Review: White Rabbit

White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

After Last Seen Leaving, I found myself ready to be super-hyped for any future novels which Caleb Roehrig was to give us. Maybe his sophomore book doesn't quite reach that standard, but it's every bit as compulsively readable as Last Seen Leaving was. Believe it or not, though, the main mystery wasn't the greatest selling point for me, not when it became clear that it involved some of the asscrownest (not to be too Mara Dyer-y) characters you'll ever meet. Seriously, the rich kids who form the ranks of the suspects in this crime, they're all ingloriously gross and grossly insensitive and casually offensive to just about everyone else around them. I almost expected a sort of Murder on the Orient Express situation, to be honest, especially since the murder victim here is pretty much the worst of them all.

But the best part of the story, for me, is the relationship between Rufus and Sebastian (aka "Bash," which reminds me of the nicknaming of Bass Monroe on Revolution, but that's neither here nor there.) Relationship, or as the story begins, lack thereof, the two boys being exes. I've seen a couple of other reviews complain that Rufus is a victim of manipulation on Sebastian's part, especially highlighting the passage where Rufus metaphorizes himself as a violin - useless without being played, to paraphrase him. Admittedly problematic on the surface, but keep on reading the book and you'll also see things from Bash's point of view. While Rufus is out of the closet, Bash is not, and while he's got one public relationship with a girl, does that publicity mean he loves Lia more than Rufus? If he loves Rufus at all? Well, I won't get too spoilery, but Bash more than earns my sympathy. As does Rufus, because I actually super-relate to his little violin metaphor. Not because I was ever played with emotionally, but because nobody has ever wanted to make my heart sing like that, period. And I do, way too often, internalize it as a failure on my own part. So Rufus doesn't always make the best decisions, but that's to be expected when he's a teenager with emotional and mental health issues - he's particularly prone to anger, but he's nowhere near as bad as his bio dad and dangerous brother. (Just for the bio dad alone, this one's going on the reading lists of my Red Rain boys, Alex and Gabe.)

So yeah, I'm still counting myself a loyal Caleb Roehrig fan. And using his books (this one included) as comp titles for my queries because his boys would get along with mine that well.

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