I would like to thank Random House Worlds and NetGalley for allowing me to read an eARC of this book.

The Quiet Room is a sequel to Rabbits, and while not absolutely necessary to be able to follow what is happening, I would recommend reading Rabbits first to familiarize yourself with the game and the characters.

The Quiet Room brings us back to Emily Connors, who almost won the last iteration of the Rabbits game. She has been having strange dreams and strange things happen to her, including being kidnapped by the Rabbits Police. This book also brings back some other familiar names in Alan Scarpio and Pepper, and K (indirectly). We also get introduced to Rowan Chess, an architect and theme park designer with a penchant for puzzles and escape rooms. The book alternates between what is happening with Emily and what is happening with Rowan, and things really heat up when Emily and Rowan encounter each other.

Emily and Rowan and a bunch of other players become trapped in a dimensional stream that has been cut off and will be destroyed. It is a race against time and the Rabbit Police to win the game in order to save themselves. But the game doesn't even seem to exist; either that or it's desperately trying to stay hidden. Add to that a very dangerous person (known only as the Engineer) is also trapped there and will do anything to get out.

The first 1/3 of the book was really good, and pulled me in right away. The middle 1/3 became a bit muddled and confusing at times. There were definitely points where I wasn't sure what was happening. There are several dimensional streams in play (and therefore different versions of the same people) and parts are in the past and parts in the present. It made it hard to determine exactly when in the timeline what I was reading happened. The last 1/3 of the book picked up again and I really enjoyed the ending. It definitely left it open for another book!
 
I enjoyed the first book a bit more than this one, as it was more straightforward and less confusing. However, if you are a fan of Rabbits, the multiverse, and sci-fi in general, I would definitely recommend this book.

First I want to thank NetGalley and Random House Publishing for giving me access to an eARC copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

The Quiet Room is a story about games that can change the world, and if you’re not careful they will cost you everything. This is the second in a series of books that continue the events of the podcast Rabbits. I strongly recommend that you start by listening to the podcast first and then read the first book in this book series before you start this book. That said I’ll talk a little bit about the plot without giving too much away about the previous entries into the world of Rabbits.

This story follows Emily Connors, who made an appearance in the previous book in this series, and a new player Rowan Chess. Rowan is a fan of puzzles and escape rooms and has even made a name for himself designing interactive pieces of architecture for theme parks the world over. Emily is nobody, she woke up in this universe knowing full well it is not where she belongs. Emily has been playing Rabbits, a secret AR game hidden in plain sight, for a long time, but now she can’t find Rabbits anywhere. After a series of wild events puts Rowan in Emily’s path she becomes convinced that Rowan is unwittingly the only person currently playing the game, and his success or failure could have dire consequences for this universe and possibly every Universe.

The Premise here is really solid and exactly the kind of thing I’ve come to expect from the mind of Terry Miles. I have loved the podcast from the very beginning and I have also enjoyed a number of the other pods on offer with The Public Radio Alliance. Unfortunately the novel doesn’t hold up as well as the premise does. Part of this is probably my expectation that a Rabbits story is going to be edge of the seat suspense heavily dotted with puzzles and secrets that may never be fully solved. The mystery is a big part of the attraction to this franchise, however with The Quiet Room a large portion of the page count is dedicated to re-explaining all the previous findings of the podcast and the last book. It seems like the intent may have been for this to work as a standalone novel, but it really felt more like someone force feeding you lore and puzzle answers that didn’t forward the plot much.

I don’t want to be too hard on the story though, because if you strip away all the unnecessary exposition you’re left with a really interesting story that expands the lore in an interesting way and asks a lot of great questions about determinism vs free will. Once I got into the last half of the story it also seemed to find the sense of urgency that it really needed.

In conclusion, I continue to love the Rabbits stories and I’m looking forward to reading the next book. If you are a fan of the series already it’s definitely worth a read. I also can’t say enough good things about the podcast and it’s great for fans of games, puzzles, and unsolved mysteries. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you have a wonderful day. Happy reading.

