Book Review: The Rabbits

Mrs P

Aug 3

"You're stuck with me. My magic daughter. Your magic brothers. We're the Rambunctious, Riveting Rabbits, aren't we?"

Sophie Overett ~ The Rabbits

Synopsis

The disappearance of Bo Rabbit in 1984 left the Rabbit women crippled by grief. Bo's mother, Rosemary, and Bo's younger sister, Delia, became disjointed and dysfunctional, parting ways not long after Delia turned eighteen.

Now a teacher at a Queensland college, Delia's life is dissolving. She gave up on her own art, began a relationship with a student, and is struggling to raise her three growing children, Olive, Charlie and Benjamin. And now she must also care for her mother.

Despite it all, the Rabbits are managing, precariously. Or, they were until sixteen-year-old Charlie Rabbit disappears in the middle of a blinding heatwave. The family reels from the loss, and struggles to cope as the children's estranged father, Ed, re-enters their lives.

Only nothing is quite as it seems, and Charlie's disappearance soon proves to be just that – a disappearance, or, rather, an unexpected bout of invisibility he's unable to reverse.

Review

This is a strange and interesting book. At first, it seems like a typical family drama, with secrets and lies at its heart… but then it takes a very different turn.

I'm not really sure what I think of this. For the most part I enjoyed it, but I'm not entirely sure I understood it.

The Rabbit family are slightly dysfunctional, but aren't all families? The different dynamics between Delia and her three children make for very interesting reading; the wayward Olive who is trying to make sense of the world and where she fits, teenage Charlie who has vanished without a trace and little Benjamin who just wants to be a superhero and find his brother.

This alone could have been enough as Overett is a talented and observant writer. We feel the tension between mother and daughter; we long to hug Benjamin and find Charlie.

Yet the magical realism that turns up towards the end of the novel falls short. It's confusing, bizarre and… doesn't really add much.

It would make for an interesting film, but sadly doesn't quite live up to expectations as a book.