Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Bunny by Mona Awad

34 reviews

marimaria's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This was so strange and unexpected, but gahdamn that ending made me feel some things. The writing was very vibrant. It was filled with so many metaphors, making the twists rather unexpected.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

sarahb919's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Truly wild and I’m still not entirely sure what happened. Definitely something. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing and Sexual violence

Minor: Ableism, Racism, Rape, Antisemitism, and Car accident

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

mybestfriendsarefictional's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

What kind of a fever dream was that, Bunny?

Clueless meets Mean Girls meets a really bad trip, I could not put this down. Compulsive, claustrophobic, compelling and downright bizarre. I loved it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katerina_l's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

erinoconnor's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Oh I loved this. It was twisted. It was surreal. It was weird. I found myself wanting to know more and hoping the protagonist put herself in danger to do so. 😬 Normally I’m like, “no don’t go in there” but this book was so intriguing I kept hoping she’d go where she shouldn’t. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

paperkindle's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Death, and Violence

Oooookay?

alexiconic's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

well-written thriller, i really enjoyed the writing style and the mystery and twists. it was a very engaging book, and i enjoyed the unreliable narrator that samantha was. the vibes put in by the book, and the writing style, put in enough doubts early on that the twists feel just unexpected enough. the mysteries and weirdness really worked for me, and that was a huge surprise. the setting of creative writing majors in a pretentious college writing a final work worked so well, it was fascinating and relatable because i, too, am starting my final thesis.

but that was also frustrating. we got so lost in samantha's mind (which is an impressive writing feat, so clearly masterfully done), that it was incredibly hard to find the "point" of the story. the book feels like it has so much to say, so much that it can say, and i wish for there to be a "point" to it all. for the book, or the author, to tell me how to read it, how to interpret it. but maybe the beauty is in how multi-interpretable it is, in the end, and maybe the fact that i feel this frustration only means the writing is that good, because this is a book that i keep coming back to and re-thinking about.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

booklover_04's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

1.0

First of all, I wasn’t sure what I was going into when I picked up this book. Not my cup of tea in terms of the genre, but I wanted to give it a fair shot so I read until the end. I found that the writing style was very immature. To me, it sounded like something I would’ve read in high school. But the content was disturbing. 

I didnt feel like the end was satisfying, though it felt like it was supposed to be a closed ending with the scene where Max attacks the Bunnies. It didn’t feel like there was a smooth transition (or any transition for that matter) between Samantha coming out of the trance-like state and going back to Ava.

It felt rushed but drawn out at the same time. I think the length of the book was enough to do a better job of building up the characters and the plot. I wouldn’t recommend it personally, even putting aside my distaste for the plot, due to the writing style.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

samflowerv6's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

“We never joke about bunnies, Bunny.”
I WORSHIP YOU MONA AWAD!! Any freaks who like this book (myself included) are my favorite.

“Can I take your coat?” Cupcake offers. I turn to her. She’s looking at me so hopefully. So willing to take a coat I’m not wearing, I almost want to give her my skin.” 

“What do you think, Samantha?” Fosco asks me. That it’s a piece of pretentious shit. That it says nothing, gives nothing. That I don’t understand it, that probably no one does and no one ever will. That not being understood is a privilege I can’t afford. That I can’t believe this woman got paid to come here. That I think she should apologize to trees. Spend a whole day on her knees in the forest, looking up at the trembling aspens and oaks and whatever other trees paper is made of with tears in her languid eyes and say, I’m fucking sorry. I’m sorry that I think I’m so goddamned interesting when it is clear that I am not interesting. Here’s what I am: I’m a boring tree murderess. But I look at Vignette, at Creepy Doll, at Cupcake, the Duchess. All of them staring at me now with shy smiles. “I think I’d like to see more of the soup too,” I hear myself say.” 

“I look at all of my dreams and nightmares distilled into one man-shaped shape. All the love and hate I have in my heart plus one fucking bunny.” 

“Behold the lavish tent under which the overeducated mingle, well versed in every art but the one of conversation.” 

“They laugh. What’s so fucking funny? I want to say. But I don’t. I laugh with them. Ha. Haha. Hahaha.” 

How empty and emptied I felt walking away with all my words still on his floor. Wanting so badly to pick them back up. Take it all back. Wipe away the night, my dumb tears, my endless tumbling out of words. I never meant to give this to you.

“Their cheeks are plump and pink and shining like they’ve been eating too much sugar, but actually it’s Gossip Glow, the flushed look that comes from throwing another woman under the bus.” 

“We've read Jane Eyre too, you cunt, and we've read The Waves, and when we read it, you know, we wept for minutes."

“Whenever I read one of Victoria’s vignettes, I always feel so dumb because I can hardly understand them at all. And then I blame myself. I think, Kira, this must be just too brilliant for you to grasp. Surely you must have missed something. Even though there’s always been this small voice inside of me that says, Um, what the fuck is this, please? This makes no sense. This is coy and this is willfully obscure and no one but Victoria will ever get this. I would in fact need to live inside Victoria’s spoiled, fragmented, lazy, pretentious little mind to get it. And who apart from us, apart from me, is going to be willing to do that? To work all night with a Victoria Decoder? Who would even care to? And then I feel like screaming JUST SAY IT. TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED. TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK THIS MEANS AND WHAT YOU DID WITH HIM EXACTLY.” 

“Read. Be a guest in other worlds.” 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism