Quite scathing political satire is given a very gentle touch in this comedic drama, from an author who I always knew I should be reading, but never actually have. After seeing our hero help volunteer at the local library, where as much staff as used to be employed in the libraries are now employed checking the buildings only open six minutes every fortnight, we see what his actual day job is – acting as an identifier for Us against Them. They do all look the same, after all, and have come along, taken our housing, not integrated, kept speaking their own language and promise (allegedly) to breed us out of the country. Oh, and Them are human-sized, anthropomorphised rabbits. As a result here's a lovely evocation of the typical whites-only English village, with gossip mills, and a generally right-wing attitude passed down over the generations. And lo and behold, some Rabbits of Interest to Us are moving into our hero's village – and he has a specific bit of previous with the family.

So often I find literary books that are supposed to be hilarious that I've never smiled at, even if I did realise they were supposed to be humorous. Here we certainly get a large dose of comedy, while never losing sight of the plot – the Yorkshireman and other human disguises, the Herefordshire names (which are certainly realistic), the slang names in the new rabbit's argot, and so on. One quibble is that it does the 'ooh, didn't I tell you that detail?!' thing not once, but twice – once about a colleague of our guy, the next time and much more sinfully about his daughter. I learnt how quick one is to take against such "oops tee-hee sorry I didn't mention he was black" beats.

But I did find the biggest flaw to be something else – this didn't always move with a rabbitty bounce. There is definitely a little too much of this – too much plot, too much depth to this world, and so on, and the quipping does get a little too lost at times. It was not when we crunched to a halt with a sudden ending, but much before, when I'd realised the interspecies warfare (and/or plans thereof) were going on too long. As a result, I guess that that there Wodehouse Prize is still never going to be won a second time by anybody. But I was still really glad I read this, I still laughed, and I'd still encourage people see what Fforde is doing with his blatant metaphor for 2020 Britain. Three and a half stars.

There are certain things I expect from a Jasper Fforde book. Quirky but delightful worldbuilding. Bizarre incidents and exciting action. Characters who are eccentric yet ordinary. Alternative history, first-person narrative, fantastically silly humour, and a good smattering of anti-fascism wrapped up in all of this. All of these things appear in The Constant Rabbit.

I don’t expect the politics to be front and centre; to be the whole point, plot and theme of the book. I don’t expect to feel real fear and anxiety for the characters. And I sure as hell don’t expect to have tears in my eyes at the end of the book. All these things are also in The Constant Rabbit.

If I’m completely honest, I nearly decided not to read this book at all for no other reason than that the name of an animal appears in the title. I couldn’t tell you why this is a thing that freaks me out, but it does. To this day I’ve never watched the film Slumdog Millionaire. However, I bravely took myself in hand and requested it from Netgalley, thereby cunningly forcing myself to read it, since a review that just said “this has the word rabbit in the title so I couldn’t read it” probably wouldn’t go down too well. Anyway, I’m glad I did (maybe I should watch Slumdog Millionaire, too) because I found this book delightful.

We begin with a very typical Ffordian scene in which Peter, our protagonist, is directing the operations of a group of library assistants with military precision. This is necessary because library funds have now been cut so much that libraries can only be open for six minutes per fortnight. And although this is a very funny and delightful episode it’s also serious. Libraries are losing funding, losing workers, and being closed down, and while people like me who have their own excellent laptop (thanks to their friends!), a Kindle, and a couple of thousand books on their shelves might not see libraries as terribly important, they are absolutely vital services for thousands of people.

And, well, Jasper Fforde starts as he means to carry on: the book only gets more political from here. This is unabashedly an anti-fascist book, a Black Lives Matter book, a Trans Rights are Human Rights book, a Crip the Vote book. Admittedly the marginalised communities in it are anthropomorphic rabbits, but the veil is thin and the parallels abound. Peter, for example, thinks he’s not leporiphobic because he disapproves of “juggings” and once fancied a rabbit – yet he also works in a crucial position for a huge rabbit law enforcement agency, which is seen as necessary and good despite the fact that rabbits obviously live peacefully, non-violently, co-operatively and sustainably.

