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tillynancy's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Drug use, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Drug abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Death, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence
sophiaxscherm's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this book especially since the story always keeps you on the edge of your seat because you never know what is going to happen next. I love love love the author's writing style, the character descriptions at the beginning of the book had me read five times in a row just because I loved the images they painted.
What I kind of disliked, however, is how the story unfolds. The first two parts focus on the bunnies and their strange disturbing workshops and how Samantha gets involved in it and I think I would have lovet it more if it kept focussing on that and go more into depth with that. I was still intrigued in the whole thing with Ava and Max and stuff but I kind of feel like the other story line got pushed to the back too much too soon. I also feel like it would have been better to have gained some more explanation about well anything up until the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Mental illness, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal cruelty, Murder, and Drug use
jcinf's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
NOTE: if you go into this book expecting it to make sense, you will hate it. If you go into this book expecting to be confused, you will be much more open to what it offers.
Second note: heed trigger warnings.
God, I don’t know. I don’t know what to say about this book. I loved it and hated it. I’m confused. I don’t know what was real and wasn’t real, and that’s what I hated about it. But that’s also what I loved about it.
I desperately need to discuss this book with someone.
[EDIT: after reading people’s discussions of this book on Reddit, I think I’m obsessed with it. I now love that it’s open to so much interpretation 😂
Come back and read this after you finish, if you’re interested in reading someone’s interpretation!!
I do agree with the theory that Samantha is schizophrenic. Especially with the scene on the bus with the schizophrenia sign. I think my interpretation is that the Bunnies are indeed real, but a combination of her imagination, schizophrenic hallucinations, and loneliness has created a deadly persona about them. I also agree that it’s commentary on the pompousness of grad school. My sister went to grad school and there were so many pretentious *ssh*les who spewed intellectual nonsense just to feel smart. So I think that combined with her mental state had her hallucinating this mean girl clique as a cult.
Oh ALSO: The schizophrenia angle makes a lot of sense because she’s thinking something and people respond to her — even though she never said it out loud.
For more interpretations, check out this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/gxaxjw/bunny_by_mona_awad_is_misunderstood_by_many/
end edit]
I will say, it’s best you go into this book knowing nothing about it.
I wish there were discussion questions in the back. I feel like that would be fun to unpack.
Major question I have are below. I’ll put spoilers around it because it kind of gives things away. But also I don’t give details. So read as you wish: Was Samantha schizophrenic, or was she just on drugs? Or both? Did she imagine everything, or did she only imagine parts of it? Were certain characters even real, or were they hallucinations? Or both?? Or was the whole thing just magical realism and anything could happen in this world? I love and hate having all those questions.
If you ended this book thinking “what even happened” and are looking for a literal rundown of the plot, here it is. I created a summary in just emojis. I felt like it was the perfect way to recap the chaos of this book. lol.
📚👩🏻➕🚬👩🏽💬😂🐰👩🏼
📪✉️📄🐰🤔
👩🏻 🧲👩🏼👩🏼👩🏼👩🏼 ➡️🐰
🏛️🐰🍹💊🕳️🫶🏽👗🧁🎀🔒
🧔🏽♂️➡️🐰🪓💥🩸🫨
🐰💬👩🏽 ➡️ 👩🏻💬👩🏽💃🏻💃🏽
📝🥳💭🧔🏼♂️😨❓❓
🚬👩🏽➡️🦢🪓💥🩸😭😡🪓
🧔🏼♂️🪓💥➡️🦌
🦌💥🤕🩼🦽
❓❓❓❓
👩🏻🎓
👩🏻➕🧔🏻♂️🏠🚬
❓❓❓❓
Second note: heed trigger warnings.
God, I don’t know. I don’t know what to say about this book. I loved it and hated it. I’m confused. I don’t know what was real and wasn’t real, and that’s what I hated about it. But that’s also what I loved about it.
I desperately need to discuss this book with someone.
