Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Bunny by Mona Awad

21 reviews

laurataylor's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Blood, Animal death, Death, Dysphoria, Gore, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Cursing, Car accident, Bullying, Torture, and Violence

erebus53's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This a story of art-school unlike any I have read. It is set at Warren, a campus that has a reputation for pushing the boundaries of conceptual art while also having an underground reputation as not being a safe place to be alone at night. 

The writing is poetic, weird, fanciful, evocative, and conveys a sense of claustrophobic, existential dread that could easily be described as paranoid schizophrenic. Cthulhu is mentioned more than once; whether the narrator is reliable or not, is your call.

A lot of the discomforting tone of the book is tapping deep into common stressors. Our main character Samantha is forced into group work (the horror!) with a clique of rich and sheltered young women who are completely self-involved, and codependent. She nicknames them "the Bunnies" because they use the term Bunny as an affectionate pet term for each other. This stifling environment is ruled over by an abusive tutor (treated as a mentor and carer) who is continually encouraging them to get uncomfortable and use their pain in their art.

I haven't read a story set in a school with a more real feeling of loneliness, insecurity, and anxiety.. and I have read a lot of YA authors. The girls derive their strength from subjugating their individuality, becoming a hive mind that is as oppressive as it is inclusive. To be accepted one must pay a great price, and even those on the inside are continually being torn down by the narcissistic cycle of love-bombing, gas-lighting, and passive/aggressive negativity. Every interaction feels invasively vulnerable. Every interaction feels like a trap.

The town around the campus feels barren. Although there are opulent houses, there are certain parts of town that are derelict. Samantha finds herself moving out of her stifling p*ss-yellow apartment, in a building full of people with mental illnesses, into a derelict building. She lives with an aloof gothic-punk girl who she attends tango class with, and who carries a hip-flask labelled "drink me". The Alice In Wonderland theme is riffed on, quite a bit. Their relationship is almost homo-erotic, but asexually so.

The Othering in this story is next level. Girls moon over fantasy boys who are often dead superstars like James Dean, or characters from Greek myth. They are made fantasy by being utterly unreal, un-attainable, and fetishised through being exotic or not even speaking English. I only realise this after noticing the sexualisation of the tutor who speaks with a Scottish accent. It's like they are so starved for stimulation, and yet so terrified of reality that they need to create abstracted lust. There is no vulnerability with a partner who isn't really a person, bunny.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Classism, Blood, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Drug use, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Abandonment, Mental illness, Gore, and Sexual violence

Minor: Vomit and Suicidal thoughts

ambenicole418's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Well…..that was definitely……a book lol.

I can’t really explain this book or my feelings on it, but I feel like there is definitely some commentary in here on loneliness and isolation, and the lengths our brain will go to help us cope with these feelings, especially when we look at Samantha and Ava’s friendship. Honestly, I think I might have enjoyed forming my own/reading other people’s interpretations of this book more than I enjoyed reading the book itself. 

I do wish we got to spend some more time inside the bunny cult though. Their hive mind dynamic, weird hybrid rituals, and how desensitized they were to all of it were the most interesting parts of the book, and it feels like we spent a criminally short amount of time with them in that space.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Body horror, Death, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Addiction, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual violence

chloebaboey's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Animal death, Blood, Death, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Rape

zosiahalbersztat's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

Moderate: Death of parent and Bullying

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder

farida_amr7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug use, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Sexual violence and Physical abuse

planetarykat's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, Self harm, and Sexual violence

spcandybars's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.25

I’ve got strongly negative and strongly positive feelings about this book that place it in a frustrating middle ground. 

It's aggressively sexual in like a weird biological way that is definitely intended to make you uncomfortable and succeeds at doing so. The weird aspects of horror aren’t all that weird at all but they’re surrounded by so many unlikeable characters, so much judgement, and so much melodrama, that it makes you uncomfortable anyway. I’m not usually a person that thinks it’s necessary to like characters or like the progression of events to enjoy a book but this was just so SLOW and unpleasant in its entirety that it feels almost unreadable in some places. I honestly continued just because I’d gotten so many recommendations. 

I do think it deserves points for the idea itself. It’s interesting and the last few chapters move much quicker so the elevation into the fantastic and confusing is more satisfying than literally any other place in the book. 

I honestly believe that if it was in someone else’s hands, they could have made something more successfully subversive, more effectively scary, and something that can be disturbing in visceral ways through its horror rather than disturbing your peace via sheer irritation at every person, place, thing, and line of dialogue. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Sexual violence

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Panic attacks/disorders, and Gaslighting

heyyitsmel's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

a really weird acid trip from a person who's never done acid. i have no idea what happened

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Sexual content

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

abbycrotts's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

i thought people were exaggerating when they said this was the weirdest thing theyve ever read and that you would barely be able to comprehend it but they were sooooo right. the first half (part 1 and the beginning of part 2) is pretty put together for the most part, and i really really enjoyed it. the bunnies were my favorite characters and thats when they were utilized the most. it also reminded me a lot of some of my favorite movies like jawbreaker and heathers. however, they were really the only part of the book i really understood or cared to understand. its not that i didn’t care for the book as a whole, i did, and i do, but the second (?) act is when shit really hit the fan and i didnt really understand what was going on. the last few chapters were like a ginormous puzzle my brain barely had the energy to pick apart. but aside from all that, i think im able to understand the core of it all.

im just not the biggest fan of the whole cliche “it was all in her head” trope when i really expected something real out of it all, which would have made it all the more interesting.

but, still an enjoyable read, super camp and fun (for the most parts except for when it gets pretty gross) and i would recommend it to people who want to read something to think about for months after :)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

the gay subtext is extreme this book is gayer than the explicitly gay book i read earlier