Fforde brings his delightful brand of whimsy and wit to this tale of giant anthropomorphized rabbits and humans coexisting in the English Midlands. It is the The Secret of NIMH for adults ... but with rabbits and an occasional fox!!

It was absolutely delightful, right up to that 'oh @#$%^&!!' moment at the dawn of the battle where you find yourself anxiously asking the book, "...what's in the box? Whatsinthebox?!?!?"

Despite the quirkiness and fun, Fforde is not subtle in his political message satirizing current right wing political and societal movements in the UK. His is a message of change and hope. It is a masterpiece in righteous anger, and I loved every minute of it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Hodder & Stoughton for the ARC.

I love Jasper Fforde and his style of writing, and it was fun to read this satirical piece on the current state of the UK. Whilst not my favourite of his works, it was still a solid and enjoyable read, and I'd happily recommend to anyone looking for a good satire, something a bit quirky and fun, or any existing fans.

Absurdity presented, yet weirdly believable, this alternate reality could be the world we live in except obviously it's not. I loved it, the author is fab and it is one of my favourite books of the summer!

Satire that made me laugh despite the subject matter. Biting.

This opens with a scene that utterly had my attention as a librarian: a country where libraries only open for 6 minutes once a fortnight, due to cuts. That tells you a lot about Peter's world. As does the gradual revealing of the most telling aspect: a "Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event" of 1965, where eighteen rabbits were "elevated to humanness" (alongside some other members of various species: "six weasels, five guinea pigs, three foxes, a Dalmatian, a badger, nine bees and a caterpillar.").

Yes, there are rabbits now a part of human society. Even borrowing books from the library (when they are open). But of course, there would be no story and indeed no satire if humanity accepted and embraced their new long-eared brethren. Peter's part in this plot comes as he sees his new neighbours moving in - a family of rabbits, one of whom he knew (and fancied) at University. With other locals totally against the new addition to the neighbourhood, their attempts to persuade them to leave being nicknamed 'Rabxit', Peter's work as a rabbit identifier puts him a position to consider more deeply the evolution of an anti-rabbit movement. Such organisations as TwoLegsGood (with its Orwellian nod) and UKARP which has seen a move to power buoyed by its racist policies - Peter is caught between his feelings of affection, loyalty and decency, and the growing separatist feeling. After all - what rabbits WOULDN'T want to move to the much-hyped, secure and isolated MegaWarren? Does this sound at all familiar?
"...with a seventeen-mile perimeter fence... if they could get the rabbit to pay for it - MegaWarren would be large enough... to provide a lasting, workable and cost-effective answer to the pressing rabbit issue once and for all..."

Connie Rabbit impressed me, I enjoyed seeing this alternative UK with her as the sympathetic and, it has to be said, sexy female lead. Her husband also came across strongly as a rather honourable character, his rules of propriety rather amusing. Peter is caught in an awkward place, with liberal views in a conservative and dangerous role.

There are a lot of memorable secondary characters, particularly the non-humans. Some very tense scenes, some of high humour and wit:
"Fox and Friends is published monthly and caters for the witty and urbane fox-about-town. It contains news, reviews, fashion and tops on more efficient ways to kill rabbits. It's sort of like GQ meets Horse and Hound meets Soldier of Fortune."

With slang and derogatory terms, lots of wordplay ("'tripping the orange fantastic', the slang for over-consumption of carrots'") and dripping with caricatures, mockery and irony, this will enrage and enrapture, depending on what your viewpoints on current politics are and how closely you want to compare.

Oh and there's even a classic movie reference in there, a Danny Kaye 'Court Jester' reference that will go over most heads but which I took great delight in. Look out for that one, film fans. And a few superb 'quaint' English village names too silly to be real, one hopes: Slipton Flipflop and Squiffton Coachbolt anyone?!

We deserve to be mocked, we need to have a mirror held up to ourselves. It's always better to do that with humour, and here Fforde excels himself. This has real bite, sometimes literally. As he himself says "Perhaps that's what satire does - not change things wholesale but nudge the collective consciousness in a direction that favours justice and equality." Let's hope he's right.

