Rabbits is the pop culture zeitgeist game. Think Ready Player One. I have a feeling it will draw a lot of comparisons to it. However, it's better written than that. It's like "Welcome to Nightvale" by way of the Commodore 64. It weaves a web of a game that takes a while to really get to the meat of, but you won't be upset you have. 3.75 out of 5 stars.

I loved this hard to describe book. Rabbits is a game. Not a board game or a computer game or a video game. Its an everything game. Find the patterns that lead to the clues. With some Ready Player One and Adjustment Bureau. Parallel universes and monsters. Something is wrong with the game and K has been called on to fix it before the next iteration of the game begins. If its not fixed, the world as we know it is in big trouble. The problem is, he has no idea how. Or even what the problem might be. But with his friend Chloe, he is determined to find a solution. Twists and turns along the way. I didn't want to put it down.

It took me awhile to get into, but it was really interesting. The ending felt a little rushed after all the build-up. I dislike ambiguous endings though.

I think that I liked this novel, but I'm not sure at all, truth be told. Maybe that's what Miles wanted from his readers, the uncertainty of whether or not the book holds value and truth and importance, etc.

Rabbits, to me, is a mix of the TV show Fringe, a little bit of Ready Player One (pop-culture references), and something else that reminded me of that show on AMC about the game that all those people played without knowing what they were playing (Dispatches From Elsewhere). I loved Fringe, likes RP1, and sort of became wary of DFE (but love Jason Segal)... Which pretty much describes how I felt about Rabbits (and I didn't know it's a podcast, and I'm happy about that because I think that it would have ruined the book for me... why read it when you can listen to it?). I loved some parts of it, liked others, and became wary of many others. If you liked those 3 shows/books you'd probably like this book. If you liked the podcast, I guess you'd like the book? However, there were many moments where I just didn't know why I was reading this...

Overall, I recommend this book for fans of SF and just weird lit, but it's a slog at times, so beware.

As a preface to this review, let me say that, with the exception of a couple of word games, I am not a gamer. I mention that to say this - some of the references in this book were beyond my normal sphere of experience. That said, the book is still a ripping good mystery with the kind of plot that makes you want to keep reading. Imagine a world with multiple layers of reality and then imagine that the machinery that operates these realities is somehow broken and you must figure out how to fix it or else the world as you know it is doomed. Characters disappear or die in the book, or do they? The protagonist here, simply named K, is never fully certain what is real and what isn't. Neither is the reader. That's where the fun is.
Rabbits frightened me on a basic level. How long will it be before our own technology is capable of creating alternate realities? What will become of humanity when it does? These are the questions that keep me up at night. Rabbits is a good and thought provoking read. It will make you question what you think you know. Are you ready?

There is this game. The rules are cryptic. The stakes deadly. But the rewards? Legendary. And kinda like Fight Club, you don’t talk about this game. In fact, this game is so elusive and secretive that even the reader doesn’t understand the entirety of game until the waning pages of Terry Miles’ book.

Yeah, this might not be Rabbits highest endorsement.

The premise of the novel is a fun one. Rabbits is a mysterious game where players seek hidden clues in the world all around us in order to progress to the next level. Secrets like a QR code hidden in a 16th century painting. Or a super 8 movie stored in a locker for 15 years whose contents shows yesterday’s news. Rabbits, the book, is a distant cousin to the likes of Ready Player One and The DaVinci Code where the hunt is on to find meaning in the unexplainable. Like Richard Linkletter movies. Rabbits gamesman, K, and his girl-who-is-a-friend Chloe, race around Seattle, where all these clues conveniently appear, in order to win the game. And oh yeah, maybe even save the world. Right.

Miles writes a fast paced pseudo-thriller with believable, enjoyable characters. Yet he too gets tripped up in the tangled mythology of his game. In Ready Player One, the treasure hunt fills the endless virtual world of the Oasis with clues hidden behind Gen X pop-culture references. Dan Brown’s The DaVinci Code is a race to find the Holy Grail through a specific Templar trail. Both of these stories keep the quest limited within a specific realm in order to understand the rules and maximize that final treasure. Late century pop culture references aside (although anytime Scanners gets a shout out is totally worthy, right?). Rabbits is too broad in scope to be properly defined. The book opens with what is supposed to be an inside look at the game. Even that ends up being nothing more than a nostalgic look at Robotron 2084.

