Rabbit by Max Ellendale

Rabbit by Max Ellendale

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the first book that I have read by this author. If I recall correctly, I initially put it on my list of possible after spotting 1 or more friends liking the book. And the fact that this book is in the Kindle Unlimited program made things a lot easier.

First off: I do not recall how quickly I picked up on this particular factoid, but this book is not contemporary to our time. It is set roughly 10 years in the future, in a world created from what can be seen from today’s headlines. You know, those headlines involving death by guns, casual racism and sexism from elected officials, attempts to roll back protections of LGBT people – well, we are in that world, or, I mean, 10 years into that world.

I’d relatively recently reread a book set about thirty years after its publication date. And one of my observations was that it seemed a lot more conservative, than I’d have expected for a book set 30 years later in Japan. Seemed weird to me. And there were no little hints dropped as to why things were that way. Here? It’s obvious why certain things would be the way they would be, ten years into our future.

Heck, one of the two main characters was acting a little oddly about intimacy, and one of my initial thoughts was that maybe she’s having some ‘issues’ with coming out/being out. Or whatever. And ten years after everything that’s been happening right now? Yeah, I normally have troubles with ‘modern’ people having issues, but in this situation? I’d have no issue with that being in the story-line. I’d made a mistake, though, and that wasn’t why she was having issues (though Alice’s roommate Marc ‘isn’t out’, so there was a storyline there that used that ‘not out’ trope – and I was, oddly, perfectly fine with it (partly because he didn’t seem to actually be hiding but whatever)).

Well, this review started weirdly.

This book is titled ‘Rabbit’. Rabbit is a nickname Alice Lange’s family gave her (mostly her brothers) for various reasons, many of which involve her name being Alice. Alice is the main character, and, unless I missed something, solo point of view. She’s a detective in Seattle, working for the Bias Crimes group. Most of the time she spends going to schools and refugee camps letting them know the law, and their rights regarding harassment, bullying, and the like. That, at least, has been her recent tasks on her job – most of the book, though, involves her off her job for various reasons. Rational logical sane reasons.

For various reasons Alice kept ending up in a particular hospital. Whereupon she bumped into a Doctor Corwin. The two develop a friendship. That, later, leads to more. Both, oddly enough, are shocked when they learn that the other is a lesbian – though both had been wishing the other was before the revelation.

I do not wish to reveal everything, so I’ll just note: both of the main characters, Alice and Corwin I mean, have ‘issues’ that cause them problems with relationships. Both issues play a role in this books unwinding plot path.

I liked the book and will look to see if any of the other books by this author interest me.

Rating: 4.33

May 24 2018



View all my reviews