Smart, hugely funny, awfully close to home. Or warren.

With thanks to Netgalley for providing an advance reading copy.

In 1965 there was an Event and several species anthropomorphised - foxes, weasels, guinea pigs and rabbit - now 25 years later and the Right-wing government are promoting Rabxit, moving all the rabbits to Wales. For Peter Knox this is disappointing, although he works for a secret service identifying rabbits he harbours found feelings for a rabbit he met at University in Barnstaple. When a family of rabbits moves into his beloved village he has to decided which side of the line he is on.
To explain a Jasper Fforde novel is like trying to plait fog, it's a satirical fantasy at heart and comparisons with Swift are not going too far. However there is so much to love, the silly little in-jokes, the references to modern media (loved the 'Mastercook' passage) and the way that sweeping politics is brought down to the basics. I picked up my first Fforde book twenty years ago by accident, 'The Eyre Affair' had just been published and I thought I'd give it a go, now I eagerly await each new book because he never disappoints.

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.

If you’ve read Jasper Fforde before you’ll be ready to immerse yourself into a quirky fantasy world built by a brilliant mind... if not it could take some getting used to!

What makes for easy reading is the creation of wonderful characters including but not limited to our two protagonists Peter Knox and Constance Rabbit. Brought up in a world where they should despise each other Peter has always liked and remembered Connie from his university days so when she moves into the house next door with her new family years later Peter has some soul searching to do; rekindle his friendship with a lesser species and suffer the consequences or carry on living his boring life. You can tell what’s coming otherwise it’d be a very short book. With a cast including earless rabbits, thumbless humans, foxes and weasels be ready to take a journey into the unknown... don’t worry your in safe hands!

A definite recommendation for those who want to read something a bit different.
#TheConstantRabbit #Netgalley

Jasper Fforde has done it again, a fantastically quirky book that keeps his readers guessing. More than just a book about talking rabbits...this book has some real issues explored. A must read!

A really clever take on the immigration crisis. The 'immigrants' are anthropomorphic rabbits, living amongst us after 'The Event'.

An enjoyable read, with the expected Fforde twists, turns and highly imagined back-story!

The quasi-biblical mess that is 2020 has been a year of literary discovery for me. Just as you can find pretty much anything on Reddit, I’ve also realised you can find pretty much anything in books. ‘The Constant Rabbit’ by Jasper Fforde is just one of several forays into anthropomorphic fiction, a subgenre I first learned to love through Jamie Brindle’s ‘Chaos Drive’. While The Constant Rabbit does not feature the anthropomorphised frogs of Brindle’s creation, it does feature rabbits (and foxes and weasels too.)

The Constant Rabbit follows Peter Knox, a mildly boring middle-aged man working for a notoriously anti-Rabbit agency in an England with over 1 million human-like rabbits. Following an ‘Event’ 55 years prior these rabbits had started to walk, talk and function in society to much leporiphobic (rabbit-phobic) opposition. Fforde’s exploration of the political implications of this absurdist entry into British society provided grounds for a scathing satire of anti-immigrant and pro-Brexit rhetoric - and human nature in general.

Fforde’s absolute success throughout this novel was in making the idea of humanised rabbits seemingly probable. Not only did he think through the impact this would have on human culture but also developed a clear sense of rabbit culture and the ways in which the two would interact. His success in establishing the absurdist world of our protagonist made for both a humorous and thought-provoking read.

Doing what weird fiction does best, Fforde’s political commentary is able to make use of this absurdism by applying comedy and approachability to social critique. Similarly to the use of animals in Art Spiegelman’s Maus, different animals are used to represent different groups of people. A feature of anthropomorphic fiction in general, this allows the reader to separate from their own context whilst simultaneously comparing it to that of the book.

However, while I thoroughly enjoyed the world-building and character-arcs, The Constant Rabbit is fairly light on plot. Though I enjoyed Peter’s often clueless perspective, the fact he didn’t know what was happening most of the time meant that there was also not a lot beyond his monotonous life to drive the book forward. His discovery of rabbit-culture and examination of his own role in their plight was interesting, but I also felt like nothing actually happened for the first 250 pages.

