Welcome, or Welcome back! My name is Amanda and this is where I share spoiler-free book reviews and other bookish things. Thanks for visiting. Let’s get Smitten For Fiction.

After loving All’s Well, I finally jumped on the bandwagon and read a library copy of Bunny in May. After finishing both of these books I immediately turned to the first page and re-read them. Prepare yourself, I’m about to go wild about Bunny.

“Bunny is a curioser Wonderland where vicious, rabidly entitled artists mix hare-brained potions, where sweet bunnies are terrifying swains, and where literature’s newest and sexiest hybrid lurks. Hilarious and creepy with dead-on satire: I cannot think of a new book I like more.” —Lynn Crosbie

About The Book 📚

Title: Bunny

Author: Mona Awad

Publication Date: June 2019

Publisher: Viking

Genre: Horror, Thriller, Dark Academia, Satire

Pages: 307

Content Warnings: Animal death, animal cruelty, gore, blood, violence, toxic friendship, murder, body horror, death, drug use, mental illness, self-harm, schizophrenia, bullying, alcohol, sexual content, cursing, classism, grief, suicidal thoughts, abandonment, torture, addiction, misogyny, body shaming, panic attacks

R Contains profanity, violence, drug use, or nudity.

About The Author

“Mona Awad is the author of BUNNY, ALL’S WELL and 13 WAYS OF LOOKING AT A FAT GIRL. 13 WAYS won the Amazon Best First Novel Award and was shortlisted for the Giller Prize. Her second novel, BUNNY, was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror, the New England Book Award, and won the Ladies of Horror Fiction Best Novel Award. It is currently being optioned for film with Bad Robot Productions. ALL’S WELL was a finalist for a Goodreads Choice Award for Best Horror. Her new novel, ROUGE, is forthcoming in September 2023 with Simon & Schuster.

She earned an MFA from Brown University and an MScR in English from the University of Edinburgh where her dissertation was on fear in the fairy tale. In 2018, she completed a Ph.D. in Creative Writing and Literary Studies at the University of Denver. She currently teaches creative writing at Syracuse University and lives in Boston.” https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7104825.Mona_Awad

My Review

› Check out the Spotify playlist for Bunny: https://largeheartedboy.com/blog/archive/2019/07/mona_awads_play.html

› Bunny is a Brothers Grimm fairy tale version of Alice in Wonderland filmed on the set of Carrie with the cast of Heathers. There are many references to other pieces of fiction yet this stands on its own. I don’t think I have anything new to add to the conversation about this book that hasn’t already been said, other than to say, this is absolutely one of my all-time favourite books.

“This town is a wrong town.”

› Bunny begins at a New England University in September. Samantha Mackey is studying for a Masters in Creative Writing, working on her thesis. Her small creative writing class includes a clique of stuck-up rich girls who call themselves and each other “bunny”. Samantha has never fit in with them, but suddenly they are interested in her and invite her to hang out with them. She witnesses the Bunnies transform bunny rabbits into men – but not real men – they call them “drafts” or “hybrids” or “darlings”. Sometimes you have to kill your darlings. Samantha falls down the rabbit hole, losing all sense of herself and reality. What do the Bunnies want from her?

› The Bunnies:
Eleanor (the leader) aka Duchess
Caroline aka Cupcake
Kira aka Creepy Doll
Victoria aka Vignette

“We call them Bunnies because that is what they call each other.”

› This novel left me wondering what really happened. I don’t know which characters were real, I don’t know if the bunnies were witches, I don’t know if Samantha lost her mind. I know nothing John Snow. I have my suspicions, but I’ll let you decide for yourself.

“Oh, we were all ‘intrigued’ at first. Maybe even dazzled. Smitten by a certain grittiness, a certain dark charm.”

› I rate reviews similar to the CAWPILE method
0-3 Really bad
4-6 Mediocre
7-9 Really good
10 Outstanding

› Characters: 10
None of the characters are likeable, yet I found myself loving them.
› Atmosphere: 10
Setting, description, world-building, emotion, mood. Yup, incredible.
› Writing Style: 10
High-quality writing, excellent readability, and dialogue. I love Awad’s writing style so much.
› Plot: 10
› Intrigue: 10
› Logic: 10
Yes, this book is confusing – but it’s supposed to be.
› Enjoyment: 10
Average 10
My Rating ★★★★★

› Final Thoughts
• With an unreliable narrator, peculiar parties, and spoiled rich girls, Bunny by Mona Awad is a sinister, puzzling, edgy, funny, and fast-paced fever dream about perception, projection, desire, transformation and imagination, that raises a compelling conversation about the recycling of literature. This is not a book you can skim. You must read every word and between the lines.

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