Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Bunny by Mona Awad

439 reviews

pulita's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Murder

wickedgrumpy'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

It was a vibe.

To put it simply, it's not my cup of tea but I understand it being someone else's.  Well written, probably improves on re-reading.

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

katymat18's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Toxic friendship

mangosunscreen's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Self harm and Violence

rebeccajost's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

Dark academia meets magic meets absurdism. It more flirts with the ideas of dark academia, and I’m again disappointed that the book isn’t as absurd as I had hoped. 

I enjoyed that the book focuses heavily on the psychology of the MC, and doesn’t sanitize the MC as a particularly likable person even when she’s an interesting character. 

Prior to reading this I expected the book to be much more absurd, with a more subtle subplot that revealed itself at the end with many different interpretations. I personally feel that the reveal at the end was pretty clear at the end of the first part. I feel like it was a bit of false advertisement there, because it was much more linear and clear than expected. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

purplelake's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Eating disorder, Rape, Vomit, Grief, and Car accident

otherworlds's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

well, it had its redeeming qualities, but ultimately this book came across to me as confused, especially in terms of the themes it put forward. when there is so much surrealism in the plot that you're relying so heavily on themes, those themes could have been delivered more effectively imo!

and idk if the bitter feelings re: her own pretentiousness among other pretentious art students was a feature of the character or the author, but either way it really grated on my nerves. no, more than that, the narration was SO self-deprecating that it made me outright uncomfortable. i can see how it aids the theme insofar as talking about the empty performative nature of the professional art scene, but it still wasn't my cup of tea.

the reason i'm taking a good half-star off this review, though, is that the author uses slurs in her prose to make it sound more edgy. saying someone looked like "a r*tarded baby", or referring to romani people by the g slur in fetishistic imagery, or using 'schizophrenic' as an insult... idk what she was going for with this but whatever it was, it fell flat for me.

that being said the plot was very interesting and original, the prose was engaging, the relationship between the main character and her best friend really tugged a chord with me, and i liked the ending. just, not enough to overlook the issues i had with this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Ableism, Racial slurs, Racism, and Murder

Main character is non-consensually drugged at many points.

libertymoore's review against another edition

challenging dark funny slow-paced

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

2.5

this book is possibly the strangest book I have ever read in my life. however, there are some important topics reflected at the end and some of the things said in this book that was really funny. the first book for me to properly annotate 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Murder

Minor: Mental illness

bugmemory's review against another edition

dark funny medium-paced

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

2.5

I enjoyed the beginning through middle of this book, but feel the last half maybe last third wasn't handled ideally. Also, the author uses repeating analogies, phrases, and actions that I noticed, which broke my immersion in the story; for example, the main character seems to just burst into maniacal laughter several times for no reason, when they are normally a reserved, non-confrontational person. There are also more "abstract" parts of the book that did not add to the story at all and weren't needed. I enjoyed the characters in the main character's (toxic) friend group, and they were the best part of the book for me.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Murder

Moderate: Drug use

Minor: Death of parent

genny's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

I debated on my rating for this, but as I thought back on it and looked at it from different angles, I couldn't deny that this merits 5 stars from me. I went into this expecting something odd in the way that literary fiction often can be - the lines between reality and fantasy blurred, cryptic messages about ~*life*~, depressed (or depressing) characters...and we did get all that, but I didn't expect this to be a satire of sorts. It's so FUNNY! I felt a very Samantha-like horrified laugh bubble up in my throat multiple times. Once I realized that this was akin to campy horror like Jennifer's Body, that's when the book and I really "got along".  It wasn't there to mock me with its absurdity, as if I wasn't intelligent enough to Understand Literature; instead it was there to poke fun at the very idea. Even the ending was funny to me,

like the finale of a horror comedy movie where it's finally daybreak and the characters have to awkwardly stand there, eyeing each other and surveying all the damage in the light of the sun.

There's fantastic commentary underneath the absurdity that is easy to digest: Samantha's extreme insecurity, her hatred for convention while she craves it at the same time, the unattainability of perfect female friendship (her idea of it, at least), etcera etcetera. I might be in the minority who didn't guess the twist about

Ava

, and now I want to reread the book with this in mind. Bunny is definitely an acquired taste. I'm pleasantly surprised that I ended up loving it so much. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content