Rabbits, by Terry Miles

4.5 stars

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 11^th 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 11^th 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!

Thanks to Netgalley for an advanced reader’s copy.

Stacy DeBroff

Stacy DeBroff, founder and CEO of Mom Central.com and social and digital consultancy, Influence Central, is a social media strategist, attorney, and best-selling parenting author. A sought-after expert for national media, she trend-spots regularly with national brands and speaks frequently to national and international audiences on a wide range of subjects, including influencer marketing, social media, entrepreneurship, and consumer trends. A passionate cook, gardener, reader, and tennis player, she adores this new chapter of post-college-age parenting.