On my original read I interpreted the book as far more literal than I believe it is intended to be consumed, as most other readers did too. It was only upon rereading that Samantha’s place as an unreliable narrator was realised, she does not lie and manipulate in order to portray a false story but rather due to schizophrenia. Her memories mainly center around people telling her that she falls too far into fantasies and delusion, however it is only upon her breakdown and subsequent meeting of Max on the bus that the turning point truly occurs. This bus journey introduces Samantha to an elderly woman who eerily resembles her - but “wearing and insane person’s clothes, with a tattoo of a spider on her neck” - with Samantha struggling with arachnophobia. The lady reads aloud a checklist for schizophrenia and confirms how she aligns with the criteria, it becomes obvious as a hallucination when she speaks against Samantha’s nape as if she’s “taking the words right out of….my mind.”. Furthermore, Max’s notebooks are filled with her words, because she wrote them in there. The novel is told by a narrator who’s hold on reality is extremely frail. Yet despite this fractured outlook she still triumphs, after months of being unable to write as she struggles with total dissociation and psychosis, she is able to evolve her present into her writing. In fact, the book which we are reading is her thesis. It can even be argued that the workshops of the Bunnies were her own psychotic imaginings that she fell prey to in her own loneliness merged with her writer’s imagination. The bunny-boys were “first drafts” - because she was still forming the narrative in her mind, even with them being referred to as “Darlings” reminiscent of the writers trope to ‘kill your darlings’ in a first draft. By the end she has won her fight for sanity, as she retrieves her work from Max and finally completes the thesis. With the Lion becoming a regular professor who shied away from her when confronted with her mental ills, Ursula also falls privy to this at the thanksgiving dinner. Nobody is willing to help Samantha as she is brilliant in her isolation, so she is left to solve it on her own. Even her omnipresent mother has transitioned from an invasive voice from within her head to a nurturing sky. The Bunnies have now become dull and pretentious girls, still fearful of her after that night. We are still unsure of how grounded she is in reality by the point of conclusion but can at least take solace in Jonah’s existence as “his eyes don’t shift shades”, in comparison to Ava’s. Yet the final lines still leave her salinity open to interpretation when she offers Jonah an invitation to come with her and then lowers her gaze to the ground so the mud replies. This book is so misunderstood and this is just my most recent interpretation, can’t wait to see what i discover on my next read.