Emily had nearly won Rabbits, the international and hidden alternate reality game. Now that it's over, she's in a world where the game never existed. Only, every time she goes looking for it, mysterious figures keep showing up.

The Quiet Room is the sequel to the Rabbits novel, so it takes place after the eleventh iteration of the reality-bending game is completed. Clues for the game rely on synchronicity, finding discrepancies between memory and reality, and chasing down coincidences to find the truth at the center of it all. For those not playing the game, it will feel like risk-taking for no reason and psychosis. A lot of this is explained as Emily meets Alan in the beginning, as well as when her path crosses Rowan's. So don't worry if you didn't read the first book, context is all here and you can dive right in.

Emily is trying to escape detection and knows about the game, but slips sideways into another dimension where it doesn't seem to exist. At the same time, signs are present that the game actually does exist, and the only player's name is Rowan's. He doesn't know about the game until Emily tells him about it, but he designs amusement parks for a living and has always loved puzzles, so he naturally takes to the spirit of the game. We learn more about the game as the book progresses, why this particular dimension seems so odd, and what the Escape Room is. Emily and Rowan have more allies than they think, but they're on a clock and there is resistance at every turn.

I really liked Rowan from the first time he was introduced. We've met Emily in the first book, but now we see her perspective more clearly and learn more about her history. She's more closely tied to the Rabbits game than I had realized, and I love how that history slowly gets revealed and contributes to finding her way out. I wanted to shout out loud when I got to the end of the book because what?! In other words, it's an ending that makes you want to go back to see what you might have missed and eagerly wait for the next book.

This series is amazing and The Quiet Room did not disappoint me one bit! The dimensional travel, barrier breaking and psychological impacts were well laid out and easy to follow along the labyrinth of thoughts and ideas. Miles is a gifted writer and keeps you guessing all the way through. Never giving up anything that would lead you astray or provide any idea where he's taking the story until he's already brought you there!

Loved the 1st book. It was a world not seen before. I was heavily invested and loved the world building, how things operated. This book was a continuation of the first book. Had I not read the 1st book, I would have rated it higher. It's not a bad book, it's just more of the same.

#NETGALLEY #TERRYMILES. #THEQUIETROOM

A unique and thought provoking plot that will stay with you long after you finish reading.
Many thanks to Random House and to Netgalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Publishing for providing an eARC of The Quiet Room for review!

The Quiet Room is a trippy ride through the multiverse, perfect for anyone that has an interest in liminal spaces and ARGs.

After the conclusion of the 11th iteration of Rabbits, Emily is stuck in a dimension that doesn't seem to have Rabbits at all. Worse? There seems to be a secret agency to detain and question anyone trying to find the game.

Rowan Chess is living his life normally enough until he goes on the perfect date from a seemingly perfect dating app. What could go wrong? When his date disappears and a message is left for him in the bathroom, it seems like Rabbits has come out to play.

I was much more impressed with The Quiet Room than when I originally read Rabbits in 2022. If you are a fan of YouTubers such as Wendigoon or Nexpo, this would be an interesting series for you!

Emily and Pepper loving each other across dimensions is so sweet, and I love the amount of lore in this sequel! Be ready for a lot of information on the Radiants, Betweenspace, and of course The Quiet Room

One Sentence Summary: After the events of Rabbits, Emily Connors finds herself in a world where the game seems to not exist, and her search for it brings her into contact with Rowan Chess, whose life is suddenly filled with odd coincidences, but there’s danger everywhere and a conspiracy nipping at their heels.

