ready Player One' (which I loved!). Unfortunately this was a disappointment. This book was so confusing, I didn't know what was real and what was not. Also, there was no 'game'. Besides K looking for clues to find a missing person, I didn't even know he was playing the game.

Thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine and Terry Miles for a copy of "Rabbits" in exchange of an honest review.

OK this book was every nerd's dream. A slew of old school games, mysterious group of said nerds solving a mysterious game and trying to win it at that, and then a bit of sci-fi to tie it all up.

Right from the start I was really invested in Rabbits, and what it is. The game, the history, the stories and mysterious secret chats, posts, signs etc. I felt like I wanted to be part of the game and maybe I'm playing it, I just don't know it. It was so well done to connect it to modern life, that you had to wonder if there is any truth to anything being told in this book.

And then it dragged out for way too long. I feel like by mid book I was bored. It didn't carry that excitement that I found in the beginning to the end of the book, so I was just pushing to finish this just to finish it. It kept hinting at what the actual mystery was for way too long, and the sleuthing became kind of tedious and repetitive. The sci-fi aspect was a lot to comprehend, and I don't know if scientifically there is any truth to it or not.

This would make a great movie. And I am interested in listening to the podcast to find out more about Rabbits.

A real-world game pulls people in and gets them killed. There's something wrong with the game that's causing the world to rupture. For some reason, the narrator is the savior of the game, though he appears to be the only one unaware that he is actually playing the game. Like most of the story, the climax is smoke and mirrors, as if the main character awakes from a dream at the end. This book feels like gorging on junk food and ending up in a stupor of satisfaction despite the queasiness. Like the answer to a secret taken to the grave, it leaves the reader with a suspended sense of closure, prolonging the unease of real-life unanswerable questions. For some reason, this works for me, and I really wanted the game to be real despite the death toll, because that would never happen to me, right? Read this book and explain it to me! I was fortunate to receive a digital copy from the publisher Del Ray Books through NetGalley.

This book was a wild ride and I enjoyed it. Rabbits is a game, which you don’t talk about, and the secrecy means that nearly everything is rumor. When did it start really, maybe in 1959, maybe longer; why did it start, who controls it, and how do you play; all are shrouded in mystery and guesses. It’s also rumored that people have died playing.

K is the main character, and he is approached by a multi-billionaire that is rumored to have won the 9th version of the game. He says there is something wrong with the game and needs K’s help to fix it before the next iteration begins. Why K is never really explored but when said billionaire goes missing right after their meeting, K along with his friend Chloe is now looking into clues and patterns that may be part of the game.

The game is built on pattern recognition, coincidences and odd discrepancies in the world, such as a painting having three windows instead of the two. Deep fake videos and photographs, old technology, video games all of these things are part of playing the game. It helps if you’re OCD but then again you may go too far and have a break down like K. He’s an unreliable narrator; the lack of sleep, maybe it was a dream, he suddenly is missing time makes things murky.

The book felt like a mix of Ready Player One, Stranger Things and The Number 23. There is a deep darkness to the book, a dark shadow that seems to haunt K and want to devour him. Despite K being told several times to not play, he keeps getting sucked into following the clues, and of course we’re there along with him.

Rabbits by Terry Miles, an interesting read. Its an intriguing premise that mostly delivers. Rabbits - an elusive and not quite real larp that many don't believe exists with potential incredible prizes, but something is wrong with the game.