Then there’s the government, run by the fascist UKARP party which is led by a man called Nigel, who provide the background of systemic hatred and persecution to the plot with their plans to round up all the rabbits (whose movement is already restricted) into one big camp, MegaWarren. The final straw for Peter is when a family of rabbits move into the nice little right-wing village where he’s previously been able to consider himself pleasingly liberal. He is going to have to choose a side and make some tough decisions.

This is a book for white people who want to understand why saying “all lives matter” isn’t cool, or who think that we imprison a disproportionate number of black people because they are more likely to be criminals. It’s a book for those of us who are privileged enough to be able to think of the police as providing safety and protection, or who haven’t quite been able to get our heads round the way that systemic oppression works and is designed to work against marginalised communities. There’s still lots of Jasper Fforde’s trademark quirky, funny silliness, but The Constant Rabbit is a much more serious book than any he’s written before (with the possible exception of Early Riser because I haven’t read that yet!). I highly recommend it, and especially to the people I’ve just mentioned.

Many thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. The Constant Rabbit is published on the 2nd of July 2020 in the UK, and in September 2020 in the USA.

I not that big of a fan of Fforde's, however I 've always enjoyed his witty and distinctive writing style; "The Constant Rabbit" is intriguing, engaging, timely and satirical.

I love all of Jasper Fforde's books and this one did not disappoint. You have to wonder where he gets his ideas from! The Constant Rabbit is set in a world where due to an 'event' 55 years ago, Rabbits are now supposedly equal to humans. They walk on two legs, drive cars, have jobs and can speak. It is a very strange concept and I felt I had to keep reading to find out more about how this came about and what was going to happen next!
I particularly liked the scene at the beginning where due to government cuts, libraries now have 6 minutes a week that they can open for! The description of how that works was pure genius!

Peter (human) and Constance (rabbit) were at university together before Constance was evicted due to protests about rabbits being allowed to do what humans can do. They are reconnected when Constance and her family move into the village. However, not everyone is happy about this and in a style reminiscent of Brexit, there are plans to have them evicted!

I am definitely impressed with how Jasper can keep his ideas going and make them believable and I really enjoyed reading this book and trying to get my head around how this would work in our world! He has a wonderful way with words and paints a scene so well!

A world with human-like rabbits is quite exhausting but there as a lot of very funny details. It's a good story that's funny but also has themes of equality, justice and humanity to think about. 😍📖😍

Following an anthropomorphising event there are human-sized rabbits (along with some other animals) living in the UK. Not all humans are happy about this, including the UKARP (The UK Anti Rabbit Party) and, some of the residents of the village of Much Hemlock when the Rabbit family move in.

I was a little unsure of the concept to begin with and it took me a while to get into the book, but I enjoyed all the little details of the world building in this book. The novel begins with a section on library opening hours which was extremely witty. The Constant Rabbit is very much a political satire and is funny, clever and entertaining. I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.

Before I forget, I want to give a huge thank you to both NetGalley and Hodder & Staughton for providing me with the opportunity to read the E-ARC of The Constant Rabbit.

The Constant Rabbit, is a funny, sartirical, hopefilled, emotionally touching but distinctly funny stand alone book by Jasper Fforde. This is my first glimpse of his world and it definitely won't be the last.

The book is set place in a world where The Event took place on 12 August 1965, this was a purported global (albeit hushed up,) phenomenom where Rabbits (and other animals,) undergo a metamorphasis into beings with human consciousness, ability to speak, read books, drive cars and essentially (except in the worst ways,) become human like.

The book doesn't shy away from the cuts and downturns of public finances that have become common place in our world today, it embraces them with a hugely entertaining satire on library and government cuts at the start of the book and proceeds on to swipe at Brexit, far right politics, current society and thinking and most importantly racism and sheer prejudice.

There are some laugh out loud characters in this book, terrifying but funny facsimiles of real life characters that both enterntain and disturb, plus sex, carrots and a few cucumber sandwiches.

