Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Bunny by Mona Awad

41 reviews

knkoch's review

challenging dark

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

1.0

I struggled to connect with this and find meaning. I had a lot of issues reading this, some with form and structure and some with theme and character building.

Watching an interview afterwards between Mona Awad and Maragaret Atwood helped clarify Awad’s intentions for me, and I understand a little more that I struggled with the satirical, horror, and deep fairy tale symbolism she employed. I enjoy character-driven, emotional storytelling, and this is not that (which is fine, obviously). I think the unconventional twists horror fiction takes throw me, and I struggled here to be interested in the Bunnies, their creations, Ava, and most strongly MC Samantha. I always struggle to empathize with characters who engage in self-destructive drinking, which is a personal thing for me, but so much of the plot felt pointless and absurd, and I lost touch with caring about the characters or what happened to them. Perhaps Awad was trying to say something about people rather than through them, but I strongly prefer the latter. It’s not that I need characters to be virtuous or without flaws, but I need them to be interesting, and I could not sustain interest in Bunny’s characters.

The writing felt quite fatuous at times, leaning into excessive hyperbole, and I didn’t enjoy the style. I did like what Awad said about unbridled vs. controlled creativity in her interview, but I did not pick up on that enough in the book itself. I guess my most positive feedback is that this was definitely thought-provoking, in that even though I disliked it, it made me think a lot about why that was, what the author was going for, and what I didn’t understand!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gore, and Vomit

aclaws's review

dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Animal death, Death, Bullying, and Cursing

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Drug use, Gore, Drug abuse, Self harm, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

Minor: Death of parent

hannah_et1982's review

dark fast-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

2.0

I'm really not sure what I was supposed to get from this book. Is it a commentary on the pain and desperation of loneliness? Is it a mockery of elitism? Is it insanity for the sake of insanity?

It was certainly easy to read, I'll give it that, but I kept waiting for something that never came. I kept waiting for there to be a reason why this book was slut-shaming so much. Kept waiting for it to be funny like all the blurbs claimed it to be. Kept waiting for the characters' actions and motivations to make sense. Kept waiting to find out what was so dark about Samantha's writing that it was worse than the girls writing about rape and murder. 

Honestly, I don't know what I think about this book. I know I didn't enjoy it. I didn't find the characters compelling and despite the over-the-top plot, I found the story as a whole pretty boring. I don't know what I was looking for, but this wasn't it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Alcohol, Drug use, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Rape and Vomit

bekiethebanished's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Body horror, Death, Animal death, Bullying, Death of parent, Cursing, Murder, Kidnapping, Blood, Gore, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Drug use, and Alcohol

Moderate: Physical abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Torture, and Self harm

Minor: Dysphoria, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

alexandrabelze's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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

4.25

wow. just wow. this is the first mona awad novel i’ve read and i was not disappointed. it’s gory and absurd and downright disturbing. i loved it. i never had any clue what was going to happen next, and i was always pleasantly surprised at what she had in store. there was so much symbolism and so many metaphors and i’m sure i didn’t even catch them all. the characters were so full-fledged and yet so empty? since we were seeing everyone and everything through samantha’s eyes, there was this veil of blissful ignorance draped over everything. i would have loved to get a peek into what the bunnies saw. 

my favorite part of the whole book has to be max’s whole “performance piece” with the bunnies in the cave. watching their perfect, carefully curated, fake identities collapse was so satisfying and mildly humorous.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood, Drug abuse, Gore, Alcohol, Bullying, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Self harm, Torture, Cursing, and Violence

Moderate: Classism, Stalking, Vomit, Addiction, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Alcoholism, and Death of parent

porporina's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Drug use, Alcohol, Body horror, Self harm, Animal death, Vomit, Classism, Gore, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic friendship

jessltrueman's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Alcohol, and Animal death

Moderate: Classism, Vomit, Toxic friendship, and Torture

amberghinii's review

dark emotional reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Classism, Gore, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Alcohol, Blood, Abandonment, Animal death, Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Vomit, Gaslighting, and Sexual assault

the_first_lines's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Vomit, and Violence

Moderate: Blood and Death

sakurasarah's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I found this book very tense, disturbing & at times, confusing. I understand where the author was trying to go with it, however I feel that it fell a bit short of that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Cannibalism, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Torture, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, and Physical abuse