When God was a Rabbit, by Sarah Winman - Book Review

The title was the first thing that drew me in to this book. I was curious and wanted to know more, but the description on the back was vague, so I just went with it and purchased the book hoping that I'd found something intriguing. Interesting title, well designed cover, and on a 'featured' aisle? Count me in.

I found When God was a Rabbit difficult to get into to begin with, but plodded on hoping that I'd get drawn in. The first half of the book is seen through the young and naive eyes of 11 year old Elly, and describes snapshots from her childhood. As a reader I often found these snapshots frustrating, as a lot of themes were touched upon, but never expanded or explained. Whenever you thought you might have found a clue about the theme of the book or what's to come, the thread would be dropped.

Around the halfway point in the story, we jump more than a decade into the future. I felt that the two halves could have been completely separate books as they're so disjointed, however this half of When God Was a Rabbit does hold some merit as it begins to describe some of the ways in which Elly's childhood has impacted her life as an adult. Elly cannot hold down a job, shies away from commitment, and clings to a childhood figure. Her character is described as being regressive and it appears as though she would like nothing more than to go back to being 11 years old, and be able to explore the forests with wonder with the safety of having an older brother to look out for her.

As a child, Elly's innocent and naive observations of the world seemed true to a girl of her age; although I described it as being frustrating at times, it therefore did make sense when the reader had to connect the dots from certain inferences. However, the writing continued in the same vague fashion into the latter half of the book, and I just wished that more of the themes raised were drawn out.

I'm also finding myself fed up of stories that border on unbelievable. It's obviously different with certain genres (you wouldn't complain about magic in a fantasy book, for example), but I think that a good fiction book can be a form of escapism and open your mind to new possibilities whilst also being potentially realistic. Does that make sense? To have really cared about Elly and her family, I should have found the events in the book believable and therefore have empathised with their situation. But I just didn't. Trauma after trauma after trauma happens to this family, so much so that there almost isn't any room for 'normality' or sense of a regular life in between these dramatic events, and I didn't find it realistic in the slightest.

Overall, I found the underlying concept of the book to be interesting, but didn't think that it was well executed.

Rating: 2/5