Overall, without ruining the plot I would recommend picking this up, particularly if you've ever been an admirer of the Caramel Bunny or Bugs Bunny!

A fascinating, entertaining, and overall quirky read (just as you'd expect from this author) - it was really interesting, with a very well thought through 'world', and rabbit lifestyle and belief system; plus the utterly predictable action of humans and politics. A great read.

Being a huge fan of the Thursday Net series and I always read the new Jasper when they arrive, even if sometime a little cautiously, Some of his recent novels, while undoubtedly well-written, haven;t always been to my taste. This new one is superb. At his best Fforde counterbalances the absurd and surreal against the ordinary and mundane. He performs that trick here to stunning effect. It doesn't harm that I'm a big rabbit lover either!

I loved this book. Probably the most original story I have read in years - maybe even ever. Lately every book I read is either historical fiction set in the underbelly of 17th century or 18th century or Victorian England or yet another crime thriller or police procedural. And then there are the psychological thrillers with a twist you never saw coming. Yes we did because we've already read about a hundred of them. I'm not saying some of them aren't edge-of-the-seat brilliant but there is a limit and I joined NetGalley in the hope that I might get to read something unique. And I just have. It won't be everyone's cup of tea (or should I say dandelion brandy - see below) but it's definitely mine.

So here we go. The concept that rabbits have been anthropomorphised during an unexplained 'Event' and now live side by side with humans seems ridiculous, ludicrous and crazy and initially I struggled with it. I say initially - probably for about five minutes. But then it got better and better with little nuggets of comic genius thrown in every now and again from things like Doc and Constance distilling their own exceptional (and strong) dandelion brandy in the cellar to rabbits watching The Great Escape as they naturally adore films about digging tunnels. In fact there are so many references and homages to books and films, I can't remember them all.

Peter Knox - a very boring middle-aged man - whose wife left him because he was (yes you guessed it) too boring lives in Much Hemlock with his grown up daughter Pippa. Peter is a rabbit Spotter. To most people they all look the same but Peter has the ability to spot the differences and so works undercover doing just that, but pretending to be an accountant. Then one day he bumps into Connie - an old friend from university. Except Connie is a bunny (bunny is now used as a derogatory term for a rabbit). Because of his 'gift' he recognises her after 30 years. When she and her third husband Doc (rabbits often have a short life-span so multiple marriages are common) move in next door with their two children Bobby (Roberta like in The Railway Children) and Kent. Peter must now decide whose side he is on. Some of it is hilarious but this isn't just some silly bunny story.

The Constant Rabbit is a serious insight into the human condition and how it will take another so-called 'lower species' to make us realise who we really are and what we have done to this earth. It uncovers the hidden racism and the not-so-hidden hatred of anyone who is different. They'll take over and then where will we be? It says a lot about our society and many people may even recognise themselves as marginally leporiphobic. I even cried at the end though I can't say why without spoilers. And I laughed out loud many times throughout the book. 

Please read it. I know it's weird and bonkers at times but it really is worth it. Many thanks to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I don't think any other author would be able to pull of this book, it is Jasper Fforde through and through. This book was darkly funny whilst also addressing real world problems of xenophobia but in the form of rabbits. This is definitely a must read this year!

This is an at times funny, clever satire which encompasses several issues in a very different and entertaining way. On 12th August 1965 The Event occurred, a strange phenomenon which led to 18 rabbits morphing into semi human shapes. They did what rabbits do and these anthropomorphised rabbits spread into large colonies. However, rabbits talking rabbity are not to be tolerated, they are undesirable according to UKARP (The UK Anti Rabbit Party) and Prime Minister Nigel Smethwick, surprise winner of the 2012 snap election. Our narrator is Peter Knox who lives in Much Wenlock in Hertfordshire. Peter is a Rabbit Spotter, a rabbit intelligence officer working for RabCot (Rabbit Compliance Force), somewhat reluctantly it has to be said!

