Soze Says

Seven people in an RV that drives itself on the way back from completing some kind of nefarious mission that they volunteered for in order to avoid jail time, are sent on a side mission to a remote farm house populated by rabbits to "eliminate the threat" before being allowed to return home. Such is the premise for this debut novella from author Trista Frank. One that on paper sounded interesting, and was reasonably well written from a technical standpoint, but suffered from too many of the problems that normally plague debut works to be enjoyable.

To begin, the threat in Rabbit Farm is ill-defined and poorly developed. If these seven criminals had half a brain in their collective heads, they would have found and eliminated what was a pretty lame "threat" in hours. Instead, their own issues, neuroses and paranoid delusions bring them undone from within - something I found to be less than satisfying when I was expecting some kind of undead/monster mayhem. Perhaps this was Frank's intention, but if so, she failed to make any of her characters compelling or engaging enough to care about their issues or the fates that befall them.

Worse, though, is the utter lack of world-building in Rabbit Farm. Aside from the car that drove itself and the reference to one character's genitalia being replaced by some kind of machine, this could have been a contemporary story set in a remote part of the world. I'm not even sure what setting this in the future - something that is eventually confirmed - brings to the story? And I'm likewise confused about what the hell rabbits had to do with anything ...

Far from frightening, lacking in tension, and featuring an ending any thriller fan will see coming from a third of the way in, Rabbit Farm hopefully represents the work of an author who will grow from this writing experience.

1.5 Poorly Built Worlds for Rabbit Farm