Wow. Just as thrilling and inventive as the podcast! I have been craving more Rabbits content since I finished the podcast and this was exactly what I was looking for. Plenty of "if you know, you know" references to the podcast and twists and turns that I didnt see coming!

Rabbits was strange and not at all what I was expecting based on the description. I am not a follower or listener of the Rabbits podcast, so maybe that would have changed my opinion coming in. That said, I found the book and the idea of the "alternate universe" confusing and hard to follow. Also, the role of The Game never truly clicked with me. I may have missed something in my reading or didn't understand something clearly, but things just seemed a bit disjointed for me and didn't make a whole lot of sense. Again, this could be attributed to never having listed to the Rabbits podcast, coming in completely blind to the premise of the book. There were a couple of items that did hit home though, mainly the Mandela Effect and the BerenstEin Bears. I had heard briefly of these theories previously as I had believed Mandela died in the 80's and it is infact The Berenstein Bears. Outside of that though, the book never really hit home with me. There were interesting parts and I enjoyed it, but again, overall, the book just didn't strike home with me.

Thank you to Netgalley, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine/Del Rey and Terry Miles for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thirtysomething K hangs out at an old speakeasy arcade with his friends Baron, Chloe and The Magician. Occasionally he gives "talks" in the basement about a secret, mysterious, dangerous game, which may or may not be real. The game is known as Rabbits (no one knows it's actual name) and the first rule is to not talk about it. The game is old, and has been going on for decades, possibly forever. No one knows who's in charge or what the winning prize exactly is.

One night after K finishes one of his talks, a famous billionaire is waiting for him, who may also play the game and is rumored to have won the 6th cycle of it. He tells K that the game is broken and if K doesn't fix it before the next cycle begins, the whole world will pay a price. The next day he promptly vanishes.

K and his friends begin looking into the man's disappearance and tumble down the rabbit hole from there. The more they investigate, the stranger things become. People start disappearing and dying. K's having blackouts, losing time,  remembering things other people don't, and finding patterns and connections others miss. The strangest of all is K keeps getting told not to play. Can K win the game and save the world?

My thoughts are mixed after finishing Rabbits by Terry Miles. I really enjoyed reading it. I felt like I was going on the adventure with K. I couldn't stop reading it. It's the kind of book I love to read. It's a fast-paced adventure mashup of mystery and science fiction. It's a fun, exciting story you can lose yourself in, full of interesting details.

I have to admit after racing to the finish, I was disappointed. The resolution at the end left me deeply unsatisfied. It felt almost like a copout. The book is very plot heavy and as a result the characters are pretty flat, even our main character K. No explanations are given for his thoughts or actions. (Or why he suddenly has two love interests at the end of the book) The scope of the plot is massive - possibly too big for everything to completely come together in one novel.

At the end of the book, I learned that author has podcast by same name and that the book is a standalone set in the same world. I wondered if I would have gotten more out of the novel if I had listened to the podcast first. I wish this information had been stated at the beginning of the book instead of at the end. Rabbits reminded me of Amazon's 2020 tv series Utopia with John Cusack, the 2nd season of OA and the magical puzzle house and The Eight by Katherine Neville (a magical realism historical adventure) - all things I've enjoyed & loved greatly. It also sounds eerily similar to the internet/alternate reality game Cicada 3301.

I did really enjoy Rabbits, I just can't get over its ending. It might seem kinda "out there" at points, but I recommend giving it a try. And if you love weird books like I do, chances are you'll enjoy Rabbits. Recommended for fans of games, mysteries, adventures, 80s throwback, puzzles, science fiction and thrillers.

Rabbits is one of those books that I think will leave an indelible mark upon anyone who reads it with the "what if those little things you notice are part of something larger" narrative - I'm finding myself noticing small coincidences and instances of deja vu more regularly than before reading Rabbits. Terry Miles has written a both heart- and gut-wrenching novel that never leaves the reader fully sure of their footing. His characters feel authentic, and their ties to the world outside the novel work to flesh out the story. The story is just plausible enough to be non-fiction while keeping enough fantastic elements to enthrall any SF fan. I would gladly re-read Rabbits again for the first time (and maybe find some more clues in doing so).

