I was a huge fan of Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig – it was a mystery + coming out story and one of my favorite books of 2016. While there were things I liked about White Rabbit, it didn’t always come together for me.
Read more in my review of White Rabbit below!
White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig
To be published by Feiwel and Friends on April 24, 2018
Source: eARC for review
Synopsis adapted from Goodreads: Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian—the guy who stomped his heart out like a spent cigarette — who turns up out of the blue, saying they need to “talk.”
Then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. And then he and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife, beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney. April swears she didn’t kill Fox—but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth.
April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Now, with no one to trust but the boy he wants to hate yet can’t stop loving, Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence…or die trying.
Review of White Rabbit:
So… White Rabbit has a bunch of things going on. It’s a murder mystery. It’s a “happened in one night” story. It’s a sparks-fly-between-exes story. It’s a little bit of a family drama for Rufus. And a little bit of a coming out story for Sebastian.
White Rabbit started a bit slowly for me, considering the fact that it kicks off with a dead body! Rufus is the product of an affair between his mother and a married man. Rufus’s father had a son with his wife before Rufus was born, and a daughter, April, afterwards. Rufus and his mother don’t have a good relationship with his father, who is still married. April calls Rufus after she wakes up next to the dead body of her boyfriend.
The story has to get us all to speed on the family stuff and also on all the possible suspects in the murder of April’s boyfriend. It’s a lot, because the suspects are all friends that April and her boyfriend were hanging out with at her father’s vacation home. The book also includes some flashbacks about Rufus and Sebastian’s relationship.
- The initial set-up and mystery-solving made the first third of the book feel a little slow to me, but then there was a development that raised the stakes so I was happier
- While I enjoyed the flashbacks about Rufus and Sebastian’s relationship, I also felt that they slowed down the pace of the suspense plot. In addition, Sebastian had also dated girls and his family didn’t know about his relationship with Rufus, so he had some personal stuff of his own going on.
- I usually love “happened in one night stories” but I think they work better when the plot is more streamlined. With the addition of all the extra “stuff” I kept feeling like it felt like a very, very long night.
- I’m not usually a reader who loves extended action scenes, but when the story focused on action I thought things got a lot more absorbing, and the writing was stronger.
- I really liked the relationship between Sebastian and Rufus, but at times the relationship talk and flashbacks derailed the suspense. (But the way the romantic plot ended up was great.)
So I’m a little conflicted on this one. I liked all the story elements but didn’t always feel that they worked together to make a seamless whole.
If, like me, you read and enjoyed Last Seen Leaving, definitely give White Rabbit a try, as it has some similar elements – mystery and LGBT themes.
If you haven’t read Last Seen Leaving, I think it was a stronger and more cohesive book, so be sure to try it!
Have you read either of these books? Let me know in comments! Or tell me your thoughts on “happened in one night” books, exes-reunite books, and/or flashbacks!
I had a hard time with this book too. I felt there was way too much going on. I couldn’t get invested as much as I eant d into the mystery and thriller. I felt the romance was in the way of the thriller and the thriller in the way of the romance. My brain was confused
I’m glad I wasn’t the only one. I did like the romance and I did like the thriller, but I agree – one kind of got in the way of the other!
While I like the overall sound of this one, it seems like maybe there’s too much going on – too much ground trying to be covered. While I’m almost always a character/relationship-driven reader, it sounds like maybe the focus on the relationship was part of the problem.
Yeah, as I read sometimes I was really into it and other times not. I kept thinking what might have made a difference. While I love exes-reunite plots, I did think that adding the rekindling of their relationship plus the flashbacks plus the fact that Sebastian was hiding the relationship from his family plus the problems Rufus was having with his family was just too much personal drama for a thriller. Still a huge fan of the author, though!
After reading your review I’m conflicted too! I’m not a big “action” reader so I don’t know how well I would absorb those scenes,. I’m typically forgiving toward slower-paced mysteries but I’m a bit concerned as well.
I feel exactly the same – I don’t usually like action scenes but I felt the writing flowed better in those scenes.
I liked his other book a lot too. You scare me with the slow comments because I HATE that feeling in books. Still might try it though to see.
I found the beginning really hard to get into. It felt slow to me for a “happened in one night.” But maybe you’ll disagree!
I actually requested this book, because I loved Last Seen Leaving. Kind of nervous about this one after reading your review. =/
Curious to see what you think. There were moments when I really liked it and others when I didn’t love it as much.
I do like murder mysteries and I like that it is a coming out story but it’s unfortunate that some of it didn’t quite work out for you like his last book. I’ll have to look into Last Seen Leaving and add that one to my tbr. 🙂
Try Last Seen Leaving first – I really recommend that one. I just thought this book was less cohesive.
It’s always interesting how a book can have wonderful elements to love on, but they don’t always work out so well when put together. I could see myself liking this one too even if I didn’t buy into everything.
Great review, Jen!
Hope you try it, Sophia!
I haven’t tried either one, but I don’t usually read murder mysteries. I get scared too easily, lol! I usually read at night, too, so…
It seems like this book had a lot going on, some things worked and others didn’t, but I like the overall vibe. I might try the other book first!
Do You Dog-ear?
Try the other one – it’s less scary (I think)!!
That cover is distinctive! Glad it worked at least partially for you- I can see where the happened-in-one-night aspect might seem a little dragged out given everything going on in the story. I have that problem too sometimes, where books that are supposed to happen in one night or a finite amount of time don’t always seem to flow right. Still this sounds like a decent read if you know that going in…
Nice review.
It definitely has some great aspects. But as a whole it didn’t quite gel for me.