The Constant Rabbit

2.5 rounded up. Not my fave of Fforde's books but it still had some of his classic humour and style that I enjoyed. The ending was a let-down though.

I'm excited to say I've finally found a sci-fi book that I really enjoyed! The Constant Rabbit is a strange book to say the least but thoroughly enjoyable. While it's a fun story, it's also an interesting social commentary. You could swap rabbits for a lot of different marginalized groups and the book seems to be a commentary on the way they're treated. I enjoyed Constance and Doc as characters and while I don't think Peter is the most compelling narrator, there's something to be said about his simplicity tangled in the feelings of guilt he has. I would definitely read other things by Jasper Fforde to see if I can keep up this positive feeling toward sci-fi!

I loved the Eyre Affair and the next few books in the Thursday Next series and then Jasper FForde's style began to grate on me and unfortunately has never stopped. In this amusing story some rabbits have become anthropomorphised during the unexplained Event in the 1950s. They take on human proportions (think the Cadbury Caramel Bunny) and speech, becoming the newest target of discrimination in the UK. As the story begins the government, run by the United Kingdom Against Rabbit Population is cracking down on the rights of 1.2 million rabbits (denied because they are no human, though they can now make the same contributions) and attempting to re-home them in a huge purpose-built warren in Wales. Peter Knox reconnects with Connie, a rabbit he knew at university before they were denied access as she moves into his conservative and largely hostile village. Peter finds himself increasingly forced to take a stand putting his personal reputation at risk and threatening to reveal his job as a rabbit spotter, a position bound up in the discriminatory policies of the ruling party. It is chock-full of all the qualities that make Fforde fun; sly, absurdist humour, clever wordplay and brutal satire. He brilliantly skewers prejudice, bureaucracy, insularity and selfish, parochial attitudes. For the first third this is thoroughly entertaining but after that the weaknesses become increasingly apparent. The characters are largely caricatures, particularly the bad ones. This lack of nuance when coupled with the absurdity damages the impact of the important messages . The slow-moving plot meant that once my investment began to wane it was difficult to push through. As I have found with Fforde's, he finds his own cleverness more entertaining than I do and often gets so caught up in his own wit that the story suffers. He is also far to reliant on unexpected revelations that occur without any earlier signposts, finding delight in tricking the reader by playing on their assumptions, but if there have been no hints in the text the deception isn't exactly impressive for the author to reveal that he knows more than the reader. In the end, once the novelty had worn off my lasting feeling was irritation. That being said, the idea of Speed Librarying and the Book Blitz due to austerity cuts is comedy gold.

The Constant Rabbit  by Jasper Fforde is set in a world similar to our own, except there was an event fifty five years ago when a small number of rabbits anthropomorphised. Now there are a couple more (1.2 million or so) rabbits of human size that live in the UK. Peter Knox is a rabbit spotter who works for the government, and lives in a small village into which a rabbit family moves.  This causes uproar in the village, especially amongst those who support the United Kingdom Against Rabbit Population party. Jasper Fforde is a hilarious, insightful author with comments made about his fantastic UK which have bearing on Brexit and Black Lives Matter. I've read and enjoyed lots of Jasper Fforde's books, from his Thursday Next series set in a world of books, to Shades of Grey, where people can see one shade of colour, and the shade that you can see shows your class, to Early Riser, where people sleep through the winter, except for a few individuals.  If you enjoy satire and surrealist humour (think Eddie Izzard), then you will enjoy this book!  The Constant Rabbit  came out on 2nd July, and here are links to  Amazon  and  Waterstones .  I’ve found a  link  to where you can search for local bookshops, including independent! You can follow Jasper Fforde on his website, Instagram or twitter . I was given this book for free in return for an unbiased review, so my thanks to NetGalley and to  Hodder & Stoughton  (the publishers) for this book.