[EDIT: after reading people’s discussions of this book on Reddit, I think I’m obsessed with it. I now love that it’s open to so much interpretation 😂
Come back and read this after you finish, if you’re interested in reading someone’s interpretation!!
I do agree with the theory that
Oh ALSO:
For more interpretations, check out this thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/books/comments/gxaxjw/bunny_by_mona_awad_is_misunderstood_by_many/
end edit]
I will say, it’s best you go into this book knowing nothing about it.
I wish there were discussion questions in the back. I feel like that would be fun to unpack.
Major question I have are below. I’ll put spoilers around it because it kind of gives things away. But also I don’t give details. So read as you wish:
If you ended this book thinking “what even happened” and are looking for a literal rundown of the plot, here it is. I created a summary in just emojis. I felt like it was the perfect way to recap the chaos of this book. lol.
📪✉️📄🐰🤔
👩🏻 🧲👩🏼👩🏼👩🏼👩🏼 ➡️🐰
🏛️🐰🍹💊🕳️🫶🏽👗🧁🎀🔒
🧔🏽♂️➡️🐰🪓💥🩸🫨
🐰💬👩🏽 ➡️ 👩🏻💬👩🏽💃🏻💃🏽
📝🥳💭🧔🏼♂️😨❓❓
🚬👩🏽➡️🦢🪓💥🩸😭😡🪓
🧔🏼♂️🪓💥➡️🦌
🦌💥🤕🩼🦽
❓❓❓❓
👩🏻🎓
👩🏻➕🧔🏻♂️🏠🚬
❓❓❓❓
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Cursing, Animal death, Death, Blood, Body horror, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis and Mental illness
elisabethkatee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
this is the best book i’ve ever read in my entire life and yes it has indeed become my entire personality. this has changed the course of my life on earth i’m not even joking. i love you mona awad holy shit. this book was everything to me and more…
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Blood, and Gore
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Murder, Alcohol, and Drug use
_corrin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gore, and Body horror
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual harassment, and Toxic friendship
jesssicawho's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Death, Death of parent, Gore, and Toxic friendship
samflowerv6's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“We never joke about bunnies, Bunny.”
I WORSHIP YOU MONA AWAD!! Any freaks who like this book (myself included) are my favorite.
“Can I take your coat?” Cupcake offers. I turn to her. She’s looking at me so hopefully. So willing to take a coat I’m not wearing, I almost want to give her my skin.”
“What do you think, Samantha?” Fosco asks me. That it’s a piece of pretentious shit. That it says nothing, gives nothing. That I don’t understand it, that probably no one does and no one ever will. That not being understood is a privilege I can’t afford. That I can’t believe this woman got paid to come here. That I think she should apologize to trees. Spend a whole day on her knees in the forest, looking up at the trembling aspens and oaks and whatever other trees paper is made of with tears in her languid eyes and say, I’m fucking sorry. I’m sorry that I think I’m so goddamned interesting when it is clear that I am not interesting. Here’s what I am: I’m a boring tree murderess. But I look at Vignette, at Creepy Doll, at Cupcake, the Duchess. All of them staring at me now with shy smiles. “I think I’d like to see more of the soup too,” I hear myself say.”
“I look at all of my dreams and nightmares distilled into one man-shaped shape. All the love and hate I have in my heart plus one fucking bunny.”
“Behold the lavish tent under which the overeducated mingle, well versed in every art but the one of conversation.”
“They laugh. What’s so fucking funny? I want to say. But I don’t. I laugh with them. Ha. Haha. Hahaha.”
How empty and emptied I felt walking away with all my words still on his floor. Wanting so badly to pick them back up. Take it all back. Wipe away the night, my dumb tears, my endless tumbling out of words. I never meant to give this to you.
“Their cheeks are plump and pink and shining like they’ve been eating too much sugar, but actually it’s Gossip Glow, the flushed look that comes from throwing another woman under the bus.”
“We've read Jane Eyre too, you cunt, and we've read The Waves, and when we read it, you know, we wept for minutes."