In Brief
In this follow-up to Rabbits, The Quiet Room presents a carefully crafted science fiction thriller that involves the fate of a world and the survival of people important to the game itself. Emily Connors finds herself in a stream where Rabbits doesn’t exist and Rowan Chess finds himself surrounded by coincidences. Teaming up helps ensure survival, but there’s a conspiracy quickly closing in on them, along with a literal ticking clock later on, and players forcibly separating them and putting them, unknowingly, on opposite sides. This is a fast-paced story where things can easily become confusing if one isn’t paying enough attention, but it’s certainly easier to understand after the groundwork has been laid in Rabbits. While the game itself is elusive and may be disappointing to a reader hoping for another wild iteration, there’s still plenty to hold the reader’s attention. The story hardly stops and, when it does, there’s important character development that impacts relationships and the story itself. This is a fascinating wild ride that focuses on the few where Rabbits focused on the survival of the many, but certainly delivers a broadened world, characters who feel human, and a relentlessly driving story that sweeps the reader up with it.

Extended Thoughts
The Quiet Room follows some time after the events of Rabbits. Where the first book was centered on K and K playing the game to, ultimately, save the world, The Quiet Room follows Emily Connors, an important but relatively minor character in Rabbits with quite an interesting history with K. While it’s possible for The Quiet Room to function as a standalone since it deals with a different world and different characters, the foundation, as crazy as it is, really is laid down in the first book. Rabbits is an absolutely crazy game that deals with the multiverse and with keeping the different streams healthy and functional, and that idea is certainly at play in this novel.

In The Quiet Room, Emily Connors finds herself in a stream where the game seemingly does not exist. No matter how hard she looks, it’s not there. But what is there are people dressed in black who keep taking her in for questioning. With a fellow Rabbits player, Alan Scarpio, Emily desperately follows clues, running into people from her past while having to deal with her past from different streams. It’s all a bit confusing at times, and often felt impossible to keep all these streams and how these people knew each other, or different versions of each other, straight. But it’s a fast-paced story that doesn’t often let up. There were several times where I felt sorry for Emily. Her life has been turned upside down, and continues to be turned upside down. Once she receives some information, I certainly felt a lot of desperation in her, desperation that wasn’t exactly mirrored in the person she needed help from the most. But she’s committed and dogged, and I truly admired her and respected her for everything she had to deal with.

Things get even crazier when Rowan Chess is brought into the story. He’s quite an ordinary man, a well-known and accomplished architect who has a super secret design locked in a vault. He has no idea what Rabbits is, and has no intention on playing. But things turn odd and incredibly coincidental in his life after he accompanies a date to a mansion to play a game where he meets an intriguing woman who makes him an offer that’s hard to refuse. Things get even weirder when he meets a woman for a date, and then she vanishes and he tries his best to find her when no one seems to believe she literally vanished into thin air. It was fascinating to get to know Rowan, and I felt for him when he ended up in all the craziness. There were times when I just wanted things to go back to normal for him, but then there’s that feeling that there’s something special about him. And, when the twist about him comes into play, things start to make a lot more sense, even if I did start to figure it out well before any of the other characters did.

Where Rabbits ended up massively confusing, The Quiet Room felt a lot more straightforward. I sorely missed the playing of the game as that’s what initially drew me into this world and these books. But I liked that feeling of desperation I had alongside Emily that it just had to be somewhere. After all, the game is vital to the health and existence of the multiverse. I liked that it used Rabbits as its building block. All the hard world building was done there so it was, more or less, smooth sailing in this one. There were times when I was still massively confused, but I felt the idea of the multiverse and how it operated actually made sense in this one. At least, a little more than it did in the first book. There was one bit I was not a fan of in the first book, but it came into play in this one, and it just felt like it neatly slotted into place.

There’s a massive conspiracy in this book, one that helps further the world building while also presenting a lot of danger and a literal ticking clock. It put me in two minds, so I wasn’t a huge fan of it, but I did understand it and the characters and their motivations. Where I spent the first half concerned about this world and what was happening and how it was affecting the characters, the second half had me zooming in on just a few characters and their literal survival. I didn’t much like the feeling it all elicited in me, but I do feel it was necessary, and hope to see how the way it ended will play out in the future. This conspiracy shaped and changed a lot of lives, but I really loved the world building it involved.

