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cozyusagie's review
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
caffeinatedbookwoorm's review
adventurous
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Obsessed đź’–
willrefuge's review
3.0
7 / 10 ✪
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/10/01/the-quiet-room-by-terry-miles-review/
—
Bed Bath & Beyond is a very significant place. It soothes me.
—
After nearly winning the eleventh iteration of Rabbits, Emily Connors awakens to find herself somewhere else—somewhen else. She’d been hoping that, in winning Rabbits, she would return to her own dimensional stream, but unfortunately, she failed to win.
And even worse—this new place wasn’t her home either.
In fact, Rabbits barely seems to exist here at all. Every time she goes looking for the game, some shadowy group—what Emily has come to call the Rabbits Police—appears to stop her. This results in her being repeatedly detained, stonewalled, and led in circles with no way to escape.
Until, that is, she meets Rowan Chess.
Rowan is a freelance architect who’s been having an odd time of late. Deja vu and coincidences; a disappearing from an empty room; a nagging feeling of being misplaced—all haunt him. But only when he meets Emily do these things click into place—and start getting even stranger.
—
You might want get ready for a whole lotta not making sense.
—
I couldn’t’ve picked a better quote to sum up the entirety of this book. It was a mindfuck and confused the absolutely hell out of me even before the end, where—like in the first installment—things started getting seriously weird. Now, I have a whole lot of unanswered questions and some serious issues with the story at large, but first, and MOST IMPORTANTLY—no matter how much the plot frustrated me, no matter how confused I was, I never, EVER thought of DNFing this.
Rabbits is such a confusing game—when even the people playing it can’t be sure that they’re ACTUALLY playing—it’s no surprise that a book about it is a bit hard to follow. And yet… I never had any trouble getting into it. I consistently wanted to discover what happened next. Even as I rolled my eyes and swore, shook my head and cursed the plot, I always knew I’d make it to the end. That’s the best thing I can say about the Quiet Room: it has a high readability—you just need to know what happens next.
And now, the downside.
As I said, any story about a game like Rabbits is going to be confusing, but is the Quiet Room even about Rabbits at all? There’s no evidence of the game at all for such a long time—except for one of our protagonists to say that Rabbits is nowhere to be found. In fact, even when we get to the end, the game is practically an afterthought. Now, I’d say that the game doesn’t matter, and that the story’s just as good without it—and this is true—except that the author just won’t stop mentioning it. That the two are intertwined somehow, can’t exist without the other, even when all evidence points to the contrary. And it’s this insistence that annoyed me the most. Well, that and the Rabbits Police—because what needs policing when the game’s not even there?? The only other was how none of the story ever made any semblance of sense.
But then, that was true of the first one as well, so… well, you get more of the same: the same obscure references, the same heart-pounding action, the same mysterious circumstances and desperate hunts for clues, and the same general confusion surrounding wtf is going on. So… win-win?
https://arefugefromlife.wordpress.com/2023/10/01/the-quiet-room-by-terry-miles-review/
—
Bed Bath & Beyond is a very significant place. It soothes me.
—
After nearly winning the eleventh iteration of Rabbits, Emily Connors awakens to find herself somewhere else—somewhen else. She’d been hoping that, in winning Rabbits, she would return to her own dimensional stream, but unfortunately, she failed to win.
And even worse—this new place wasn’t her home either.
In fact, Rabbits barely seems to exist here at all. Every time she goes looking for the game, some shadowy group—what Emily has come to call the Rabbits Police—appears to stop her. This results in her being repeatedly detained, stonewalled, and led in circles with no way to escape.
Until, that is, she meets Rowan Chess.
Rowan is a freelance architect who’s been having an odd time of late. Deja vu and coincidences; a disappearing from an empty room; a nagging feeling of being misplaced—all haunt him. But only when he meets Emily do these things click into place—and start getting even stranger.
—
You might want get ready for a whole lotta not making sense.
—
I couldn’t’ve picked a better quote to sum up the entirety of this book. It was a mindfuck and confused the absolutely hell out of me even before the end, where—like in the first installment—things started getting seriously weird. Now, I have a whole lot of unanswered questions and some serious issues with the story at large, but first, and MOST IMPORTANTLY—no matter how much the plot frustrated me, no matter how confused I was, I never, EVER thought of DNFing this.
Rabbits is such a confusing game—when even the people playing it can’t be sure that they’re ACTUALLY playing—it’s no surprise that a book about it is a bit hard to follow. And yet… I never had any trouble getting into it. I consistently wanted to discover what happened next. Even as I rolled my eyes and swore, shook my head and cursed the plot, I always knew I’d make it to the end. That’s the best thing I can say about the Quiet Room: it has a high readability—you just need to know what happens next.
And now, the downside.
As I said, any story about a game like Rabbits is going to be confusing, but is the Quiet Room even about Rabbits at all? There’s no evidence of the game at all for such a long time—except for one of our protagonists to say that Rabbits is nowhere to be found. In fact, even when we get to the end, the game is practically an afterthought. Now, I’d say that the game doesn’t matter, and that the story’s just as good without it—and this is true—except that the author just won’t stop mentioning it. That the two are intertwined somehow, can’t exist without the other, even when all evidence points to the contrary. And it’s this insistence that annoyed me the most. Well, that and the Rabbits Police—because what needs policing when the game’s not even there?? The only other was how none of the story ever made any semblance of sense.
But then, that was true of the first one as well, so… well, you get more of the same: the same obscure references, the same heart-pounding action, the same mysterious circumstances and desperate hunts for clues, and the same general confusion surrounding wtf is going on. So… win-win?
cyoachim's review
adventurous
challenging
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
jkplayswithyarn's review
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
trishah05's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
hope_amanda's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
careythesixth's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This series has well and truly pissed me off. The first time I read Rabbits, I loved it. Mind blown. The second time I read it, knowing how it ended and having more energy to think through the logistics of the narrative, it was... a chore. But the concept is amazing and absolute catnip to me, so I read this book. The concept is still very cool, but jfc. These characters are insufferable hipster iterations of the author. Everyone is the same one note - snarky Gen X trash baby. I say that as a snarky Gen X trash baby. The dialogue actually made me stupid. A solid 100 pages of this book could probably be cut if we eliminated every time a character said what?, what the hell?, what the fuck?, what do you mean?, how the hell?, how the fuck?, this is impossible, this seems unlikely, what's going on here?, who's behind this?, etc. and the subsequent dead end conversation that followed. I felt like I was reading an adaptation of Waiting for Godot, but like if Waiting for Godot had been lobotomized into a 400 page "Who's on first?" joke starring characters from a Kevin Smith movie. I am so mad at this book. It had the potential to be good but it's just bad. Two stars for the concept and the concept only.