“Whenever I read one of Victoria’s vignettes, I always feel so dumb because I can hardly understand them at all. And then I blame myself. I think, Kira, this must be just too brilliant for you to grasp. Surely you must have missed something. Even though there’s always been this small voice inside of me that says, Um, what the fuck is this, please? This makes no sense. This is coy and this is willfully obscure and no one but Victoria will ever get this. I would in fact need to live inside Victoria’s spoiled, fragmented, lazy, pretentious little mind to get it. And who apart from us, apart from me, is going to be willing to do that? To work all night with a Victoria Decoder? Who would even care to? And then I feel like screaming JUST SAY IT. TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED. TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK THIS MEANS AND WHAT YOU DID WITH HIM EXACTLY.”
“Read. Be a guest in other worlds.”
I WORSHIP YOU MONA AWAD!! Any freaks who like this book (myself included) are my favorite.
“Can I take your coat?” Cupcake offers. I turn to her. She’s looking at me so hopefully. So willing to take a coat I’m not wearing, I almost want to give her my skin.”
“What do you think, Samantha?” Fosco asks me. That it’s a piece of pretentious shit. That it says nothing, gives nothing. That I don’t understand it, that probably no one does and no one ever will. That not being understood is a privilege I can’t afford. That I can’t believe this woman got paid to come here. That I think she should apologize to trees. Spend a whole day on her knees in the forest, looking up at the trembling aspens and oaks and whatever other trees paper is made of with tears in her languid eyes and say, I’m fucking sorry. I’m sorry that I think I’m so goddamned interesting when it is clear that I am not interesting. Here’s what I am: I’m a boring tree murderess. But I look at Vignette, at Creepy Doll, at Cupcake, the Duchess. All of them staring at me now with shy smiles. “I think I’d like to see more of the soup too,” I hear myself say.”
“I look at all of my dreams and nightmares distilled into one man-shaped shape. All the love and hate I have in my heart plus one fucking bunny.”
“Behold the lavish tent under which the overeducated mingle, well versed in every art but the one of conversation.”
“They laugh. What’s so fucking funny? I want to say. But I don’t. I laugh with them. Ha. Haha. Hahaha.”
How empty and emptied I felt walking away with all my words still on his floor. Wanting so badly to pick them back up. Take it all back. Wipe away the night, my dumb tears, my endless tumbling out of words. I never meant to give this to you.
“Their cheeks are plump and pink and shining like they’ve been eating too much sugar, but actually it’s Gossip Glow, the flushed look that comes from throwing another woman under the bus.”
“We've read Jane Eyre too, you cunt, and we've read The Waves, and when we read it, you know, we wept for minutes."
“Whenever I read one of Victoria’s vignettes, I always feel so dumb because I can hardly understand them at all. And then I blame myself. I think, Kira, this must be just too brilliant for you to grasp. Surely you must have missed something. Even though there’s always been this small voice inside of me that says, Um, what the fuck is this, please? This makes no sense. This is coy and this is willfully obscure and no one but Victoria will ever get this. I would in fact need to live inside Victoria’s spoiled, fragmented, lazy, pretentious little mind to get it. And who apart from us, apart from me, is going to be willing to do that? To work all night with a Victoria Decoder? Who would even care to? And then I feel like screaming JUST SAY IT. TELL ME WHAT HAPPENED. TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK THIS MEANS AND WHAT YOU DID WITH HIM EXACTLY.”
“Read. Be a guest in other worlds.”
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Gore, Drug abuse, Drug use, Death, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Grief, Physical abuse, Classism, Violence, Body shaming, and Cursing
oatmeals's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Gore and Torture
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis
cara_anne's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-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
3.5
Unfortunately, I guessed the twist very early on (and I wasn’t a fan of the trope used), but there was otherwise a lot of interesting stuff to unpack here. I loved the voice of it, and I loved out batsh!t crazy it was - what a bonkers premise.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, and Blood
carla20's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Blood, Mental illness, Murder, Drug use, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Death of parent