I love the start of the book which satirises local government spending cuts with libraries being open for six minutes precisely which is timed and strictly enforced. Nigel Smethwicks party is a thinly disguised swipe at a now defunct right wing political party and its leader. For Brexit we have Rabxit and far right groups with a propensity to thuggery are TwoLegsGood. Although the book does have its light side and there are many moments where I laughed out loud, it does present a darker side of both politics and human nature. It presents racism and racial bias but in a very different way. We have conflict and outrage as Mrs Constance Rabbit (a friend of Peter’s briefly from university days) and her family move into Much Wenlock to the dismay of villagers not least because they are up for the village Spick and Span award! The book is not always subtle but some points do hit the mark and make you think. It’s original, different, I like the acerbic wit and that the Rabbits take a stand led by the Venerable Bunty. Some of the humour is definitely cheesy and at times I confess to thinking of Aardman’s The Curse of the Were-rabbit of Wallace and Gromit fame! I love the ending especially as it made UKARP irrelevant!

So, if you want something different, a bit unusual and entertaining with a portion of Wensleydale served with a side salad (to include dandelion leaves) for the rabbits to enjoy, then this book is for you!

Many thanks to NetGalley and Hodder and Stoughton for the entertaining ARC.

I hadn’t read a Jasper Fforde book before this one, so I didn’t really know what to expect. The blurb is that it’s a novel set in a world where rabbits are lifesize, and (some of) the incumbent humans aren’t terribly happy about it. 

Peter Knox is a boring, grey man in the little village of Much Hemlock, who are very much looking forward to winning the Spick & Span Award this year. The story opens in the midst of the regular library hours, open every fortnight for six minutes, in an attempt to be efficient and keep the libraries open.  With friends and family working for the library service in the UK, this was both a comical representation of the absurdity of the contradictory nature of our government in real life - paying lip service to keeping services running, while simultaneously carving them to the bone, and a slightly arch introduction to the type of village this is. 

The plot clips along nicely, and we are soon introduced to Peter’s life in more detail - his daughter, brought up by him alone as his wife left him because he was too boring, his covert government job as a rabbit spotter, covered by explaining that he is a low level accountant. Living side by side with anthropomorphic rabbits brings its own challenges, and Fforde is really good at introducing elements one after the other, layering the nuances and building the narrative to a rousing crescendo. For example, explaining that in the Event, the night when a handful of rabbits grew and began to talk, there were three types of rabbit affected: Labstock, Petstock and Wildstock, and within those strands, there were biases and alliances. It’s a complex idea but well communicated, and I soon found that I was pretty comfortable with a world where rabbits are 6foot tall and part of the general population. Oh yes, and Peter’s a rabbit spotter because it’s hard to tell them apart and they refused to get a brand or a tattoo. 

This last point is one of the reasons some of the book was a bit uncomfortable for me. The metaphor is thinly veiled, at best, and sometimes it feels less like Fforde is trying to make a point about how our society is not very far away, and more that he is sitting pretty in his comfy white male chair, chuckling at the absurdity of a world which sanctions rabbits against digging burrows. I get it - the parallels between rabbits being unfairly penalised and imprisoned for minor crimes and misdemeanors when humans wouldn't get the same treatment, are clearly drawn. I didn’t feel enough condemnation for this, personally. 

The bits I most enjoyed were Peter Knox’s character arc, his realisation that his job was not compatible with his beliefs, and the attention to detail in describing how the rabbits live - that they follow the Beatrix Potter aesthetic, have a vegan diet and distil potent dandelion wine. That they settle their irregular disagreements with duels which are rarely to the death but nevertheless with pistols and more often that not, at dawn.

I think I’d be interested in reading more of Jasper Fforde - wikipedia describes his work as sci-fi rather than mainly satirical, so perhaps it’s a tone of voice that is so different to the books I’ve read lately, it’s worth reading another one. I did enjoy it and certainly didn't take my time getting through it, so it was compelling enough! If anyone has any recommendations on their favourite Fforde, please feel free to let me know.

This is without doubt a very original and well written book. Whilst it will suit some readers im sorry to say it wasn't a story I could get to grips with. I persevered with for a while but eventually gave up.

