I decided to read Rabbits after hearing Hugo Rifkind talking about his book at an author Q&A. It was compared to Saltburn. In fact, it has been billed as, ‘Saltburn with kilts.’ I have not read Saltburn, but I have seen the film. Rabbits is not Saltburn. It’s a tale of crumbling castles and the end of an era. This slice of dark academia is solid gold. It is a slow burn full of deep characterisation and gory details. I had to read some of it through my hands, especially the parts where animals get horribly murdered. It is not for the weak.
I wanted to read Rabbits as I was sold on the 90s nostalgia and the fact it’s written by a Scot, and set in Scotland. It is a literary novel with a mystery at its heart. You really feel the historical change as the elite try to hold onto their crumbling inheritance and titles. Tommo is the classic outsider. A middle class boy thrust into the world of the aristocracy of Scotland. I wish there were more books about class.
While Rabbits is a great novel, with a beautiful and searing relationship between Tommo and his mother and father, it is also an essential slice of social commentary. It is a book that is completely unique. Tommo’s mother is sick and I loved how their relationship, and his feelings, were captured on the page. His father is a successful writer and frequently gone, leaving Tommo to fend for himself. He becomes friends with the in crowd, but remains the outsider.
I wholeheartedly recommend Rabbits. It’s a fantastic coming-of-age novel that will stay with you long after you read the last page. As for those Saltburn comparisons? To me Rabbits is the modern-day heir to Brideshead Revisited. High praise because it’s one of my favourite novels, but fair.
Tommo has just moved to a prestigious boarding school. A product of the middle class, and with new-found independence thrust upon him, he finds himself invited into fading crumbling country houses.
It’s the early nineties and the elite he is now surrounded by is struggling for relevance. Alienated from the mainstream, and running low on inherited wealth, his peers have retreated into snobbery and fatalism. Initially awed by their poise and seduced by their hedonism, Tommo gradually becomes aware of sinister undercurrents and a suppressed rage that threatens to explode into violence.
In this world, half-remembered traditions mix with decadence and an awful lot of small dead animals. And sometimes, not just animals. When Tommo’s friend Johnnie’s brother is found dead, a shotgun at his feet, he realises there are secrets that everyone knows, but no one speaks about, or even acknowledges. And those secrets can no longer be hidden.