I always forget how much I LOVE (all caps!) stories like "Rabbits" by Terry Miles until I come across one by chance and then spend the next 24 hours down a rabbit hole (pardon the pun) of conspiracies, mysteries, and multi-verses. I could not get enough of the multitude of real world references to "inconsistencies" like the Mandela Effect, the Berenstain Bears Conspiracy, and the never made Shazam movie with Sinbad...all things that my friends and I have talked about many times over the years. What's true? What isn't? What's Possible?

"Rabbits" is one crazy ride for K, Chloe, and her many accomplices throughout the story. K and her crew are trying to find answers to the many, many questions they continue to ask as the dangerous adventure continues. Has the underground and rarely spoken of "Game" started again? If so, is there actually something going wrong with it? Who can we trust? Who can we not?

This was SUCH a fun book to read. I did not want it to end! I especially didn't want the ending when I got to it and felt...disappointed? No, that's too strong a word. I should have seen it coming? I guess that might better describe what I was feeling. I don't even want to hint at what to expect, but this would have been a SOLID 5 Star book had the ending been more... ... ...just more! Though my feelings about that are strong, I still want to read it all over again!

A HUGE Thank You to NetGalley & Random House/Ballantine Publishing for the opportunity to read and review this book. I'm going to go buy a physical copy for myself now.

I was very excited to read this when I saw the book on NetGalley, and thrilled to get an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher. I listened to the Rabbits podcast and felt that this was a great idea. A follow up from the story but together by the podcast. The podcast felt like a season 1 set-up for the world of this mysterious game of hidden clues set up by some enigmatic and vague group in power, with a possible supernatural or sci-fi element. Were details about the world changing as the game went on? A cool idea, and the podcast was fairly cool, but it felt unsatisfying in the end. That’s normal for these fictional podcasts set in a true-crime style format, they often fall flat at the end.

So I felt a novel would be a great chance for the already established world to go deeper, and I believe that was the intent. Unfortunately this (for me) becomes an example of how it is easier to think of a compelling story idea then it is to tell a compelling story.

The main character, K, has studied the rumors about the underground immersive clue/scavenger-hunt styled game known only as Rabbits. The way people discover the game is through a series of odd discrepancies, coincidences, or clues scattered throughout the real world around them. Then they follow the clues to more clues, and find even more clues. Ultimately they can “win,” somehow, but how it happens, as well as what the prize is, is unknown and vague.

And herein lies the biggest problem with the book. The clues and what the game is is too vague, and never really takes shape. Do you just happen to notice too many rungs on a ladder and suddenly you’re “playing the game,” whatever that means.

There are some sci-fi types of attempted explanations of what is happening, and the assertion that the game stabilizes the universe, but even that is vague and never has any clear rules set out. Even when crazy sci-fi stuff starts to happen it doesn’t really make sense.

People are comparing this to Blake Crouch, and it seems an apt comparison in the sense that Crouch has reality-blending ideas. But he also establishes explanations and rules for the universe within the novel. Then the characters react to that world. You have to have some basis for a story beyond the random events. Or at least have the random events start to come together in such a way that they make some sense eventually.

The other problem is that the writing falls flat in character development and dialogue. A lot of the things the characters say is boring. In a podcast like Rabbits you have to have reasons for the characters to be recording, since it purports to be “real life.” This felt like the author was keeping to that model, the characters circle back to K’s apartment about a hundred times to compare notes. Also every scene included a list of descriptors and adjectives, like you are told to do in creative writing class. There were behaviors, or dialogue like “let’s have this conversation before we eat this French toast,” took me out of it. The characters are young adults but relate to each other as if they were 14. There’s the inclusion of what feels like a major character introduction/twist near the end that literally goes nowhere at all, and ends up hurting the story flow. It just read like a less experienced author…sorry to say but just so readers know going into it.

The main thing that took me out of it was that it was dull. It felt like it was always in the brink of really starting, which was enough to pull me along but also frustrating when it ended. For a story about an underground dangerous game that had crazy science fiction, murder, and evil shenanigans it felt like it never really got exciting. And K was a fairly one-dimensional character. I kept waiting to like him or for him to become engaged in the plot. For someone obsessed with puzzles and supposedly having a counter-culture or mischievous personality, he sure spent a lot of time wishing he weren’t in this story.

A clever idea does not inherently a good story make. I’m sorry but I just couldn’t get into this one. I can’t really recommend it.

Okay, I think I’ve sorted out my brain, fluffed it back up after it was blown away by this book!!!! It kind of reminded me of Blake Crouch’s Recursion, but with video games, coffee, and clues. This kept my interest throughout, but I’ll admit I felt dumb for a huge portion of this story. I just felt like I had no idea what was going on!!!! All I knew was that I liked it!!! Trying to follow along with each clue was impossible, but such fun!!

