King of Rabbits weaves around Kai, a wee boy growing up among love, loss and chaos on a council estate in Somerset.
Kai pits his imagination against the realities of poverty, class and racism, as the world around him spirals.

Neblett has drawn a really interesting character in Kai, and he particularly shines in the parts of the story when he is a small child ... and there are other really strong characters throughout, too ... As Kai experiences a variety of emotional awakenings in the novel, we are dragged along with him and feel his pain at every turn. And a couple of the bigger events in the narrative are foreshadowed in a skillful manner. So there really is a lot to praise about King of Rabbits ... There is enough in this book to warrant a recommendation, for sure. Neblett's experience in previous roles is put to good use to bring a believable character and a believable circumstance to life, and there was never a point when I didn't want to keep reading to find out what would happen to Kai. And there are points in King of Rabbits that are extremely powerful.

Family breakdown is observed from a child's perspective in a novel about poverty, race and inherited trauma... Neblett is perceptive about the ways in which dysfunction is handed down through generations... [and] has a good ear for the vernacular of Kai and his circle: letters from school make his mother "aggy as fuck", and a self-important authority figure has "macky eyebrows and wobbles in his voice".... King of Rabbits is a heartfelt novel about poverty, race and inherited trauma.

When I was reading King of Rabbits, I was reminded of writers like Andrea Dunbar and Barry Hines, writers who clearly lived what they were writing about.

You won't be able to predict the outcome of King Of Rabbits. Told through the eyes of Kai, a mixed-race kid who grows up on a rural council estate in Somerset where he and his three older sisters have three different dads, he searches for solace in nature and the wild rabbits he finds there. But with his on and off again parents falling deeper into crack addiction, it seems his optimism and energy for life might not be enough to escape the limitations of poverty. It's a powerful and tragic read, making a profound statement about how important access to opportunities can be, and how much of an impact your childhood and background can have on your future. As the novel flips between the protagonist as a young boy and as a teenager, you are able to map the significant moments that fundamentally alter his course. It's a brilliantly crafted story about class and race, and the failure of society to catch children who fall through the cracks.

Karla Neblett's hugely impressive debut novel King of Rabbits is a vividly realised story about a resourceful, sensitive and imaginative boy from a mixed-race, blended family on a Somerset council estate ... It's a novel drawn from Karla's tender and acute perception of the people she was surrounded by growing up, and her subsequent work with troubled children and teenagers, and pulls no punches about the persistent perils in disadvantaged communities of becoming overwhelmed by money worries, substance abuse and thoughts of ending it all.

[T]he story is meticulously observed and beautifully told ... All the characters are vividly brought to life while the passages of natural description are authentic. A touching, witty yet tragic novel that asks whether a child can overcome his circumstances.

It's hard not to fall for the main character, Kai, in King of Rabbits ...The story, set on a council estate in rural Somerset alternates between young Kai, and 15 year-old-Kai. You can see the car crash coming, but you can't look away.

King of Rabbits is a brilliantly crafted story

Viciously satisfying. Malice takes Sleeping Beauty and turns everything on its head, cutting right to the core of this bejewelled world. Heather Walter has given us a villain to adore.

If you're after a heart-warming book filled to the brim with hope and humanity, then Julietta Henderson's charming The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman should be your next read . . . A life-affirming tale.

Norman Foreman will capture your heart. His story had me in tears, both of laughter and sorrow, as he bravely battles against the odds to achieve his dream. The Funny Thing About Norman Foreman is a book full of hope, humour and kindness, with one of the most endearing central characters I've met in a long time. An utter delight!

Charming, warm, and uplifting... Julietta Henderson's quirky, lovable characters also offer profound meditations on family, friendship, grief, disability, illness, and aging, all told with heart, humor, and wisdom. There is so much to love about this book.

