Book Review - Rabbits by Terry Miles

Title: Rabbits
Author: Terry Miles
Genre: Science Fiction/ Thriller/ Mystery
Published: 2021
 
Description: It’s an average work day. You’ve been wrapped up in a task, and you check the clock when you come up for air – 4:44 pm. You go to check your email, and 44 unread messages have built up. With a shock, you realize it is April 4^th – 4/ 4. And when you get in your car to drive home, your odometer reads 44,444. Coincidence? Or have you just seen the edge of a rabbit hole?
 
Rabbits is a mysterious alternate reality game so vast it uses our global reality as its canvas. Since the game first started in 1959, the  iterations have appeared and nine winners have been declared. Their identities unknown. So is their reward, which is whispered to be NSA or CIA recruitment, vast wealth, immortality, or perhaps even the key to unlocking the secrets of the universe itself. But the deeper you get, the more deadly the game becomes. Players have died in the past, and the body count is rising.
 
And now the eleventh round is about to begin. Enter K – a Rabbit obsessive who has been trying to find a way into the game for years. The path opens when K is approached by billionare Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth iteration. Scarpio says that something has gone wrong with the game and that K needs to fix it before Eleven starts or the whole world will pay the price. Five days later, Scarpio is declared missing. Two weeks after that, K blows the deadline and Eleven begins. And suddenly the fate of the entire universe is at stake.
 
Review: I expected a book that would be full of references to videogames, technology and pop culture. The first two I would probably not get. Instead I got a mysterious, amazing trip, that still raised more questions then answers, but that sucked me in from the start. At the end I was left confused, especially about what this games was actually all about. But it was a great adventure. Lots of alternate dimensions, missing time, weird dreams and even weirder clues. At the end it still is difficult to fully explain what is going on. But I think that’s the charm of the book.
 
Rabbits is a game that no one is supposed to talk about. Everything is secretive, but people still know about its existence. What it really contains is unknown, but it’s all about finding clues, contradictions and coincidences and following the lead to the conclusion of the game. K has been obsessed since the someone called The Magician. Then K meets Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth Rabbits game. He tells K to fix the game, before bad stuff happens. But later, right before the eleventh game begins, Scarpio goes missing and K has to play the game.  
 
“Rabbits” is one of the strangest books I’ve ever read, because it’s still really difficult to explain what I actually read about. You really have to focus and pay attention at all times to keep up and you still won’t fully understand it. And I believe author Terry Miles meant to do that. It gets you thinking and talking. This is part of the charm of the book. I really enjoyed the mysterious adventure K went on.
 
The book confused me many times and I kept adding questions to my list. And at the end, not a lot get an answer. Which might leave you a bit unsatisfied. And I wanted an ending that was more scientific, instead of magical realism. It didn’t feel right to me. It’s also not really clear if K is a man or a woman. K read like a man, but because I listened to the audiobook narrated by a woman, it was confusing.
 
“Rabbits” is an intriguing read, full of mystery and a great adventure to go on if you want to dive into science fiction a little more.  
 
Rating: 3, 5/ 5