Just like the first book, The Quiet Room is mostly set in Seattle. But, where I really got a sense of place in the first book, I struggled a little more in this one. It was fun to visit some restaurants and stores, but I felt the characters really spent far more time in isolated spots and captivity. It was nice, though, to see places from the first book brought in, even if this is a different stream. It just felt nice to find something familiar, and I think it was great to see the characters in these places that are familiar, but don’t belong to them. Mostly, I get a strong sense of forests and concrete, so Seattle didn’t feel quite real to me, but what certainly felt real was a crazy place out in the desert outside Vegas. That was creepy and weird, but also kind of fascinating.

The Quiet Room was quite a ride. It took me a while to find my feet with this one, mostly because I kept looking for the game and kept being denied it. On the other hand, it gave me everything I was looking for in the first book: no crazy twists that kind of felt like a cop out (they actually worked in this book) and a more linear approach. Rabbits felt like the world was bending and The Quiet Room felt like the world was flattening out and finally made some semblance of sense. There are some threads that are left wide open and some characters that I was left wondering about. I’m hoping there will be future books that will address them. But it was really fun to see characters from the first book in this one, and to meet new ones.

This was a really fun book to read, and I liked that it made a lot more sense than the first one. I loved that the twists that bothered me in the first book found a place in this one so it actually made sense. I loved getting to know this world more, and I loved that it involved something serious that would have quite a few ramifications down the road. But my favorite part was that I actually understood what was happening, though there were some crazy places where I just had to put my trust into the author.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

This book had a lot of what I enjoyed about the first book in the series - fun clues, riddles, and games that would be so fun to experience in real life. I also really enjoyed the group of characters we followed in this sequel, some from the first book and some new. The science in this book, similarly to the first one, got really confusing and hard to understand, plus the incredibly huge stakes that come into this book (literally the potential end of the world and all alternate versions of it) made it a little hard to conceptualize and actually believe/become invested in. Ultimately I enjoyed this less than the first book, probably because in a way I've read it before, but I do think it's worth reading if you really enjoyed Rabbits. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC!

I initially read, and reviewed, the original story of Rabbits, by Terry Miles back in 2021, and was thrilled with the storyline, the characters, the world-building, well, pretty much everything. After finishing that story, I was lost, wanting so much more, that I began stalking Mr. Miles… Actually, I just began following everything I could in the Terry Miles universe and inhaled the podcast Rabbits, which is even more amazing than the book, btw.

The Rabbits podcast then led me down the path to other Terry Miles / Public Radio Alliance News podcasts: Tanis, The Last Movie, Wildflowers, and The Black Tapes on Audible “It’s television…for your ears”! Needless to say, when I found out there would be a second book, based on the Rabbits legend, I couldn't contain myself, I just had to read it, as soon as possible. Thankfully, NetGalley and the publisher, Random House, offered me a free copy of The Quiet Room, by Terry Miles, to read and provide an honest review, as I did with Rabbits. I was thrilled and greedily accepted the offer.

I devoured The Quiet Room, maybe a bit too fast, based on the visions I had of my own alternate reality in my dreams each night haha. The Quiet Room may not be everyone's cup of tea, but if you go in with an open mind, you just might find yourself in your own alternate reality, reading the book as well.

The Quiet Room isn't really a continuation of Rabbits, in my opinion. It's an entirely new story, with new characters, based upon the legend of the underground game of Rabbits. If you haven't read Rabbits, then please don't read any further into my review, go get the book or the audiobook, and read/listen to it, you won't be sorry, I promise!

The Quiet Room introduces us to the main female character, Emily Connors, who almost, but not quite, won the 11th iteration of the game Rabbits, and is now trapped in an alternate reality, where Rabbits doesn't really exist, or does it? There are some shadowy figures that may have escaped from the multiverse of Rabbits to follow Emily, to try and stop her from finding her way back. Emily is looking for clues to the game Rabbits, which doesn't exist, right, or does it? How will Emily get back to her own reality if the game Rabbits doesn’t exist?

