Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Bunny by Mona Awad

39 reviews

dominiquecoral's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I don’t know what just happened. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, and Mental illness

henrygravesprince's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

first, the positives:

• some of the surrealist passages are fantastic, and the author is very good at writing things in a surreal way, especially portraying normal things as such
• the dynamic between Ava and Samantha is very interesting in contrast to Samantha, the Bunnies, and men

now, the negatives:

• some of the stylistic grammar-breaking choices work, but a lot of them don’t; particularly the recurring all-caps and multi-exclamation point moments irked me
• the “gore” moments were honestly more silly than anything, particularly when half of the time it’s just “and then [xyz] literally exploded”
• there are a lot of really out of place, pointless moments of bigotry that would not alter the story or tone at all if they were removed, particularly the weird references to lizard people conspiracies, the R slur & derogatory comparisons to disabled people, and the usage of the G slur to describe a Romani woman; it comes across very much as the author just not giving a shit about it

I think there could be a good book chipped out of Bunny with more editing, but it just fell flat to me. People also misrepresent what this book actually is a lot when recommending it; I wish I had actually known what sort of book this was when going into it rather than what it gets portrayed as.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Murder, Animal death, Bullying, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Stalking, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Kidnapping, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Death of parent, Drug use, Ableism, and Gore

literary__mary's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I thought this book was just okay. I really liked the premise of it and the first few chapters, but then I got a little bored and frustrated with where the narrative went. It gets really fever-dreamy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Minor: Eating disorder, Suicide, Drug use, and Sexual assault

kt2e56's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

I have no idea what I just read, but girl I’m living.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Self harm, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content

culown's review against another edition

dark funny fast-paced

4.25

What the actual fuck? (ameliorative) 
It kinda lost me in the third part but still a fun and interesting read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual assault

armontheroad's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

This dark and twisty New Adult novel is perfect for fans of HEATHERS and LIFE IS STRANGE!! We follow a loner, Samantha Heather Mackey, who is adopted by a clique of popular girls known as the Bunnies. I mean this in the best way possible, but words cannot explain how bizarre this novel is! BUNNY’s a wild ride from start to finish. Funny, atmospheric, and truly unsettling; this dark academia novel is an excellent choice for Autumn. I would have given this book five stars, however, I had a few issues. The first being, like many dark academia stories,  this was *very* white. Secondly, I despised the way Mona Awad talks about sexual assault and rape in this.

A large part of the plot is the Bunnies using magic to lure men into their homes so they can rape them. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Awad also has her characters say things like “I could have been raped. He could have *insert graphic rape details*”. This occurs several times throughout the novel and I felt it was absurd, unnecessary, and very icky to read.

On positive notes: I loved hating these characters, this book was laugh-out-loud funny, and the queer-vibes of this novel were *chef’s kiss*. I think this is beautifully written, confusing in the best of ways, and a fun world to watch Samantha stumble into.

TW/CWs: Mentions of rape, animal cruelty, cults, drug/alcohol addiction, drugging, gore, etc. I highly implore you to look at StoryGraph and booktriggerwarnings.com for more in-depth trigger warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Drug use, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Gore

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

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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 :)

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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

lucystolethesky's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual assault