The use of inter-species romance was also interesting, but also kind of weird. The implications of what is effectively consensual beastiality were concluded to be ‘love is love’. However, the end of the book called this into question for me as the species barrier is still very much a thing. I also found Peter to be bizarrely apathetic about certain events which I would have expected a far greater reaction to.

I decided to give this a 3 star rating all up, but would definitely recommend it to those looking for something a little weird and serious. I’ve also heard Fforde’s other work is similarly whimsical and look forward to checking it out.

I found The Constant Rabbit an enjoyable and, perhaps, timely read during a period of ;lockdown. when the world seems more confused, the future uncertain and national leadership seemingly incompetent.
It took awhile to get into a world where rabbits are the size of humans and behave little differently from their real world neighbours. But as one went with the flow it seemed less implausible in fact parallels came to mind. For example, how one has witnessed indigenous people taking exception to new arrivals with language like "They will swamp us" ..."they must be controlled",,put them in isolated camps,anywhere but here".and threats like "we will take it into our own hands". And so The Constant Rabbit must be read as the comical satire I saw it increasingly as a political allegory which could be describing a number of current issues/concerns.
Seen in this context the book makes you stop and think..What more could a reader want? An outcome, perhaps, where we think and worry more about other people and consequently be a more tolerant society at peace with itself?.

This was a DNF from me which is a shame as I like Fforde’s Last Dragonslayer series and have had Thursday Next highly recommended to me. Although elements of the satire were funny, sadly the plot got lost somewhere in it and it just wasn’t holding my attention.
Thank you to Hodder and Netgalley for my arc in exchange for an honest review.

This is Jasper Fforde's response to the political and social moment, and as I saw him say somewhere (instagram? his website?), it's not subtle. But it's also absolutely Jasper Fforde. It's absurd, it's funny and he's managed to make a world where there are 6 foot anthropomorphised rabitts (and a few other species) seem absolutely real and plausible. I think if you like Fforde's previous books, this is a continuation of the same sort of thing he's been doing there, but with a different twist. It'll make you think as well as make you laugh, and it is utterly mad at times. Maybe not the best place to start with Fforde's work, unless you're used to reading alternative world fantasy/spec fiction.

Peter Knox lives a quiet life in Much Hemlock. He works as a Rabbit Spotter for the taskforce, helping to ensure compliance of the rabbits that were anthropomorphised during the Event.  Although Peter has never been actively leporiphobic, he has never been actively pro Rabbit either. When Doc and Constance Rabbit move in next door, Peter is forced to decide where his loyalties lie.

Jasper Fforde is rapidly becoming one of my favourite authors, and I'm always excited to see what he writes next.  Each time I go in a little dubious, wondering if this is the time where I just don't get it, and each time he surprises me with just how much I can enjoy the zany world he has created for us.

This book, like most of Fforde's, is set in the UK, but in a very different version of the UK to the one we know.  In this version there was a Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event many years ago that resulted in several animals becoming anthropomorphised.  Rabbits are the main focus, but foxes and weasels are among the other animals affected. Sounds really out there right? It sort of is for the first few chapters, and then you start to realise that there are a lot of parallels between this version of the UK and the world we know.

Amongst the characters we have a bit of everything:- the Rabbit family who are unashamedly rabbits; Mr Ffoxe who makes a delightfully evil and incredibly cunning bad guy (amongst many); Lugless who is a rabbit who turned on his own; Whizelle the sneaky weasel; the Mallett brothers as the right wing extremists but otherwise upstanding citizens; and of course Peter, who has burried his head in the sand as an unwitting accomplice. 

The plot covers Brexit, fake news and council cost cutting as well as a few bigger issues.  We've got a love triangle, a duel, a kidnapping and a murder all thrown in for good measure.  The book really does have it all!

On the surface this is a humorous and enjoyable look at life and politics. Delve a little deeper and it really looks at the darker side of both.  Fforde presents the ideas of xenophobia and racism in such a way that it makes you want to laugh at the absurdity of it all, until you realise that actually he's making some very good points.  A brilliantly funny book that has all of the trademark wit and satire that you would expect from Jasper Fforde, but also makes you think too.