K was the best protagonist and his memory and crazy journey through this book were just like a car accident. I could not stop staring!! K’s friends were great additions and just about everyone who made an appearance in this was important. There were no wasted words.

And small quoted mild spoiler here…this is quite possibly my most favorite sentence ever, “As we ran across the street, Chloe reached out and grabbed my hand—and, for just a moment, I felt like I was living in a normal world, like Chloe and I were a regular couple running across a street in the rain toward a warm table in a cozy bistro, not a couple of game-obsessed lunatics rushing toward a porn shop basement in order to ask a crossbow-wielding shut-in to help us win a deadly game that might be the only thing keeping the multiverse together.”

I seriously recommend this to science fiction lovers, vintage video game lovers, Blake Crouch fans, and those who like a book to take your brain and shake it up a bit. This was some intense good fun.

Thank you so much to NetGalley, Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine, and Terry Miles for allowing me to read this for my honest and unbiased opinion. Sooo good!!!!

"Rabbits" is a book for those who couldn't get enough of the tv series Lost, the tv series Stranger Things, or Ursula Le Guin's Lathe Of Heaven. it's spectacular. It takes the world of computer gaming combines it with drifting between multiverses and throws in cults, conspiracies, blackouts, deadly fog, and coincidences that may just be more than coincidences. Is it just a game or is it about saving the world before it's too late? It's not possible to say enough good things about this ultra-absorbing novel. Maybe you just need to wait till the next iteration of the game begins. That is, if it's not too late.

The plot was killer! I loved this idea so much. I wish the characters would have been more developed though. I think it would have been a much better read.

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Rabbits is an underground alternate reality game, and K has been obsessed with it since he was a kid. He’s always been good at finding patterns. Now a reclusive billionaire rumored to have run an iteration of Rabbits has come to K for help. Because there is something wrong with the game, and if it isn’t fixed, it could mean the end of the world.⁣
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I LOVE all of Terry Miles’ podcasts. I remember listening to Rabbits on summer runs through the forest. If you’re a fan of conspiracy theories, puzzles, gaming, and getting in way to deep this book is for you. You don’t have to listen to the podcast to read the book, but I think you should. 🐇 ⁣
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I really enjoyed reading Rabbits. It felt dark and sinister, but there are also times I laughed out loud. I love a good conspiracy theory (seriously it’s Berenstein Bears!), and I had so much fun following K on his journey. While there are some elements from the podcast that are reused, the story itself is still fresh and entertaining.⁣
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I will say at times my brain could not compute with the more technical aspects of this book. You know the meme of the lady with math symbols above her head? That was me. After finishing a few days ago, I’ve thought about it a lot, which is something I love.⁣
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If you’re in the mood for a technothriller, I would give Rabbits a shot. There’s lots of content if you love the book in the podcast world! Uhm, Terry, if you’re listening, we want more Black Tapes 🖤.⁣
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Thank you to Del Rey Books and Netgalley for my Review copy!

This checks all the boxes for me - mystery, intrigue, spookiness. I also really enjoyed the Rabbits podcast so it was wonderful to dive back into that world and learn more about the game. There are some plot issues and you maybe have to suspend belief a bit, but it was super entertaining and fun to read.

I enjoyed this book, but I wish I would've listened to the podcast first! Even knowing this is a standalone story, I think that would've made the book better. If you like sci-fi, I still recommend picking this one up.

Rabbits follows K as he unravels what Rabbits is and how to play it. It was constant action, jumping from one clue to the next. There were a few times that there was a lull, but they didn't last long and then we were right back in the game.

I enjoyed the fast paced storyline. In the beginning when K is in the diner and is counting things, my mind started wandering and I was afraid the entire book would be like that. It quickly sped back up, and I finished it greedily, wanting more.

Every chapter has a fun title that grabs your attention, leaving you wondering what will come from it.

The one thing that kept this book from getting five stars was the ending. It was so abrupt.

After finishing the book, I listening to the podcast. I'm glad that I had not listened to it before the book and went in blind.

I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for a free and unbiased review.

R U Playing?

