Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Rabbits, foxes, weasels, and other creatures live as humans, among humans in Ffordes wonderfully absurd new novel.Fifty-five years ago, the Spontaneous Anthropormorphizing Event resulted in 18 rabbits, six weasels, five guinea pigs, three foxes, a Dalmatian, a badger, nine bees and a caterpillar inexplicably becoming, well, anthropomorphized. As time went on, the animals continued to reproduceespecially the rabbitscausing a bit of a political crisis for humans, who are loathe to extend human rights to human-adjacent creatures. Rabbits in particular are subject to cruelty and suspicion because of their rapid reproductive rate, causing political parties like the United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party and hate groups like TwoLegsGood (because humans, unlike animals, have two legs, get it?) to rise to immense power. Racism as we know it still exists in this world, as does Brexit. Indeed, "the consequences of the Event seemed to highlight areas of the human social experience that perhaps needed greater exploration, understanding and some kind of concerted action...although once a fringe idea, the notion that the event might have been satirically induced was gaining wider acceptance. And is there anyone who can write satire quite like Fforde? Perhaps the sharpest, most searing aspect of this brilliant satire is the choice of Peter Knox as narrator. An unassuming human who thinks himself a well-meaning cog in a regrettably evil machine, Knox finds himself at the very center of the rabbit resistance. Not only must he make the choice to atone for the part he has played in the violent government organization RabCoT (Rabbit Compliance Taskforce) and put himself in danger for a greater good, but he learns to embrace a supporting role in a struggle that is not about him at all. An astonishingly well-crafted work of social and political satire. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal
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The Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event of 1965 results in an England where six-foot-tall intelligent rabbits can be one's friends and neighbors. Or could be if it weren't for all of the anti-Rabbit sentiment, phobia, and persecution that Rabbits face in everyday life. Peter Knox, human, casually lepirophobic, and employed by the Rabbit Control Board that criminalizes and subjugates Rabbits, confronts his own prejudices when his old college friend Constance Rabbit moves in next door with her family and her connections to the Rabbit Underground. Forced to finally choose a side, Peter discovers that Rabbits are more intelligent, compassionate, and downright human than anyone he's ever met. Meanwhile, the Rabbit community decides that, in fact, they are much too good for humans, who are not nearly ready to be rehabilitated. This title, like last year's Early Riser, makes one huge change in order to comment on contemporary life, particularly racial relations, and to examine how easily average people can be led to accept the unacceptable and enable the worst but loudest members of society. The message can be a bit heavy-handed but is still wrapped in the author's trademark sense of wry humor and sarcastic wit. VERDICT Recommended for readers who have already fallen in love with this author, and libraries where his works are popular.—Marlene Harris, Reading Reality, LLC, Duluth, GA

Book list
From Booklist, Copyright © American Library Association. Used with permission.

Peter Knox' sleepy village of Much Hemlock is upset by the arrival of a family of rabbits. In 1965, the UK experienced a Spontaneous Anthropomorphic Event, and, 55 years later, human society still has not fully embraced its sentient, people-size rabbit neighbors. Peter is no leporiphobe, but his work with the Rabbit Compliance Task Force involves identifying suspicious rabbits, though a past error led to one rabbit's murder at the hands of the hominid supremacist group, Two Legs Good. That rabbit was also the husband of Connie, with whom Peter had a vague flirtation back in his university days, and who is now his next-door neighbor. As efforts to relocate the entire rabbit population into the MegaWarren ramp-up, Peter finds it more and more difficult to maintain the illusion that his feelings of unimportance mean his actions are benign. As he did in Early Riser (2019), Fforde presents a milquetoast cog in an absurdly bureaucratic wheel, this time cleverly skewering Brexit, conservative politics, and white supremacy in this surprisingly uplifting tale of one man doing his best, even if it is the bare minimum.

Publishers Weekly
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Fforde (Early Riser) invokes John le Carré, George Orwell, and Beatrix Potter in this tongue-in-cheek political satire of systemic injustice, bureaucratic corruption, and human foibles. Peter Knox, one of the rare humans who can differentiate between individual humanoid rabbits created in the Spontaneous Anthropomorphising Event of 1965, works as a spotter in the English village of Much Hemlock. In this role, Peter secretly identifies rabbits for the United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party’s Rabbit Compliance Taskforce. But when Peter’s university crush, Connie, a rabbit herself, moves in next door right when the Taskforce is cooking up a plan to rehome the rabbits in a work camp, Peter falls into a tangled web of seduction, espionage, and betrayal as he’s torn between his career and a chance to do the right thing. Amid a rapid-fire barrage of literary allusions, Fforde displays his signature quick wit on a furious tour through modern British right-wing politics. Playful, biting, and timely, this is a must-read. Agent: Will Francis, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Oct.)

Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Rabbits, foxes, weasels, and other creatures live as humans, among humans in Fforde’s wonderfully absurd new novel. Fifty-five years ago, the Spontaneous Anthropormorphizing Event resulted in 18 rabbits, “six weasels, five guinea pigs, three foxes, a Dalmatian, a badger, nine bees and a caterpillar” inexplicably becoming, well, anthropomorphized. As time went on, the animals continued to reproduce—especially the rabbits—causing a bit of a political crisis for humans, who are loathe to extend human rights to human-adjacent creatures. Rabbits in particular are subject to cruelty and suspicion because of their rapid reproductive rate, causing political parties like the United Kingdom Anti-Rabbit Party and hate groups like TwoLegsGood (because humans, unlike animals, have two legs, get it?) to rise to immense power. Racism as we know it still exists in this world, as does Brexit. Indeed, "the consequences of the Event seemed to highlight areas of the human social experience that perhaps needed greater exploration, understanding and some kind of concerted action...although once a fringe idea, the notion that the event might have been satirically induced was gaining wider acceptance.” And is there anyone who can write satire quite like Fforde? Perhaps the sharpest, most searing aspect of this brilliant satire is the choice of Peter Knox as narrator. An unassuming human who thinks himself a well-meaning cog in a regrettably evil machine, Knox finds himself at the very center of the rabbit resistance. Not only must he make the choice to atone for the part he has played in the violent government organization RabCoT (Rabbit Compliance Taskforce) and put himself in danger for a greater good, but he learns to embrace a supporting role in a struggle that is not about him at all. An astonishingly well-crafted work of social and political satire. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.