2025 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Rabbits, the first book in the Rabbits series by Terry Miles.

Pages: 422 pages

Length: 1 month (April)

Participants: M, SarahKat, Dominique

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Here are some questions to help get the conversation started! Feel free to look up discussion questions specific to this book or come up with your own. Just make sure any questions that contain spoilers are under spoiler tags.
Discussion questions are not required but may be a fun way to talk about the book and get to know each other!

Prior to starting:
What prompted you to join this buddy read?
Have you read this author before? What do you think of their other books?

Mid-read:
What character or ideas do you relate to the most and why?
Do you have any favorite quotes or scenes?

After reading:
What was enjoyable or not-so-enjoyable about this book?
Did this book change your perception about anything, either within the book (character development) or in real life?

I've started this one. I joined this buddy read because I'm really trying to actually read books from my list and not just for challenges.

I've read through chapter 7: (view spoiler)[ I'm really enjoying this so far. It's like The Matrix meets Ready Player One. I love the whole idea of the Rabbits game being all those "glitchy" type things that happen in real life, but being clues to a whole game.
Where is Alan? Who was the woman who showed up at the diner? She told him to call home, but she didn't really seem... wifey. (hide spoiler)]

Thanks for joining SarahKat :)
I've had this book on my list for yeeaars but never got to it simply because I wanted to read this in the month of April and I always ran outta month.
I know there's a podcast that's connected to this novel too but I've never listened to it or read this author before.

I'll start tonight!

I just finished chapter 7 and I'm digging this so far. If it wasn't 12:40am right now I'd keep going.
(view spoiler)[I'm really enjoying the pacing so far too. From the 1999 car accident where Anne died, to K's parents also getting killed in an accident...they had to be using K to get into the game right? Is that what killed them? -
Telling K to tell Alan to call home definitely felt like a misdirection to me. I didn't get wifey vibes either. Assistant? Mistress? Handler? (hide spoiler)]

Oo there's a podcast? That would probably make me paranoid. I'm sure it's people "playing" the game in real life.

(view spoiler)[Yes the parents for sure had to be a game-related death too. I wonder what's so special about K? (hide spoiler)]

I am digging this. I just finished chapter 23
(view spoiler)[This was my favorite part so far. Simply for the David Axelrod mention, haha. I have not heard that name mentioned by anyone, anywhere in well over 20 years. I squealed with delight, immediately taken back to when I was in junior college and this wacky teacher of mine was jammin' to David freakin' Axelrod after every class. Man, what a memory. lol. I'm gonna throw on the whole The Song of Innocence album and just keep reading. How fun!
In case you've never heard the track:
https://youtu.be/jMakYKVKqIc?si=iuczC...
Or the album:
https://open.spotify.com/album/7cILxV...
(hide spoiler)]

I'm really liking this too! I'd be reading it faster but I have 4 library books going at once right now.

Through Chapter 16: (view spoiler)[Figured Baron would die after he went to Worgames. I honestly thought he'd be dead in his chair when they came in. K's gray feeling is getting pretty freaky as is the fact that he loses so much time randomly. And oh no the 11th iteration has started and they still don't know what's wrong with the game!
I really love the entire premise of this book; looking for weird things in real life that lead to something... else. (hide spoiler)]

Up to chapter 10
(view spoiler)[ Scarpio missing, the woman at the diner wonder who she is and what about the waitress remembering K more than once. Fells like she's part of this.
The almost murder of Jeff Goldblum was so weird.
Him missing hours like that in the present and in the past make me wonder if he's been in the game since he heard the voice before the accident (hide spoiler)]

M wrote: "I am digging this. I just finished chapter 23"

Also just finished 23: (view spoiler)[Thank you for the link! I love that some of the comments on that video are "The door is open."

The guy in the tv room running the world thing was my LEAST favorite part of The Matrix movies but, maybe it works here? I only rolled my eyes a little and we still have half a book left. And Emily Connors is there. So maybe the game does lead people to some super top secret job, it's just higher than the CIA, which seems obvious if it's been going on for all time.

Still not sure if the game is broken or if it's just a ploy to get people interested like Chloe thought. And why is K the only one experiencing these crazy Mandela Effect things?? (hide spoiler)]

SarahKat wrote: "Also just finished 23: ."

(view spoiler)[The tv room - I can agree with that. It definitely wasn't totally original or really that surprising. (hide spoiler)]

I'm not that much further along (work has been hectic this week) but I hope to get a chunk more read tonight.

Glad to have you with us Dominique! I hope you're enjoying it so far :)
(view spoiler)[I thought that too about where K started the game. Made sense to me that it started that night in the car accident. (hide spoiler)]

This book feels like a (view spoiler)[ Mix of Matrix and the movie Jacob's ladder (hide spoiler)]

Finished!
Ended up giving it a 2.5 rounded up and for me, that ain't that bad, haha. I had a good time reading this even if by the end I was left feeling how I felt when the show LOST ended.
(view spoiler)[Obviously we're supposed to have loose ends and more questions than answers with a story like this, but I'm most confused by why Baron, Fatman, etc all die? Maybe I missed it somewhere.. and I'm also leaning towards believing that K and Emily being together was just a distraction/made to throw K off kinda timeline...
The creepy darkness here reminded me of the smoke monster of LOST and it made me chuckle. (hide spoiler)]

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this one. I think I may need to sit on it a while :)

I finished gave it a 3.5

(view spoiler)[ It was entertaining but near the end, the jumping dimensions was getting too much, him being married, Chloe disappearing and then coming back. Still left a lot of questions.
I agree with M, why did these two have to die and the cop showing up near the end looking for Mumur and then nothing more about that was strange.

Basically the ending was like Ready Player one except in our time, The Milionnaire, the game and playing with the girl was identical (hide spoiler)]

I haven't finished (on a family trip this weekend), but I worry about the end because I don't know what would be satisfying.
However, I loved Lost, end included!

Finished! I gave it 4 stars because the first 60-75% was great, but I agree with both of you the ending was not great. Too many questions left unanswered, and the things that were "answered" didn't work for me. (view spoiler)[I would have been happier if they had left the Radiants and crap out of it and just had K win the game, instead of trying and failing to make it a whole big world-ending deal. I would have even been happier with an "aliens" explanation. Meh. (hide spoiler)]