So, it was seeing this advert for the book that really made me want to read the book. In some ways, I think adverts for books are a great idea. They help promote books to a wider audience I suppose, but in some ways, for me they help shape the reader’s idea of the book before they read it and possibly diminish the use of the reader’s imagination when reading. When I started the book I very much had the advert in my mind and was looking out for bits in the advert as I read the book. I think it’s a bit of a shame really and wonder whether the characters would have looked completely different in my head had I not seen the advert? Anyway, if you take the advert and the book as two standalone entities, they’re both very good. The advert succeeded in its purpose and did really make me want to read the book. As a student, buying the hardback would have been a bit pricey and waiting for the paperback probably would have killed me, but luckily, Maura Bricknell (@red_books on twitter) from the Headline Publishing group flew to my rescue. She saw a tweet I posted about desperately wanting to read the book, and kindly offered to send me a copy.
So here we are. You probably don’t need my review to get you excited about the book as I think the advert really is wonderful. However I think the book actually goes a lot further than the advert. It follows the life of Elly and her brother and all the people she meets along the way. The book starts when she is around 4 years old and the beginning is written with a very fitting naive innocence that very slowly begins to unravel as we see some of the darker events that affect her life. I won’t say much more than that for fear of ruining the story for you. But there are a lot of very different interweaving storylines through the book with the two main themes being her relationship with her brother and secondly a relationship with a school friend, which comes full circle and is nicely tied up at the end.
Having two brothers myself, it was really interesting for me to see Elly’s relationship with hers, and it made what happened near the end even more heartbreaking and terrible to imagine for me. The book ties in with modern events and there are mentions of the holocaust and of 9/11 for example (something which ends up playing a huge part in the sibling’s relationship). There are also some very touching family moments and some very amusing moments to boot, for example; the children’s disastrous Nativity play. The characters are all engaging and I mean every single one of them; from their parents and dramatic auntie right down to the school teachers and their next door neighbours. There is also a bit of a fairytale-like twist where it comes to the talking Rabbit that they own called God...which also leads to some very funny occurrences. A lot of the book is serious but there are light moments throughout to alleviate this and it really is very true to life.
Finally, I know you’re not meant to judge a book by its cover but When God Was a Rabbit really does have a beautiful dust cover and I felt rather proud reading it on the train to Uni. It got quite a few admiring glances! It’s intricate yet simple...and it’s shiny, which normally helps.
So I’m going to give this 4/5 stars. I’m so glad I read it and it really is wonderfully written but it did not grip me as much as some books have before. It was a comfortable interesting read but not one that I clutched at every spare moment to read it. It’s a great debut novel by Sarah Winman, and I look forward to following her career as a writer as I’m sure she’s going to produce many more great books like this.
Next up to review is The Vanishing Acts of Esme Lennox by Maggie O'Farrell
-Char x
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