A glorious romp

I greatly enjoyed this warm and charming novel about one of the most ill-matched companions in comic literature. The heroically intellectual, ungainly, unsociable Margery and the barely literate, flighty, charming, crazy Enid are both brave in very different yet ultimately compatible ways. Their adventures both on board ship and in New Caledonia read like EF Benson's Mapp and Lucia rewritten by the gentler pen of Barbara Pym

Rachel Joyce is a masterful storyteller. She has written the perfect book for these times. Funny, perceptive and life-enhancing. I urge you to read it

Beautifully written, quirky and humorous with wonderful characters

I've loved Rachel's writing since Harold's canvas shoes. Miss Benson's Beetle is just as brilliant and elegant and wise. It's also powerful and moving and I can't recommend it enough

I loved The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, but Miss Benson's Beetle is even better. The characters have a richness and depth that drew me into their story immediately. And what characters! This book is far more than an unexpected adventure, it's a beautiful portrayal of female friendship in all its frailties, contradictions and strengths. It made me think we all have the power to be so much more than we imagine when we cut the chains of expectation. I actually feel as if I've just lost a positive, powerful friend - I'm cut adrift, I haven't been so immersed in a novel for years

Miss Benson's Beetle is the perfect escape novel for our troubled times, about a woman in emotional, professional and physical lockdown who breaks free to reclaim her true self. It's as funny and nourishing as a classic Ealing comedy, as feminist as your formidable great-aunt

Rachel Joyce has cornered the market in bittersweet novels about elderly eccentrics that both prick and comfort the reader

I fell in love with the unlikely friendship between two wildly different women, Enid Pretty and Margery Benson-their devotion to each other as they trek up and down mountains in someplace called New Caledonia is a hysterical delight. This novel made me realize how hungry I am for stories about women loving each other into being their best selves. Many thanks to Rachel Joyce for writing one

A beautifully written, extraordinary quest in which two ordinary, overlooked women embark on an unlikely scientific expedition to the South Seas. A classic tale of gripping adventure and friendship, told from the subversive and often hilarious female view

Whatever you may look for in a novel—adventure, fully realized characters, humor, poignancy, a chance to learn something new—is all here in Miss Benson’s Beetle. What’s also here is the particular grace and humanity that Rachel Joyce brings to her work. She reminds us that we all are broken in one way or another, but that we are capable—oftentimes in unexpected ways—of helping to make ourselves and others whole. This beautifully written novel is an absolute delight.

Bursting with the irrepressible wonder that is quintessential Rachel Joyce. Miss Benson’s Beetle is about the courage to say YES! Yes, I will. Yes, I can. Radiant, transporting, idiosyncratic, tender and shimmeringly alive (and dead!) The master of charm and delight.

Any reader accompanying Rachel Joyce on this exhilarating expedition into the far reaches of the imagination is destined to be rewarded with the richest pleasure ... An enthralling, amazing expedition into the mysteries of the human heart.

So fast-paced and fun it’ll make you remember why you loved reading in the first place. Miss Benson’s Beetle has everything: adventure, mystery, and the greatest, most unlikely friendship, all rendered in some of the most beautiful, enchanting prose you’ll ever read. It’s full of humour, pathos, and insight, extolling the virtues of love, acceptance, and hard-won self-discovery – all that gleams about the human spirit. It’ll capture you right at the beginning and hold you tight the whole way through. This book is a pure and serious joy.

Wonderful characters that I will not forget in a hurry ... This book will take you on the adventure of a lifetime. I loved every second!

As ever, Rachel Joyce made me laugh out loud, then weep for the battered majesty of ordinary human beings.
Two unlikely heroines, their strange love, a pitiful villain and a life-affirming search for miraculous beauty…
all combine in a wild, hopeful picaresque journey into the soul.

Editor's Choice: A gorgeous story about friendship, adventure and the importance of taking risks.

AUDIO BOOK OF THE WEEK

A hilarious jaunt into the wilderness of women's friendship and the triumph of outrageous dreams.

Miss Benson's Beetle is an absolute joy - a wild, funny, and breathlessly exciting adventure story that's also a moving and beautifully drawn portrait of an improbable female friendship in a world still emerging from the trauma of two world wars. Joyce writes about Margery and Enid with such tenderness and compassion, such wisdom and humour, weaving an irresistible tale of frailty and strength, curiosity and courage, grief and hope.

Margery Benson dreams of finding a mythical gold beetle in New Caledonia. So she and her irritating assistant set sail from London in 1950-and become kindred spirits during an adventure both zany and harrowing. It's a wildly original, life-affirming tale.

A book that will have you howling with laughter the one moment and wiping away tears the next - my favourite read in years. Don't miss it.