Reviews with content warning for Schizophrenia/Psychosis - Bunny

Reviews tagging 'Schizophrenia/Psychosis '

Bunny by Mona Awad

192 reviews

mbayram's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

2.75

İt's confusing as all hell.

İ know some people really enjoyed that but İ didn't find the characters likeable or interesting enough to enjoy it myself. Awad is an excellent writer and i enjoyed the structure or ~the body~ ;) but the plot was a bit hard to follow. That may be because İ listened to the audiobook though, so İ think I'd rate the book higher for paperback. The ending especially felt out of nowhere even though it did have sufficient lead up? İdk it's worth a try if you're into funky stuff but definitely need to be in the mood for it and i highly suggest a physical copy instead of audiobook.

İ wouldn't say it's scary but it's got horror elements so if you're sensitive to that beware.

Content Warnings

denizerkaradag's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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lifeonasofa's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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lexigrce's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious 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

2.5

i wish i had physically read this instead of listening to an audiobook bc i found it very hard to follow and idk if that’s bc it is or just bc it was an audiobook. it had a lot of good and intriguing ideas but none of them really got fleshed (lol) out for me

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zzara's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Bunny is absolutely bizarre. The book is hardly coherent, very twisty and turny, with an unreliable narrator who is clearly out of touch with reality.

Having finished the book I don’t know whether it was a fantasy novel set in a world in which human-like creatures can be created out of animals, or whether every surreal happening was in Samantha's head, a result of her possible schizophrenia. There's no definitive statement that she is schizophrenic, but it is suggested multiple times. We know that these things are to some extent her imagination - she creates Ava and Max from animals - except we don't know whether she does actually create them, making them people in the world, or if they only exist in her imagination. To me, these made-up characters are too interactive with other characters to be entirely imaginary, and yet there is no non-supernatural explanation for their existence. Either way, I think it's quite an exciting and effective way to write about psychosis. We as readers are invited into this world in which we cannot fit the puzzle pieces together, cannot pin down the foundation upon which these things are meant to rest and be made comprehensible. And I think this ambiguity is probably the point of the book, there's not meant to be a single or rational explanation for it. I also think the 'darlings' are a powerful metaphor for writing - how Samantha, a complicated and traumatised individual with a dark past, is able to create fleshed-out 'darlings' who are able to interact with the world, while the shallow Bunnies, obsessed with aesthetics and maintaining their clique, can only create darlings who are limited, clearly not human beings. I also love the criticism of the Ivy writing school, the wankerish obsession with 'The Body' and the performative ways that the Bunnies push the boundaries of writing not as a form of artistic expression but because they want to impress their teacher and each other.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are okay with not understanding what's going on and being left with a whole lot of loose ends.

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victoriakvitnes's review against another edition

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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

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jasluu's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.75

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suchsweetsorrow89's review against another edition

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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? It's complicated

4.0

This book, much like the other reviews will tell you, was not at all what I expected going into it. While it is often described as The Secret History meets Heathers, I argue that it comes off more as a critique of the academia as told through a cynical Patrick Bateman (meshing that with the gritty humor and gore, you get a tale that's funny, weird, a little horrific, and leaves you in a liminal space of "huh?" when you finish reading it). For this, some might enjoy it while others will hate it. For me, I think it's a good read, but certainly, not one that you should try to make sense of on your own. It was not until seeing other reviews on Reddit and Quora that I truly believe I figured out where I stood with this story, and I recommend that others do the same thing upon reading the book. The one thing I will say is that I wish the ending went a bit slower— for a text that aimed to focus so clearly on the Body and Body horror especially, I wish the execution examined this a bit more.

Now, for those who have read the book and want my opinion (aka spoilers), here's what I made of it:

I thought that this text served more as a metaphor for the writing process than anything else. Some people believe that this is meant to be a story of a schizophrenic woman attempting to find out her place in the world— and ultimately doing that through writing. While I think this assumption is feasible, I find this interpretation to leave out the role of academia in the text. And frankly, if this were to be the point of the text, I would not like this book (instead of making a meaningful piece that critiques the lack of disability justice in academia, you turn mental illness into horror? boo!!!). One of the most impactful aspects of this story, when I read it, was how Sam speaks so candidly about the death of her passions in academia, her struggles to write unless she is with Ava (a project that ultimately serves to remind her of her drive and capabilities to create something she loves), and her loneliness as she navigates what truly makes a writer when with the rich white friend group who, no matter how much they try, cannot do what Sam can do (made most clear on both the night she led Workshop and their desires, jealousy, and fury when faced with Max (another creature that, though so much darker than Ava, is still an original piece of work that they can never recreate)). In the end, I think this text serves as a metaphor for the harshness of the creative writing process and how fine the line really is between creative genius and pure madness. I think that this is what made the text so nice for me, even if when I first read it I wouldn't have been able to put these thoughts together. I certainly want to reread it with more annotation to see if this belief I have still holds, since my brain was not as active as it should have been when reading this. Hence, why I believe it's something like an American Psycho instead of a Heathers.

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mellowreading's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.0

This was a lot of fun. I don’t know if this book has a deeper meaning, I just took it at face value and enjoyed the weirdness.

Content Warnings

narpetcards's review against another edition

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dark 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

4.0

This started interesting, turned weird, and ended up feeling like a fever dream. I think I loved it?

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