Spoilery Book Reviews

Bunny by Mona Awad

Back of the book
Samantha Heather Mackey is an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA programme at Warren University. In fact, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort - a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other 'Bunny'. But then the Bunnies issue her with an invitation and Samantha finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door, across the threshold, and down their rabbit hole.

My thoughts
This book was not what I was expecting. I was expecting a university story of a girl trying to fit in, find her real friends. Instead I found a book that I want to label as horror genre, as I felt unsettled during the whole read. 'What the f*ck' describes it well. I will not claim this is a good or a bad book. I think all my gripes are simply because it wasn't what I expected, and I have decided horror is not my thing. Another book that gave me a similar vibe to this was Imaginary Friend by Stephen Chbosky. I had no clue it was a horror before I started reading and bought it because of the author and deeply regretted making myself read the whole thing.

I didn't love the writing style, but it complements the story. The writing gets carried away, spiralling in odd directions where I'm unsure if it's a daydream thought process or something that is real and actually happening to the character. I would have liked maybe a third person POV to create distance from the story and more understanding. However being sucked in and not knowing what's truly going on is just part of the story telling and not necessarily a flaw. Another factor I didn't like which is a true flaw to me, is the book is constantly talking about itself. The main character, Samantha, is a writer, and the other characters constantly comment on how gritty, edgy or raw her work is. They also allude to 'what happens at the end' of her story, at the end of this book, and the parallels were a bit much for me. Too on the nose. Samantha also reflects on her parents telling her to stop daydreaming and live in reality. I kept looking for an explanation like it was a hallucination or she has schizophrenia or even the cringey classic it was all a dream. Alas, the events are decidedly real.

So what was it about? Samantha is an outsider to a cringey clique of girls with one friend who is even more odd and punky than her, Ava. Samantha is invited to one of the cliques hang out nights and is quickly sucked in to the friendship group despite not loving it. Then, they engage in a ritual where a bunny explodes and a boy knocks on the front door - made from the bunny that exploded. The boys are often deformed or try chewing things or scream when asked questions, so they are decapitated and the girls try again. This is their form of art, entertainment and the one thing that binds these girls together. They begin talking as a collective and the singular narrative voice is lost. Until Ava kidnaps Samantha from the 'cult' of friends and she tries to remember herself and that she hates the girls. The girls then allow Samantha to lead the bunny-explosion, but nothing happens. Fast forward and a boy who is maybe not a real boy shows up, the perfect match for Ava, also pretends to be the perfect match for the other girls, breaks a lot of hearts. Ava turns out to be a swan that Samantha turned into her friend, and the perfect boy turns out to be a stag Samantha changed accidentally, unknowingly, when the bunny didn't change. I know this is all bizarre and far fetched but that's just the way it is. There was also a side plot of perhaps something went down between Samantha and a uni professor which I was interested in, but turns out to be nothing.

As someone who gets very invested in a book while reading, this was a deeply uncomfortable and unsettling read. With a typical horror ending where you're unsure if the drama is really over or not. I skimmed over all the review comments with words like satire, menace and thriller. This was a lesson hard-learnt to not judge a book by its cover, or even the blurb which didn't give creepy vibes. I will never again so blindly pick up a book to read without first knowing the genre.

TL:DR
An unsettling and bizarre horror read, that I cannot judge on quality because I disliked the premise entirely. If thriller/horror is your thing, give it a whirl and a real review.