We then get to meet another character, Rowan Chess, who joins Emily on her quest, poor Rowan, is having a hell of a time of his own, thinking he might be going crazy seeing people appear and then a second later they are gone, or were they really even there at all? Is his mind playing tricks on him? Why is he having such horrible luck? The Quiet Room follows Rowan and Emily on their Rabbits quest. But what is real, what reality are they in, and what the hell is really going on? What conspiracies abound this time around, who is behind everything going on, and if the duo should figure it out, what will happen after?

The Quiet Room leaves some questions unanswered and opens the game of Rabbits for potential future iterations, see what I did there? This story really is, in my humble opinion, worth your time delving back into the reality, or is it a fabrication, that is Rabbits. If you enjoyed the original book of Rabbits, or its companion podcast, you will most likely enjoy The Quiet Room. Just remember, keep an open mind and always stay on your toes, keep your eyes peeled for that shadowy figure, who may, or may not, really be there, watching you, leading you down the wrong path, wanting you to fail. But be prepared, there just might be another iteration in the making, we can hope, right?

*I was provided a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

ARGs, or Alternate Reality Games, have always fascinated me. There’s something quite magical about games that spread clues and puzzles around the internet for you to discover to unravel their mysteries. Despite that love, due to being somewhat lazy, I seldom play along with ARGs. I just look up their solutions on Wikipedia.

My love of ARGs led me to a fun audio drama podcast from a creator named Terry Miles called Rabbits. The podcast followed an amateur journalist searching for a missing friend who was obsessed with an ARG called Rabbits. Danger and the discovery of worldwide conspiracies ensue. Rabbits featured some impressive voice acting, especially compared to other modern audio dramas; however, the writing could be a bit cheesy. If you turned it into a drinking game in which you imbibed with each pop culture or dark/deep web reference, you’d need to be treated for alcohol poisoning very quickly.

The show, despite the lackluster writing, hooked me. It was fun and addictive with great twists. Like many other productions like this, sadly, there was a GREAT length of time between the first and second season. Terry Miles announced via Twitter that he’d been working on a Rabbits novel. I read that one and it did a great job expanding the story and filling in some of the gaps the podcast didn’t get into. The writing quality wasn’t much better in book form; however, it was incredibly entertaining. The good twists were present as was the fun.
Miles is a little sharper in The Quiet Room, which was just released this week. New characters are introduced right away and then we meet ones from the previous book. You will learn quite a bit about how the game works, finally understand certain mysteries about older characters, learn more about the new ones you’re introduced to, and be left with an ending that will have you hungry for more. To explain anything more about the plot would spoil too much.

If you enjoy ARGs or good, mystery-drenched thrillers with a bit of Sci-Fi thrown in, you’ll love both Rabbits books and the podcast. And heck, even if you haven’t listened to the show, you could very well enjoy the books. They do a great job at summarizing things you might’ve missed.

The Quite Room, much like everything else in the Rabbits ‘verse, is like a cheesy B-movie that you’ll find entertaining and cringe-inducing.

This started off with a nice little push that had me falling head first down the rabbit hole. I soon found myself questioning what the heck was happening? There were times I felt a bit lost. However, things would pick back up and I was riding along with enthusiasm again.

The characters were likable and I enjoyed the two different perspectives between Emily, who was looking for the game, and Rowan who had just stumbled onto a new way of thinking. He’s learning it as he goes.

I found myself a bit confused this time around and not as much of a fan of this book as I was the first one. I enjoyed it well enough but I do think you’d be best to read book one before attempting this one.

Twisty, twisty, twisty, The Quiet Room by Terry Miles takes you on another strange path down the Rabbit hole.