Rabbits is a fun video game of a book. But it is only worth that single quarter. And there are other alluring games in the arcade.

The mythology of Rabbits becomes its own McGuffin. For once the premise is completely understood the play itself could be seen as insanely ridiculous.

Kinda like Scientology.

Playful thanks to the team at Del Rey / Random House for the advanced copy.

Rabbits is a mind-bender of a book about a game that's far riskier than anything you've ever played and holds the potential of a better payoff than any other game you can imagine. Full of twists and turns, humor, genuine wit, and sentiment it's also a very nice way to spend your time trying to figure out how much of the game will turn out one way or another. I genuinely enjoyed this one and I'm sure that I'll be thinking back to it for a long while after.

If you love high tech thrillers, I'd jump on this one. It kept me engaged and curious through the entire book. As someone who loves conspiracy theories, I just couldn't put it down!

Nothing beats a great book from a writer you've never read. Rabbits is one of those books! Rabbits is suspenseful, and has a great set of characters. It's a puzzle inside a puzzle. A thriller that keeps you guessing. It's a damn fun read and hard to put down. There isn't much more I could ask from a writer. Props to Terry Miles for entertaining the hell out of me with this book.

Thoroughly enjoyable dash through a world of coincidences and patterns.

Good: fast paced, strange, wide assortment of characters that are interesting and fit into the story perfectly.

Bad: Bottom heavy- it felt like 95% of the book was waiting on the thing. Once the final drive began, it felt like all of it was explained in too short of a space. A couple of characters seemed out of place. I don't think the story would have been different had they not played a part. If this book is part of a larger world, I'd love to see some follow-up with more story on the Magician and Shaw and the twins.

Overall, I feel like this was worth the read. I can see this being part of a much larger thing. I plan to listen to the podcast and hope more stories are set in this strange little world.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC.

Rabbits is the book I didn't know I needed. My first thought to summarize it in a tag line was Ready Player One meets The X-Files. Until I read another review that said Rabbits was for lovers of the show Lost and realized Lost meets Ready Player One is a much better quick summary (with a dash of X-Files).
I have never listened to the podcast, so my thoughts are based solely on the novel. It took surprising little time for me to become completely engaged in the book and engrossed in the ever-building/evolving mystery within. The idea that a mysterious underground "game" has been going on for decades, with its anonymous pseudonymed players following hints and suggestions, discovering patterns, tracking the untrackable was utterly fascinating. It definitely played out like Lost in that the protagonists stumble across strange symbols, messages, locations and people and try to follow their tenuous connections to solve riddles that mostly lead to more of the same. And it's like Ready Player One but taking place today and not the future, tracking down all the clues will lead one person to winning the latest iteration of the game and (supposedly) a glorious prize. But unlike RPO, the paths traveled are filled with enemies and obstacles seeped in conspiracy theories.
The narrative centers on K, a 20-something orphan with a brilliant but distracted mind who has tried playing Rabbits over the years and leads presentations to other wannabe Rabbits players (even though the First Rule of Rabbits is, do NOT talk about Rabbits), and a few of his friends who also lead lazy lifestyles but are enraptured by the game. Reclusive billionaire Alan Scarpio shows up one night and informs K that the latest iteration of Rabbits is "broken" and he needs his help to fix it, lest dire consequences ensue. Or does Scarpio meet with him? K is not an unreliable narrator, but he is subject to gray-outs, missing time and confusing dreams, all of which make him and his comrades question his reality. He begins the search into whether the new iteration has actually started, and how it may be broken and can be fixed if it is. Before long the stakes become greater than he ever imagined as Rabbits players begin dying and disappearing, including people he's met in his efforts. Strange encounters have him questioning who he can or can't trust, memories prove to be different than the real world. The deeper down the rabbit hole K goes, the deeper the mystery and the stakes become.
My only issues with the book were: a. With major mysterious story lines like this, there always seems to be the tendency to produce layer after layer to keep it going as much as possible. There were times in the second half of the book that felt like too much of this was going on. Sometimes less is more, and some bits and pieces could have been shortened or omitted. b. Much like the show Lost, the mystery, especially in the early going, was much more entertaining and enjoyable than any ending would ever be. The build-up and anticipation were so great that the finale felt a little underwhelming. That being said, I still devoured this book and was reluctant to put it down at bed time. Rabbits was absolutely the type of story I fully appreciate and enjoy. While the author has written podcasts and movie scripts it's hard to believe this was his first novel because it was written like a veteran novelist.

