THE LYONS OF RABBIT

Guise presents a dark, fantastical novel of rabbits in trouble.

In a series of short chapters, the book tells the tale of a ferocious beast called a Jack that will seemingly kill and eat anything, though it seems to have set its sights on taking down rabbits left and right. The sophisticated, humanlike bunnies have their own complex community, including law enforcement and even a local diner. (Many have a fondness for coffee.) Bill, a rabbit, is a writer, but his literary career doesn’t progress very far, as he’s an early victim. Kristen, a young rabbit whose parents are described as “hucksters with an aggressive cocktail schedule,” is also ripped to shreds. Guise introduces many such rabbits who succumb to the monster; one character, thinking of his own situation, could be referring to the entire warren when he notes that he “wasn’t sure what the future held. But it certainly looked grim.” But even when the immediate threat has passed, it’s not the end of the terror or the end of the solitary tales within the warren. This peculiar work throws a lot of characters at the reader very quickly, and one may not always find it easy to keep track of the differences between Tim, Tom, Julie, Pam, Doc, Curtis, and others. Nevertheless, the overall tone is always distinctly and engagingly troubling, and it’s always clear that none of the characters are ever truly safe. These are rabbits, after all, even if they will sentence a murderer to death if they deem it necessary. Overall, the work feels more akin to the TV show Twin Peaks than Richard Adams’ Watership Down (1972), and from the darkness and the bloodshed stem some potent observations, as when one evil is “concealed by a cloak of deliciousness” at a town celebration.  

A bizarre and enthralling story of dangers that lurk in the woods.