Already a fan of Terry Miles and his podcasts such as Tanis, Rabbits, The Last Movie, Faerie, and as the co-creator of The Black Tapes (my personal favorite); I was thrilled to learn that he was coming out with a full-length novel set in the world of Rabbits and not just a novelization. Miles is an immersive storyteller and I can easily say that his shows have made me a devoted podcast listener since 2015. Needless to say I was curious how this Creative (a director, musician, and podcast producer to name just a few avenues) would handle a long-form story.

For the sake of clarity in this review, when I am referring to the novel 'Rabbits', I will use quotation marks.

So, let's talk about the world of Rabbits. The podcast (released in 2017) is a masterful work of borderline fiction that can be easily layered with shades of reality. Fans of The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Matrix (1999), and The Institute (2013) need to put Rabbits on their radars. So what is Rabbits? Rabbits is an alternative reality game/simulation that promises to grant the winner an immeasurable gift. Rabbits, or just 'The Game', is played using the real world as your game board. However, players past or present, are not allowed to talk about the game. If they are caught they are silenced by the Wardens. Using clues in our world, players must figure out obscure connections and anomalies to advance. Cycles of play only end when someone wins which can lead to decades long games effectively turning Rabbits into an obsession for players. One of the coolest features in the podcast is that Miles incorporates a plethora of pop culture references into the work such as classic video games and 80s music references, as well as real-world examples of the Mandela Effect or collective false memories. For example, The Berenstein Bears vs. The Berenstain Bears (it is BernSTEIN and you cannot tell me otherwise!), or which Looney Tunes logo is correct. The incorporation of these elements into the story not only make for an unreliable narrator...but unreliable listeners/readers as well. And it's awesome.

In 'Rabbits' we meet K (Kafka, is that you?!), a fan who is obsessed with the game Rabbits. At the beginning of the book they are approached by the wealthy Alan Scarpio, who reportedly won a previous round of Rabbits and wants K's help to fix the game, which Scarpio claims is corrupted and must be fixed before the eleventh round begins or the world is in danger.

Miles did intend for this to be a standalone story that allowed new audiences to connect with the world of Rabbits and I think they can go into this book fully ready to receive all the weird. The best way to think about the book is almost as a sequel to the podcast. Many of the minor characters crossover and Miles gives his established fan base plenty of Easter eggs to keep them happily bopping along. However, and maybe this was just me, but I noticed some of the hangups or patterns characteristic of Miles's work that can be smoother in a podcast format, but weren't as clear when we're just dealing with text to guide us. Some of the things I began to notice over time in the podcasts were amplified in print. Other listeners of the podcast (or any of the PRA stories) will begin to recognize similar dialogue patterns Miles is fond of using. For example, the protagonist saying 'why?' a lot to move the plot forward and regain control of the narrative. Without the insertion of audio to build atmosphere I think some of the world-building that fans have come to expect from Miles will fall a little off the mark. For example, spelling out the word 'static' multiple time in the middle of recorded dialogue when characters were listening to a scratchy audio clip...instead of just telling us outright that the recording is scratchy and using ellipses. Perhaps the largest complaint I had with the book, but this again tracks with the style of the podcasts, is that our protagonist is never fully described, however other people they come into contact with as briefly described (upon their introduction) in an almost 'Guess Who?' format.

Rabbits, whether it is the podcast or book, has strange cause and effect plot devices that don't have a lot to do with substantially contributing to the overall story. Things tend to just happen to the protagonist and information is carefully doled out like breadcrumbs to them usually by another minor character. Miles is great at building up characters though and helping listeners/readers understand the larger 'why' of what they are doing even if we never fully grasp the 'how'.

Overall, this was a fun read that tried to do a lot to translate the world of Rabbits into print. Some of it worked and some of it didn't, but crack open the spine, put on the specially curated Spotify playlist for the book, and read it for yourself.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Being a fan of the podcast, I was looking forward to reading this book. I loved that it wasn't a recreation of the podcast in book form as is the case with other podcasts. This is a legit new story that is a part of the world that the podcast created. It is also more revealing which I found to be refreshing. The podcast is awesome in it's own way with it's strange phenomenon that gives you an eerie vibe and pulls you along as you try and figure out this strange world. It kind of reminded me of the feeling I got when I was watching the TV show, LOST. What I loved about the book was getting some answers to the why of all the strange and mysterious events happening. Which was the big frustration for many fans of LOST. This book continues with the strange and mysterious that made the podcast so grate but I believe Terry Miles knew he had to bring something knew to the table in the form of revealing the cause over the course of the book.