The "Rabbits" series by podcaster and storyteller Terry Miles is based on the world created by his podcast of the same name with the titular catchphrase, "R U Playing." So again, we are faced with the question, "What is Rabbits?" And frankly, there is no way for me to illuminate that, but I can tell you what I know.

The series idea of Rabbits is a swirling collection of chapters and stories hinting at an underground game called Rabbits. It's characters and us readers following clues and seeing patterns in multiple dimensions. In The Quiet Room, the second novel in the series, Rowan Chess is starting to see patterns; the idea of Rabbits is popping up around him. So many it is getting hard to ignore them. On the flip side, Emily Connors suddenly finds herself trapped in a dimensional stream where the game does not exist. But nothing feels right.

While the story had me in the first pages, this is a dark and complicated read; it is the type of story that would be difficult to wade through if you are not thoroughly familiar with the first book. Even then, because of the complexity, you may have had to reread the first book recently to familiarize yourself. The Quiet Room hops from area to area, dimension to dimension, and person to person. It is not a narrative that moves in a straight line, jagged line, or anything resembling a line, more like a yarn knot. That is one of the positives and detractors of a story like this. Some folks who read it, myself, included love puzzles and piecing together the story bits together. But compared to the first book, The Quiet Room has an even faster pacing. I got lost a few times, and that is saying something because I had to keep notes in the first book to keep it all straight. Some of it is too much, and I wish Miles had developed things further in a couple of areas to solidify characters so I had a general feel for them, but maybe this is him setting the series up for a grand crescendo. Honestly, anything with this story is possible.

If you like your stories with traditional storytelling, characters, plot arcs, or narrative structure, this book will not be for you. But if you want to walk on the wild side and try something different, possibly cult-worthy, I suggest giving this a go.

In the second book of the Rabbits series, Emily Connors suddenly finds herself trapped in a dimensional stream where the game does not exist. At all. Except . . . why do sinister figures show up to stop her every time she goes looking? Does Rabbits truly not exist, or is it being hidden? And if it’s being hidden, why—and by whom? Meanwhile, architect and theme park designer Rowan Chess is having the weirdest month of his life, full of odd coincidences and people who appear one moment and vanish the next, with no trace they ever even existed. The game that is hiding from Emily seems to have found Rowan—with a vengeance. But only when Rowan and Emily meet do things start to get dangerous, for together they uncover a conspiracy far deeper and deadlier than either of them expected—one that could forever change the nature not only of the game, but of reality itself.

Whoa......my head is still spinning. Talk about a roller coaster ride. That may have been over 400 pages, but it felt like it was over in just the blink of an eye, with how fast paced the book was, and the sheer mind-blowing, time warp, acid trip that this book was. Yes, a lot of what was said went right over my head. No, I didn't care - I loved the book regardless. This is one of those books that you just have to sit back, suspend disbelief, and just hang on and enjoy the ride. The way it ended looks like there will be a third book in the works, and I am already looking forward to it. I highly recommend this one!

It has been a while since my last Rabbits experience. If this is your first, it is actually less confusing than coming in earlier. It was almost too easy to understand at parts. I was left remembering the days of total confusion fondly.

I appreciated the author sticking with some of the same characters but using them in some new ways. Some minor characters were given some flesh. I was a little disappointed in a character being coyly undefined. It is actually getting boring to continue doing that.

Still, Rabbits is always a fun ride. I truly leaving it wishing for some kind of immersive experience even close to the puzzles found in Rabbits.

The Quiet Room is the sequel to Rabbits by Terry Miles.
I thought this was a fun, interesting and a very entertaining book.
Miles' writing style is immersive and atmospheric.
He has created a mind-bending story with immersive world-building, and compelling characters. This was truly a fascinating book. Even though I found it to be a bit confusing at times. It was still a very addicting read.

I would like to thank NetGalley and Random House, Ballantine & Del Rey for the opportunity to read this ahead of its publication date in return for my honest review.

