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dario_alv's review
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, and Police brutality
Moderate: Racism, Animal death, and Racial slurs
Minor: Infidelity and Animal cruelty
crufts's review
adventurous
challenging
funny
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Holy crap, this book. I read the whole thing in about two days because I couldn't put it down. When I was halfway through, I even tried to read slower so that I could prolong the enjoyment. Long story short: another fantastic book by Jasper Fforde.
The blurb tells you everything you need to know about the premise, so I'll get straight to critiquing the author's storytelling technique. Here's what I loved about the book:
First, setting the conflicts up early and building them fast. Within just a few pages, the story establishes its main conflict: rising anti-rabbit sentiment in a UK partially populated by anthropomorphic rabbits. Then it raises the stakes: the protagonist, Peter Knox, works at a rabbit-containment agency, but doesn't really believe in the mission. Then it raises them again: Peter is dragged into an important anti-rabbit project and his loyalties are questioned, which threatens his job, which threatens his ability to provide for his daughter Pippa. And so on.
Second, frightening and powerful villains. There are several different villains in the story of varying magnitudes. We've got "I'm trying to control everything because I like power" villains. There's "I'm xenophobic-because I'm scared" villains. Then there's "I'm cruel for the sake of it" villains. And they're genuinely nasty: truly, truly awful people. It's because of these great forces of antagonism that the book has equally great tension.
Third, a vulnerably human hero. Peter Knox is in no way prepared to handle these Big Bads. In fact, much of his trouble is in simply trying to conquer his own mind and body's reactions of fear, uncertainty, anger, cowardice, and even love (which can be as inconvenient as anything else). When he discovers something worth overcoming these obstacles for, you'd better believe we're cheering him on, because we see that his victory is hard-won.
Fourth, the technique of subtly inserting information without revealing it immediately, leading to a delicious moment where the pieces fall into place.
This technique reminds me of another Jasper Fforde series (Thursday Next), where the book character Commander Trafford Bradshaw is married to an anthropomorphized gorilla, Melanie Bradshaw. However, it's not mentioned that Melanie is a gorilla until well into the book. As the Commander observes, book readers can't "see" anything that isn't specifically described, so nobody has discovered that Melanie is a gorilla.
I think the author really enjoys this technique, because several points of information are standing in plain sight in The Constant Rabbit - although you likely won't put them together until that delicious moment later. To give a non-spoiler example, Peter's daughter Pippa is sitting in a wheelchair during her entire time on-screen, but it's not until well into the book that this is ever mentioned in anything more than the most oblique way and you suddenly realize what's going on. Astute readers will enjoy putting together the pieces of other facts that have been hidden in plain sight.
Fifth, bad events are not followed by someone saying "And That's Bad!". We (the reader) know they're bad, and the author compliments us by leaving these obvious conclusions for us to make. This leaves events like car crashes in their pure, original, shocking glory, undiminished by extraneous commentary.
On the downside, I thought there was a little too much of the trope "It's okay, I knew your secret all along": after the first two times, I expected Peter to connect the dots and predict the third one.
And the book's ending was rather bittersweet; I'd like it to be happier. But it just goes to show how much I cared for these characters, so well played.
The blurb tells you everything you need to know about the premise, so I'll get straight to critiquing the author's storytelling technique. Here's what I loved about the book:
First, setting the conflicts up early and building them fast. Within just a few pages, the story establishes its main conflict: rising anti-rabbit sentiment in a UK partially populated by anthropomorphic rabbits. Then it raises the stakes: the protagonist, Peter Knox, works at a rabbit-containment agency, but doesn't really believe in the mission. Then it raises them again: Peter is dragged into an important anti-rabbit project and his loyalties are questioned, which threatens his job, which threatens his ability to provide for his daughter Pippa. And so on.
Second, frightening and powerful villains. There are several different villains in the story of varying magnitudes. We've got "I'm trying to control everything because I like power" villains. There's "I'm xenophobic-because I'm scared" villains. Then there's "I'm cruel for the sake of it" villains. And they're genuinely nasty: truly, truly awful people. It's because of these great forces of antagonism that the book has equally great tension.
Third, a vulnerably human hero. Peter Knox is in no way prepared to handle these Big Bads. In fact, much of his trouble is in simply trying to conquer his own mind and body's reactions of fear, uncertainty, anger, cowardice, and even love (which can be as inconvenient as anything else). When he discovers something worth overcoming these obstacles for, you'd better believe we're cheering him on, because we see that his victory is hard-won.
Fourth, the technique of subtly inserting information without revealing it immediately, leading to a delicious moment where the pieces fall into place.
This technique reminds me of another Jasper Fforde series (Thursday Next), where the book character Commander Trafford Bradshaw is married to an anthropomorphized gorilla, Melanie Bradshaw. However, it's not mentioned that Melanie is a gorilla until well into the book. As the Commander observes, book readers can't "see" anything that isn't specifically described, so nobody has discovered that Melanie is a gorilla.
I think the author really enjoys this technique, because several points of information are standing in plain sight in The Constant Rabbit - although you likely won't put them together until that delicious moment later. To give a non-spoiler example, Peter's daughter Pippa is sitting in a wheelchair during her entire time on-screen, but it's not until well into the book that this is ever mentioned in anything more than the most oblique way and you suddenly realize what's going on. Astute readers will enjoy putting together the pieces of other facts that have been hidden in plain sight.
Fifth, bad events are not followed by someone saying "And That's Bad!". We (the reader) know they're bad, and the author compliments us by leaving these obvious conclusions for us to make. This leaves events like car crashes in their pure, original, shocking glory, undiminished by extraneous commentary.
On the downside, I thought there was a little too much of the trope "It's okay, I knew your secret all along": after the first two times, I expected Peter to connect the dots and predict the third one.
And the book's ending was rather bittersweet; I'd like it to be happier. But it just goes to show how much I cared for these characters, so well played.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Xenophobia, Death, Genocide, Bullying, and Gun violence
Moderate: Violence, Police brutality, Infidelity, Body horror, and Gore
Minor: Sexual content and Torture
Generally, the content warnings above are referring to the xenophobia and second-class-citizen treatment of the rabbits by the leporiphobic (rabbit-hating) humans. Some sexual references are made, but mostly as humorous asides regarding rabbit culture.The gore is specifically eye trauma which was a challenge to get through. There's also body horror mentioned a few times where some humans and (anthropomorphic) rabbits have had parts removed. Fortunately these were over quick.
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