Between this thrilling story and the spectacular podcast, I am a fan of Terry Miles and his work. I just wish there was more to enjoy. His character and world building abilities are fanatic. I get the same vibe from Peter Clines and Blake Crouch. The kinda of vibe that is eerie mixed with strange and mysterious and the layers are pulled back over the course of a well thought out story. The kinda vibe makes me want to read their next book as soon as it comes out. That is a great feeling.

I want to thank Terry Miles, Del Rey, Penguin Random House Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Really enjoyed this one! It seemed too similar at first to Ready Player One and others like it, but there was enough originality to the story and characters to make it more engaging. The author made the characters authentically imperfect, which brought additional tension and intrigue to the story.

4 stars

Let me start by saying that I am not a gamer, I have no interest in games and have never heard of Rabbits or the podcast. To give some context, my gaming resume includes some Pitfall and Pac Man as a child, some Super Mario Bros and Tetris as a teen and some sporadic Wii bowling as an adult.

However, I requested Rabbits because I have been digging this new-ish (at least to me) genre of alternate reality sci-fi or sci-fi lite, as I like to refer to it (think Dark Matter, Recursion, Evelyn Hardcastle). And let me tell you, Rabbits did not disappoint! Sure, there were quite a few times that the technical gaming aspect was over my head and plenty of “what in the heck am I reading?” moments, but this book DELIVERS.

The pacing was great and I was completely captivated by K and his quest to fix / win “the game”. It did take me a few chapters to really get into the story, but once I was hooked, I could not put this book down. About halfway through the book, the pace really ramped up and I could not turn the pages fast enough.

If you can get past (or through) the gaming aspect and the technicalities, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys books where things are not what they seem, alternate reality settings and even time travel.

Thank you to Random House for my copy of this book via NetGalley

Step aside Ready Player One as Mile’s debut thriller brings us deep into a mysterious alternate-reality, underground, scavenger game that has been shrouded in secrecy and proving increasingly deadly. Centered on pattern recognition, spotting anomalies, and connecting apparent coincidences, the Rabbits game creates obsessiveness in its players and ultimately in us as readers.

K, our hero whose been skirting the edges of the Rabbits game since childhood, and his best friend Chloe inadvertently stumble headlong into the 11th iteration of the game. K’s been warned by a billionaire rumored to have won a prior Rabbits iteration, and who seeks him in particular out to reveal that something is seriously wrong with the game and fatal consequences will follow if the 11th iteration gets underway. But underway it is, and people go missing and bodies pile up as the elusive clues compound on themselves. K, at each instance that he stumbles on direct participation of the game, finds himself blacking out as he feels a grey mist shroud him. He wakes up to find small or sometimes significant changes in his world: a third series of a movie he remembers well that never comes out; a restaurant closed for 5 years which Chloe informs him has always been open. Moreover, playing Rabbits results in the billionaire’s going missing, K’s friend’s death, a close mentor vanished, and new information emerging suggesting his parents who died in Greek ferry incident when K was a teen may have been intricately involved in the game’s early beginnings.

Meanwhile, the whole story takes you on a nostalgic cultural romp through the 1990’s and a look at beginnings of computers as well as gaming.

Ultimately, is Rabbits an elaborate corporate conspiracy, an ancient mystery running throughout all of humanity’s history, an unrevealed scientific breakthrough, or something potentially otherworldly? Well sleep won’t be an issue as this wild, topsy turvy ride keeps you up late both mesmerized and baffled!

Saying anything else would ruin it onion-layer revelations and conspiratorial center!

A mysterious game that just might be altering reality! Snarky but loveable characters, interesting plot, Pop culture references galore! Thank you NetGalley for this Arc in exchange for an honest review. I did enjoy the ride but the ending was flat enough to ruin the whole novel for me. So many great ideas and concepts! My actual favorite thing was our beloved main character had no specific race or gender. The story unfolds through thoughts and actions, or reactions. Sorry folks, sci fi is not my usual thing but I keep trying cause every now and then something grabs me. This story did grab, the writing was good, the characters were interesting but the ending! I have never heard the podcast so maybe I am missing something? I will have a hard time recommending this to anyone.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! No spoilers. Beyond amazing I enjoyed this book so very much. The characters and storyline were fantastic. The ending I did not see coming Could not put down nor did I want to. Truly Amazing and appreciated the whole story. This is going to be a must read for many many readers. Maybe even a book club pick.