Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Bunny by Mona Awad

93 reviews

kelisabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Car accident, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Animal death, Gaslighting, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

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

madmai's review

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Grief, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Mental illness

ibshaver's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.25

I felt like this book was attempting to be something so elaborate that it just could not quite grasp. I found it sort of hard to follow at times and at the end some things didn't feel resolved enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Gore

Moderate: Classism

Minor: Addiction and Grief

dajul73's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

I will have to rate this book at a later date. I both hated it and yet was addicted to it. I'm not sure what I just read and need time to digest this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Alcohol, Addiction, Violence, Death, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Bullying, Kidnapping, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, Murder, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Body horror, and Torture

anima_vestaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

Brillant with an unexpected but perfectly sensible and genius finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Grief, Drug use, Gore, and Emotional abuse

wannabe_lee's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Bullying, Self harm, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Body horror, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death, and Drug use

Minor: Abandonment, Car accident, Alcohol, Addiction, Rape, and Alcoholism

loxeletters's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

What an interesting read! I especially enjoyed the themes of faux-feminism, the absurdity of academia, and the relationship between you and your creation. Regarding that last point, I think I might have benefitted from having read Frankenstein? It seems there's some links here, but that's just guess work. I still really enjoyed this, and though I didn't cry, the ending broke my heart.

It was quite depressing at times, which is why I couldn't rate this as "funny" even though the satirical aspects worked well. I guess that is the horror of this book for me - I wasn't very affected by the gore, I was never really scared, more just very depressed by the ongoing loneliness of our MC.

I can't say I could've guessed most of the major twists, which is a plus :)
Speaking of which, I agree that it's quite disorienting and difficult to figure out what is real and what isn't, but I think that's the point. I mean... They even discuss in the book how disorientation can be valuable for writing lol.

I did think the final scene was maybe a bit too clean-cut.
 

Maybe the way her relationship to Jonah is portrayed could have used some more nuance. He was always nice, sure, but I feel like her realisation that he just doesn't care about others' judgement doesn't really make up for the contempt she had for him throughout the book. He is always portrayed as so pathetic, and I can't really reconcile this with her attitude towards him at the end.

 
But this is somewhat nit-picky!

My second issue was the prose - overall it was good, but some phrasings were a bit repetitive for me. Maybe some adjectives could've been cut out as well. But that's just my personal taste, I think.

Overall, a very interesting book, which leaves you questioning what is real and what isn't, while providing some much-needed cultural criticism — exactly my cup of tea!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Toxic friendship, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Classism, Gore, Murder, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Grief, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Sexual content and Car accident

deadbelle's review

dark 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

Interesting read although none of the characters were likeable

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Blood, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Death of parent, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Drug use, Stalking, and Self harm

kaylawtzl22's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense

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

4.5

genuinely so confused. a very good read, intriguing, and hard to put down. It feels like an A24 film as a novel. A24- if you’re reading this, please hit up mona awad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Gore, Addiction, Mental illness, Misogyny, Animal death, Alcohol, Death of parent, Slavery, Violence, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Drug use, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic relationship, Body horror, Death, Murder, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Classism