Thanks to NetGalley and Hodder & Stoughton for an arc in exchange for an honest review

I'm struggling with this review and the rating as much as I struggled with the book. I've heard a lot about this author and was keen to read his latest work. However a lot of the jokes felt a bit close to the bone, as they probably are meant to, but with recent events pushing issues around racism closer to the surface I feel this book is not always as funny as perhaps it was intended to be.

This is your quintessential Jasper Fforde. I think that speaks for itself. However I've been asked to say more. This world Fforde has created has the wit, edge, and absurdity almost to make you forget it is a political satire.

I love reading Jasper Fforde because you find yourself catapulted into a parallel universe that’s often completely absurd. When that universe involves the neighbours being 6ft talking rabbits and the reader has a five foot white rabbit greeting guests at the front door it’s a match made in heaven. I have been fascinated with these beautiful creatures since I was six years old. We lived in the country and Dad worked on a farm. One evening I was just getting out of the bath, being dried by Mum, when Dad walked in with a tiny leveret he’d found on the edge of a field. It was the softest thing I had ever felt, and Dad let me hold him and keep him warm, while he found a suitable pen to pop him into until he’d recovered. From then on I have loved all long eared creatures and my favourite book of early childhood, The Velveteen Rabbit, still holds a special place in my heart. So, this book was on one level a charming, satirical story, but one with a darker undercurrent pertinent to the current times we live in and a past we must never forget.

Peter Knox is a single dad who works with the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce, an organisation policing the law as it pertains to our bunny friends. The world has undergone a Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event. Now rabbits live alongside humans, but they are treated differently and have a different set of laws to their human counterparts. Most live in colonies together, known as living ‘within the fence’. These are countryside based zones with restricted movement, and although they’re free to come and go, this did made me think of my local gypsy community who live in a settled campsite on the edge of town. However, some live side by side with humans in town. In fact Peter’s own neighbour is a rabbit. Some live a more wild lifestyle, continuing the rabbit code of settling disagreements with duels and abusing the lethal cocktail dandelion brandy. Peter is one of few people who can tell the difference between settled rabbits, and their more problematic counterparts. In fact, his first love at university was a rabbit called Connie. When he bumps into her, the old feelings rekindle and as the attitude towards rabbits starts to turn he may find himself having to choose which side of the fence to be on.

The darker undercurrent comes from a Prime Minister, who isn’t as keen on the bunny population. He’d like to round them up and take them to a huge facility in Wales, known as the Mega Warren. It’s being sold as a great place to live, where all rabbits can feel safe and protected. His political party is named UKARP which stands for UK Anti Rabbit Party, so rabbits are suspicious of his motives. He simply wants segregation and this is the first step. In a great parallel to some of our current world leaders he is hopelessly inept and reliant on advisors and scary PR people as his henchmen. Fforde is making a thinly veiled criticism of the current political climate, with fake news and disinformation spread amongst the population. There is a worrying need to control and watch the rabbits abs a determination to see them as other. It can be a very dark satire in places and if we think back to other attempts to control and corral those seen as different the results are mass extermination,

Fforde is very clever not to let the book dip into something dystopian and dismal. There’s witty dialogue that made me smile to myself, and there are even some laugh out loud moments too. He pokes fun at our Britishness and our terribly polite use of understatement, as well as some political acronyms worthy of The Thick of It. This is a truly inventive read from an original writer with a great sense of humour,

When you pick up a Jasper Fforde book you must know in advance that some strange things are likely to occur within its pages. Here, strange takes the shape of a rabbit as a spontaneous anthropomorphic event, which occurred in the 60s, gifts the planet with sentient human-like rabbits and other creatures too. They are roughly human height, stand on two legs, are rabid vegans, wear clothes, drive cars and duel when spouse appropriation is on the cards. A wise and peace loving culture, the rabbit way of life is meticulously crafted in The Constant Rabbit. As straightforward and lovely as that sounds, some people feel concerned that their green and pleasant land may soon be overrun by the swift breeding rabbits. Trouble rears its ugly head when Doc and Constance Rabbit move into the sleepy village of Much Hemlock. Peter Knox, the narrator of our yarn and part time speed librarian/fulltime spotter with the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce, knows Connie from uni, many moons ago. It's not a stretch to say he was smitten by the coquettish, feisty bunny.

