I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned this on the blog before, but one of the first fiction podcasts I listened to was Rabbits. And I enjoyed Rabbits so much that I ended up listening to everything by Pacific Northwest Stories (PNWS) – Tanis, The Black Tapes, The Last Movie, and Faerie. So you can probably imagine my excitement when I found out that there’s a Rabbits book, set sometime before season one of the podcast.

Rabbits (the book) is the story of K, a man obsessed with patterns who has always been on the fringes of the game known as Rabbits. One day, Alan Scarpio, the alleged winner of the sixth round of the modern version of Rabbits, who tells him that the game needs to be fixed before Round 11 starts of the world will end.

And then Scarpio vanishes.

So first things first, I’m not actually sure how fun this will be if you’re not already a fan of the podcast. While the story is unrelated to the podcast, I think having a feel for the general weirdness of rabbits and the PNWS podcasts helps a lot. The story can be rather confusing at times because the game is confusing (although I think the book explains more than the podcast did!), but because it’s very similar to the podcast, I enjoyed it a lot.

As for plot, I think the book spends a lot of time establishing the world and the actual “saving the world” part happens mostly towards the end of the book. I personally found the last section to be the most exciting one, and I think the time spent world-building paid off.

The most interesting about this book is the ARG hidden in it. I’ve not completely figured out all the clues because it’s a lot more complicated than I thought, but it’s so cool that a game is hidden in this book! Here’s a hint to get you started: you’re going to need to see the text to find the first few clues. I’ve also heard that it helps to take note of names and websites in the book, which is not something I did and probably why I’m struggling with the ARG now.

Overall, I thought this was a very fun book that fans of the podcast are going to love. There’s a lot of swearing in the book, so this is probably not an ARG you can play as a family activity, but if you like puzzles, gaps in reality, and mysteries that may not be solvable, Rabbits is the book for you. If you’re not sure about this book, I highly recommend listening to the podcast first.