I really enjoyed this story. It combines several different conspiracy/actual theories and was what I thought was a very original story. I liked the dark and scary undertones, the suspense, the horror aspects of it. I wanted to keep reading to see where it was going and how it would end, so it was definitely a page turner and kept me engaged throughout. All in all I found it was a really good read and would recommend it.

Thank you to Netgalley for advance reader copy!

Rabbits is a bit like Fight Club, in that "the first rule of Rabbits is that you don't talk about Rabbits". Unless you're one of those drawn into the underworld of conspiracies, oddities, and discrepancies, such as our hero named K. Because once you've started to make the connections, it's hard to stop playing. And there's something wrong with this iteration of the game...

I'm all for mind-bending alt-reality type stories, so I was immediately drawn in just based on that. However, this book felt like a more adult version of Ready Player One, and I'm not sure that was entirely in the book's favor. The paranoia feeling of the book was very real, but perhaps too much so for my taste. Some of the sections of the book felt like they dragged on a bit. The shock value of some things that happened were sort of odd and hit a little weird. Then the end felt a bit underwhelming after everything the characters had been through.

Overall, it wasn't a bad read. I did enjoy the weirdness of the book and putting together the connections between things. If you like Ready Player One, and are looking for a more adult, gritty version, Rabbits is the book for you.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

R U playing? Would you know if you were? The first rule of Rabbits is that you don't talk about Rabbits or The Game as it was called years before its first modern iteration. Now we are in its 11th iteration and the game is everywhere. The patterns and clues show up in real world, in real time, and all you have to do is find the connections, solve the puzzles, and save the world.
I started this book, not knowing about the podcast that preempted it, and immediately fell down the rabbit hole. The book references a ton of pop culture media that you feel like you need to investigate each and every item to grasp the whole meaning of the story. Rabbits is a tale of a game player named K who finds his very existence tied to the game that seems to be an urban legend with real world consequences. It takes you on an adventure, coupled with a metafictional quantum physics journey into science fiction. It is heavy laden with scientific theories, yet is still a fun read even for those of us that may not understand all of the science.
This book is perfect for fans of D&D, RPG video games, and even Losties. It is a fun exciting read that challenges your brain. I highly recommend joining me down the rabbit hole of Rabbits by Terry Miles.
Thanks to Netgalley, Del Ray, and Random House publishing for the advanced copy of the book. The opinions are my own.

Deception and intrigue. Real world gaming with twist and turns. What's next? Solve the game win the prize but don't speak of what happens. The idea is that you can play this real world game if you notice the clues/patterns that others miss, but don't forget the danger others have died. It's very inconsistent in some regards with how characters interact and who remembers what and who disappears or is found. Not a bad plot but seemed to drag in places and rush to finish Ending fell flat.

A convoluted story. This book has so many twists and turns it leaves you reeling. It's about a game gone crazy. It's a kind of confusing storyline, but if you preserve it's worth the time you put into reading it. It definitely gets you thinking!

Rabbits by Terry Miles
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

If I didn't already have a spirit animal, I'd probably insist that my spirit animal is NOW, ABSOLUTELY, a rabbit. But not those squeezable fluffy creatures. Oh, no. I mean the kind of rabbit that Neo sees in a tattoo in the Matrix, or the one Alice chases, or the kind of toothy monster that fits into that comfortable zone between a Lovecraft story and the monster from Monty Python's Holy Grail.

So, wait, what the hell does this have to do with the novel?

I'm trying to tell you!

This is my spirit animal! A million nearly perfect references to MY outlook, MY worldview, from Donnie Darko to Persona to Dragon's Lair to D&D but twist all these into deeply paranoiac versions that are actually just intense patter recognition systems on speed.

Look for the clues. Hell, this is like Fincher's The Game but impressively MORE funded, MORE involved, and deeper than anyone could have imagined. It's THAT kind of novel. And I LOVE it.

It's a geek paradise. Designed for obsessives, OCD, intensely intellectual gamers who define themselves by a simple tenet of "What is out of place here?"

Only, the gameboard is the whole damn world and your own memory and, eventually, your sanity.

This was satisfying from start to finish. It was MADE for me. Maybe that makes me a bit crazy, but the RIDE was totally worth it. I'm sure Jeff Goldblum would approve.

Follow the Rabbit, people. :)

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)

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.)