In typical Ffordeian style this story is, by turns, hilariously funny, touching and smart as a whip. The timeliness of this novel couldn't be better as the underlying tensions of prejudice and bigotry are dealt with flawlessly - straight on with a sledgehammer, on for some, and with a delicate touch, for others. I've read most of his books and this is my absolute favourite. I was charmed from page one to the bittersweet end. It's not all fun and games, though heavy sarcasm and lots of cheeky asides deliver numerous chuckles. There are moments of anxiety, and even great concern, mixing with heartfelt gentleness and love. I was mildly tearful by the end.

The Constant Rabbit ticked all the boxes for me and left me feeling we could all benefit from the rabbit way of thinking. Thoroughly charming and wholly original, this is lighthearted enough to get me smiling during a pandemic and brilliant enough to be one of my top 5 for 2020 to date. Pure joyous delight! Thank you, Mr. Fforde.

I loved this, it's Jasper Fforde at his absolute best. Clever, thought-provoking and relevant, whilst maintaining the absurdity that we have come to love Fforde for

With somewhat impeccable timing, this book could potentially be a seen as an ally to the current rising awareness of institutional (and apparent) racism. However, it is also a white man's guilt about things in which he has been complicit, if not directly involved. But above all, it is satire - whether its satire of a situation that is too fresh to be appropriate remains to be seen - and the book is fully aware that it is satirising the British phobia of all things 'other'.

Following the mysterious Event in 1965, there are now a number of anthropomorphised rabbits (and a few other animals) living in Great Britain. They're members of the community, but are still legally animals. Are allowed to work, but only to a maximum age. And organisations like the UKARP (UK Anti Rabbit Party) and 2LG (Two Legs Good) are convinced that they will multiply (like rabbits) to spread their agenda of rampant veganism, large litters and social discourse. How frightful.

What I really admire about Jasper Fforde's writing is his ability to research a topic widely and thoroughly and to bring in lots of nuanced (and funny) comparisons. Some of this might be hard to read for non-Brits, but the clear parallels between how the UK runs and the kinds of organisations that are around, and those mentioned in this book is quite honestly amusing. Not only that, but he's able to pick up on all of those references to rabbits in tv, literature and common sayings and really highlight how one animal in particular is viewed.

What can be harder to read is how rabbits are treated in this new world order. This book is clearly written as a (comic and satirical) response to how the UK and how certain groups and political parties respond to 'others' ie non-white, non-British. Using rabbits as a point is a great example and sets up a funny and frightening story that sees a rabbit family moving into a stereotypical English village that would much rather win the Spick & Span contest than host some 'bunnies'.

The main character, Peter Knox, is dragged around between different sides and arguments. He works as a Spotter (identifying rabbits that aren't easily notably different from other rabbits) for the Rabbit Compliance Taskforce (RabCoT). He justifies that what' he's doing is to keep his family comfortable and safe, and tries not to think about how his work is used. He hasn't had much reason to have contact with rabbits since his university days, but when an old rabbit friend moves in next door, he finds himself caught between the machinations of the village, the demands of the government and the quiet, peaceful response of the rabbits.

Peter is a typical Jasper Fforde character (from what I've read of his other books) - someone who doesn't necessarily choose what happens, and is often passively involved in the plot, but someone to whom things just end up happening. And that makes it funny too - he's not nasty or heinous, he's just ... sadly typical.

There are some really intelligent reflections and social commentary - not just around British culture but also about how a lack of cultural understanding can lead to huge prejudice and fear.

To me, this reads not only as satire of the English approach to things that are "not-English" but also of a white man's guilt. And that, as we've learned so recently, inaction is the same as being complicit. It's clever, but I fear what is intended to shine a light may be seen as mockery.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.