This is such a funny book as I have come to expect from Jasper Fforde. His clever observations are spot on and very cutting and close to the bone sometimes. His witticisms are just pitch perfect and you find yourself spontaneously laughing out loud quite frequently. Aside from all the laughs this book is a modern day fable with a story to tell and is a really great read. And the fact that some of the main characters are rabbits just doesn’t seem to matter unless of course your ‘leporiphobic’.

It is England, 2020 and there are 1.2 million human-sized rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk and drive cars, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphising Event fifty-five years ago. A family of rabbits move to the village of Much Hemlock and no sooner have they arrived the villages decide they need to leave. However Mrs Constance Rabbit is having none of it and along with a few of their human friends decides to make a stand.

I have always enjoyed Jasper Ffordes writing and this book was no exception. Whilst reading this book I could not help but draw parallels with tensions in this country leading to Brexit albeit this time we are talking about rabbits and foxes against humans. I would recommend this book to all who enjoy a good story with a difference.

Thank you to the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest opinion.

I always enjoy Jasper Fforde's unusual imagination and penchant for satire and this was no exception. The premise - of a world where rabbits were inexplicably anthropomorphised in the 1960s - seems ludicrous but, bizarrely, works. Fforde has come up with lots of humorous details on rabbit culture, a satire on current UK politics, a bit of self-mocking as well as a very meta passage where the novel basically discusses its own relevance.

The world created here was really easy to get into (especially compared with Early Riser, which I found incomprehensible for the first 50 pages), though much as I enjoyed the opening 'Buchblitz' section I didn't see its relevance apart from as a way to get the main two characters to meet. My other criticism is that the book never really felt like it reached a point of crisis and was resolved quite quickly at the end without 'major peril'.

If you are a supporter of a certain far right party you probably won't appreciate this, but if you enjoy an imaginative flight of fancy taken to an extreme degree you should enjoy spending some time in the alternative United Kingdom Fforde has created.

What an absolute triumph! Mr Fforde has done it again. Just as you’d expect from any of his offerings, The Constant Rabbit is at times incredibly clever, laugh out loud funny, scarily astute and totally nails the social commentary albeit from the point of view of giant anthropomorphised rabbits. Love the geographical references too, especially as I know the areas well. Another masterpiece and a joy to read.

You do not have to possess much political acumen to grasp what is at the heart of Jasper Fforde's satirical take on modern Britain.
Replace Brexit with Rabxit, xenophobia with leporiphobia and you are pretty much there.

The premise is that around 50 years ago an event took place, that anthromorphised a number of animals, including rabbits.

With their propensity to multiply, the country now has a sizeable population of hardworking, intelligent, but maligned second class citizens doing many menial jobs. They are denied many rights enjoyed by the human community and plans are being made for their enforced rehoming to a Mega Warren in Wales.

The story is set in a picture postcard village in Middle England with all its insularity, prejudice and desperation to win a best kept village award.
When a family of rabbits move into the area, the scene is set for the inevitable conflict that will ensue.

This is the first book by Jasper Fforde that I have read and I found it both amusing but also sadly quite true. Some of the humour may be a bit hit and miss and lack a certain subtiety at times, but makes some telling points.
If you are concerned with the direction of travel we are going, this, I'm afraid will not allay those fears.

I'm a big fan of Jasper Ffordes 'Thursday Next' series and so relished the opportunity to read his new novel 'The Constant Rabbit'. The concept was great - anthropomorphized animals becoming sentient and looking to live within the confines of the UK. The world building was great, especially with the small 'mundane' details of day-to-day life for a rabbit in these times. The language used was a little tough to comprehend at the start (lots of abbreviations) which loses the novel a star for me but once you get past the first 3rd it becomes second nature. Finally, for me, I found the satire to be a little to on the nose - very Little Britain mentality which frustrates me in general as i'm very much a global citizen so that strikes another point for me. Altogether, another good novel from Jasper Fforde and one i'd recommend for fans.