Author: Jasper Forde
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Year of release: 2020
Genre: Fantasy, General Fiction, General Humour
Release date 30th June 2020 Rating 🌟🌟🌟🌟
Synopsis
Peter Knox lives quietly in one of those small country villages that’s up for the Village Garden of the Year award. Until Doc and Constance Rabbit move in next door, upsetting the locals (many of them members of governing political party United Kingdom Against Rabbit Population), complicating Peter’s job as a Rabbit Spotter, and forcing him to take a stand, moving from unconscious leporiphobia to active supporter of the UK’s amiable and peaceful population of anthropomorphised rabbits.
Review
12th August 1965, a spur-of-the-moment anthropomorphizing event turned a small proportion of the rabbit, guinea pigs, and fox population into human-sized 6ft tall talking animals fast forward to present day, Much Hemlock in Herefordshire a small country village in the South of England, whereabouts the only exciting that happens here is the Village Garden of the year award. Resident Peter Knox goes about his days as a Rabbit Spotter (Spotter a human who’s able to identify whether a rabbit whose arrested is the exact same rabbit who committed the crime). Not everyone is qualified to perform this task; this making Peter valuable at the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce the police force except for rabbits. Things get complicated when Doc and Constance Rabbit move in next door.
Peter Knox is given the task to befriend his new neighbours with any luck can he get the rabbits out of the village, thus restoring harmony to Much Hemlock. Whilst some humans are happy to co-exist amongst the rabbits not everyone else shares the enthusiasm including Prime Minister Nigel Smethwick, whose plan it is to relocate the Rabbits to Mega Warren by any means necessary money could be an option, but force would be better. Can Animals and humans ever peacefully cohabitate?
The constant Rabbit is one of those rare books where if you don’t over think it; it works. I’ll admit the first time I read the synopsis of this book I was not keen to go any further, but after re-reading it a couple of times I convinced myself it might not be as confusing as it sounds so I started it and found myself eager to carry on.
Once I meet Constance Rabbit I just had to read onwards. As well as having a solid story in continuous motion Fforde has written a descriptive read that contains humour so many reads promise to offer this, but few actually deliver the laugh-out-loud effect.
“Somebody once said that the library is actually the dominant life form on the planet. Humans simply exist as the reproductive means to achieve more libraries.” ― Jasper Fforde, The Constant Rabbit
Peter and Constance went to university together and are quick to pick up their friendship where they left off all those years ago. I think this minor detail really help this reader believe that humans and rabbits could be more than just a food source, I also believe, Peter and Constance’s friendship is helpful in times when the story touches on darker themes such as racism, privilege and tolerance. I found myself asking throughout this read what’s so wrong with the human-race that we can’t except anything we deem to be different to us?
“Humans have a very clear idea about how to behave, and on many occasions actually do. But it’s sometimes disheartening that correct action is drowned out by endless chitter-chatter, designed not to find a way forward but to justify petty jealousies and illogically held prejudices. If you’re going to talk, try to make it relevant, useful and progressive rather than simply distracting and time-wasting nonsense, intended only to justify the untenable and postpone the real dialogue that needs to happen.” ― Jasper Fforde, The Constant Rabbit
Impressed with how much detail author Jasper Fforde has implemented into this story without losing the ability to make the reader loose interest in the end result as the story progresses, it did take me the first few chapters to get my head around all the acronyms used but it did eventually all come together.
I enjoyed the fact that Peter Knox plays narrator and also is involved in events I think this really helped me buy into the obscure world after all who doesn’t want to make friends with talking rabbits the size of humans? Rabbits who have their own ways of going about the world, their own traditions make for a truly original concept.
The characters used to bring The Constant Rabbit to life were extremely likable, I found myself hoping for a romantic relationship between Constance and Peter; I know, I know she’s a rabbit and he’s a human but c’mon, Knox also makes for a believable father figure to his daughter Pippa This is my first Jasper Fforde book and I must admit I’m hoping to read more in the future. Anyone looking for an escape from reality should add this to their list.