Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

Bunny by Mona Awad

19 reviews

dearlysia's review

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

5.0

i love you, bunny

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Violence

Minor: Death of parent and Eating disorder

emilymcculloh's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Eating disorder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Violence and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Eating disorder

wickedgrumpy's review

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.

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Content Warnings

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

parton4proletariat's review

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Death of parent

samokanikan's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book! I think if you get it, you get it, and if you don't, then you don't. And that's totally fine! I had some trouble understanding it in the beginning, as I don't usually read magical realism, but I really enjoyed it the more I read. It was super interesting and I loved that plot twist at the end!!!!!! 2022 is the year where I read books out of my usual comfort zone, the first one being "A Touch Jen" by Beth Morgan, and I'm having a great time. it.
Don't go into this book thinking it's gonna be a light read--quite the opposite! This book will make you think so you can understand the magic behind it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Eating disorder, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Body horror, and Gore

hannahandrea's review

dark 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

5.0

this was fun and confusing and freaky and I enjoyed it! I read it because of someone comparing it to Jennifer's Body mixed with The Secret History, which is definitely accurate and made for a wild read. dark academic gore soaked to the bone with loneliness!

also this is one of those books that are described as being about "obsessive female friendship" and that's true, but also there's something incredibly fruity about the whole thing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Suicide, and Panic attacks/disorders

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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Sexual violence

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

sarah984's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

This book made me so angry. I do feel like there's something there about desire, that these girls can grant any of their own darkest desires but still come up with these like unthreatening neutered ken doll Disney princes, but the story doesn't really engage with that. Instead it delves into this extremely unrelatable portrait of female friendship where the main character hates the Bunnies while simultaneously being desperate for their approval (if they're so stupid why do you care if they don't like your story?????).

There is this bizarre extended sequence near the end that involves a twisted hallucination of two characters critiquing the book and honestly I agreed with everything they said so clearly this book was not for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Minor: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

keen's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

What a ride. If I had to compare this book to any mean girl clique, it'd be the Heathers for the Heathers musical. The main character is even named Samantha Heather Mackey.

It's rare for me to finish a book in three days. To read 100 pages each day. On average, it takes me about a week to finish a book about 400 pages long. If a story's good, I'll read 40 to 50 pages daily. So, suffice to say, this book kept me interested.

I never thought I'd be able to care so much for unlikable characters. Samantha and her friend Ava are obviously flawed people. Not the type I'd want to hang around in real life, and might even actively avoid. Yet throughout the book, I still enjoyed them. I even found myself relating to Samantha to a worrying degree. And, thankfully, her flaws are directly acknowledged. Complaints I had with characterizations were relieved by that.

Then there are the Bunnies. At times, I forgot this book was a horror story. I would get comfortable with the Bunnies and think "I wish I was with them" before remembering what this book is about. Before remembering that I really wouldn't want to have to change my identity to befriend a group of girls. A few times I commented that I felt "rancid vibes" emanating from this story.

And the ending of the book. All I can say is that it makes a reread worth it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, and Sexual violence

Minor: Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Rape, and Stalking