Rabbits was one of my favorite books that I read last year so I was incredibly excited for this sequel. I went to start it but realized that because I flew through Rabbits in 2 days and because it was a pretty complicated storyline, I’d forgotten a lot of the details. I re-read Rabbits before starting this one and it absolutely held up.

I did really enjoy The Quiet Room a lot but as with a lot of sequels, it wasn’t quite as good as the first. I never connected with these characters as much as I did with K and Chloe (except Scarpio - I really love Scarpio). I liked Emily and Pepper but I didn’t feel the chemistry with them like I did with Chloe and K. I did like Rowan a lot. There’s more that I want to say but I don’t want to spoil it. A couple of things I thought were predictable but then it ended on a cliffhanger that I did not see coming, and now there better be a third book because I need to know what happens next!

This review feels convoluted but ya know what, it’s Rabbits so it works. R U Playing?

How to even describe this book? Well, it’s about a game called Rabbits, a game that is only whispered about, where you might find a clue on the back of a bathroom stall or on a record that doesn’t exist.

Emily almost won the latest Rabbits, but in the dimensional stream she finds herself in, Rabbits does not exist. Yet for Rowan it does exist, even though he has never heard of it before.

This book is confusing and mixed up in the best way, full of sudden surprises and eerie moments, where you get whiplash along with the complex and fascinating characters. It does help, I think, if you read the first book in the series, but this entry provides enough background information to help you out-and Miles seems to be setting up for another sequel, which would be fantastic. (Also, if you haven’t, listen to the podcast!)

The Quiet Room by Terry Miles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This one is certainly living up to the high standards of the first. It's also as difficult to describe without giving away so much of what makes either novel special.

SO. I'll throw some names out there for all you rabbit hole junkies and if you get it, you'll know exactly what makes Rabbits so cool. Just imagine you lump a treasure hunt/escape room scenario with The OA and give it Fight Club rules. Now add quirky and culture-specific oddity nuance and nostalgia that REALLY clicks with me, super-powering the Mandala effect, and you've got THIS.

It's fun as hell. I love smart fiction. I especially love high-stakes game-that-is-hardly-a-game fiction.

Note, I haven't spoiled anything about the plot or characters. Almost everything is a guessing game. The journey is everything. So get going! You've got your first clue!

The highly secretive, underground, alternate-reality, scavenger hunt game Rabbits has completed its 11th iteration, with a promised high stakes prize for the winners whose names circulate on a hard-to-find winner’s index. Game 12 seems to have begun (or has it?!) in a dimensional stream that’s about to get cut off from the rest of the multiverse. The reason for shutting down this dimensional stream: the game has set out to isolate “The Engineer” who holds the promise of destroying the multiverse- the very fabric of which the Rabbits game has been designed to protect.

Our new cast of characters includes theme park architect Rowan Chess, who finds himself playing Rabbits alone when on a date with an online match, his date disappears in the women’s bathroom without a trace. The words “The Door is Open” appears on the bathroom stall indicating to repeat players that Game 12 has commenced. Returning from book 1: Emily Connors, a repeat and talented game player, who’s just entered this side dimension and is looking for clues of the next Rabbit game- which always take the form of repeated, unlikely coincidences. Both characters get hunted by Rabbit Police, whose role remains elusive except to imprison and shut down any potential players.

If you’re already confused- that’s how the whole book rolls out, even when you’re read the first in the series. You’re trying to figure out the whole time what’s going on as well as what the Rabbit’s game is up to. Plus, as the characters switch dimensions their own memories get muddled as well.

Both characters embark on a dangerous quest to find the mythical Quiet Room, a place that connects all dimensions, in order to both save their world and set the multiverse back in balance. Adventures, mysteries and coincidences abound, as uncertainty grows as to what kind of u er-conspiracy may be underlying all the action. Definitely start with Rabbits #1 to follow along!

Thanks to Random House Publishing, Ballantine, Del Ray and NetGalley for an advanced reader’s copy.