So I don’t normally pick up books when I can tell there’s going to be a romance subplot dominating parts of the book from just the back cover. I do really try to only read stuff I think I’m going to like, honestly. But I find for the most part, queer characters know how to focus on the task at hand and I liked the sound of the rest of the story, so I gave white Rabbit a shot.
It was definitely worth it, with a few bumps in the road. The story follows Rufus as he tries to solve the mystery of what happened at a party he wasn’t at between people he doesn’t like, all while his ex tags along and tries desperately to have a conversation about how sorry he is until they get back together.1 It’s fast paced, fairly well structured, and pretty entertaining. The mystery is well set up and finding the answer didn’t feel too convoluted. I thought the initial victim turned out to be a little comically evil, but besides that I generally liked the story.
But, like I said, there were bumps. There’s a reason I generally tend to give queer romances more of a pass and that’s because generally queer characters can focus on the task at hand. Unfortunately, right in the opening with a dead body right over there we have a chunk about Rufus hoping that his ex boyfriend realizes how hot he’s gotten. I put the book down for a bit, then skimmed back to where the story picked back up because it felt too early to give up, but the break in action was so frustrating. There is a dead guy in eyeshot, your sister’s been drugged, you have someone else’s blood on you, and insist on focusing on your ex right now?
There’s other bits that felt a little strange. There’s an injury that Rufus gets later in the book that stops being an issue after a chapter, and the narrative is basically broken into the plausible wrong answer, followed by the actual correct answer. I’m not mad about it, since I’ve used it myself before and quite enjoy it, but I would have liked a little more foreshadowing about that twist earlier so the two halves of the book didn’t feel so separated.
Overall, though, I really did enjoy the story. The romance was better woven into the rest of it and, while it did overpower the narrative at parts, I did appreciate that it was used mostly to enhance the tension in the later parts of the book over just being there as a distraction. If it sounds like your thing, definitely check it out!
- That is not a spoiler, you knew that was going to happen from the back cover. [↩]