This book was another treat for me because if you have read this blog you know how much I just adore reviewing first books by new authors. There’s a special thrill in finding these little gems before anyone else does!
BUT ANYWAY, enough about me. Rabbit Trapped is the first book of Jacquelyn Holmes and hopefully the first in a series in the making. As usual I purchased it fairly blindly not knowing what it was all about. This feeling persisted for quite a while as I started reading it. This book is great for people who are looking for something they can puzzle out. Details are given throughout the story that deepen the mysteries and questions being asked long before giving any answers. It is a pleasant stroll through the process.
The story is about a group of seemingly unrelated teenagers who are bound by circumstances they don’t yet comprehend. Their very typical world starts to flip on it’s head with the appearance of a talking cat, a curse, and the possession of a boy by a mysterious entity. This mixes and jumbles with family life, with business life, with schooling, and before you know it what started as a calm little literary amble starts to slowly heat up.
Most of this book is a semi-whimsical look at what happens when the paranormal or perhaps magical starts to encroach on a normal existence. However there’s a lot of other themes and things to like here. It weaves old belief systems with new mythology to create a sort of timeless experience usual familiar figures such as a trickster. It also shows a very honest look at what it may be like to have a teenage psychopath in the family – the reactions to his behavior are spot on and at times crushing but very very realistic. Every individual in this book is flawed in some way, a product of their life, but what I really loved was the general message of this book – it really shows unflinchingly how the power of the individual can overwhelm the churning cogs of what seems to be fate. In this it’s rather life affirming.
And it took me a long while to guess what was actually happening which is unusual for me. So again, the perfect book for someone who likes to puzzle things out! And if that happens to be you please hop on over to Amazon where it is currently for sale and where I can also get a small commission for letting you know about it.