“Jon Swift + Witches of Eastwick + Kelly ‘Get In Trouble’ Link + Mean Girls + Creative Writing Degree Hell! No punches pulled, no hilarities dodged, no meme unmangled! O Bunny you are sooo genius!” —Margaret Atwood, via Twitter“A wild, audacious and ultimately unforgettable novel.” —Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times “Awad is a stone-cold genius.” —Ann Bauer, The Washington PostThe Vegetarian … —Ann Bauer, The Washington Post
The Vegetarian meets Heathers in this darkly funny, seductively strange novel from the acclaimed author of 13 Ways of Looking at a Fat Girl
“We were just these innocent girls in the night trying to make something beautiful. We nearly died. We very nearly did, didn’t we?”
Samantha Heather Mackey couldn’t be more of an outsider in her small, highly selective MFA program at New England’s Warren University. A scholarship student who prefers the company of her dark imagination to that of most people, she is utterly repelled by the rest of her fiction writing cohort–a clique of unbearably twee rich girls who call each other “Bunny,” and seem to move and speak as one.
But everything changes when Samantha receives an invitation to the Bunnies’ fabled “Smut Salon,” and finds herself inexplicably drawn to their front door–ditching her only friend, Ava, in the process. As Samantha plunges deeper and deeper into the Bunnies’ sinister yet saccharine world, beginning to take part in the ritualistic off-campus “Workshop” where they conjure their monstrous creations, the edges of reality begin to blur. Soon, her friendships with Ava and the Bunnies will be brought into deadly collision.
The spellbinding new novel from one of our most fearless chroniclers of the female experience, Bunny is a down-the-rabbit-hole tale of loneliness and belonging, friendship and desire, and the fantastic and terrible power of the imagination.
Named a Best Book of 2019 by TIME, Vogue, Electric Literature, and The New York Public Library
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An elite MFA fiction-workshop, a saccharine yet sinister clique of girls who call themselves “Bunnies,” and an ever more unreliable narrator as she loses her grasp on reality — what’s not to like? Bunny is a wild ride through the modern-day occult, both terrifying and hilarious at turns. Yet it is also a surprisingly profound mediation on what it means to feel isolated, and the depths our minds may sink to to soothe that loneliness. Loved every weird, wonderful page.
Mona Awad’s precision is only matched by her wit as she mounts one of the most pristine, delightful attacks on popular girls since Clueless. Bunny made me cackle and nod in terrified recognition. You will be glued to your cashmere blanket.
Strange in all the best ways.
I love toxic girls! Clever and enchanting, and it felt like I was astral projecting.
Book 146 towards my goal of 290. 2/5 stars for this wtf read. I don’t want to say too much and give anything away…. but I am irrationally angry at a 12 hour fiction audiobook. I will never recommend this one. Weird doesn’t even begin to cover it, and not in a fun way.
I couldn’t get thru it. I thought it was drivel.
I was clearly in the mood for oddball books this month. Bunny is difficult to describe but if I were pressed I would say it’s like if The Secret History, Heathers and The Witches of Eastwick had a very strange, ironic but passionate threesome. Our protagonist is Sam, a post-grad student on an MFA programme at a highly prestigious university. Sam is an outsider amongst her creative writing cohort and in particular is appalled by ‘The Bunnies’, the group of unbearably girly, touchy-feely and privileged women who make up the rest of her writer’s seminar. Sam has no interest in joining their cult-like sorority but when she gets an invite to one of their ‘salons’ she can’t resist going along to see what they’re like behind closed doors. And boy is she in for a surprise! Bunny is a macabre and twisted parody of the conventional campus, coming of age novel that still manages to have something quite sincere to say about creativity, the creative process, friendship and discovering who you are. Just don’t expected to be conveyed in a straightforward way.
If you want a funny, twisted and unique modern fairy tale this is the book for you.
Not sure what I just read, but I couldn’t put it down.
dark and twisted
The only word I can think of to describe this book is bizarre. It reads like a descent into madness.
Lost me half way through. Unlikable, weird characters.
I read 13% and quit. Maybe a teen might like it.
This is the story of writers and poets in an prestigious post grad program. It’s about snobbery. The main character is so out of step that she’s paranoid. She can’t relate to anyone except her drop out artist pal. Then she gets an invitation from the In crowd who she calls “Bunnies”. It’s gossip and mean girl fun.
A sort of pink-frosted Lovecraftian fever dream complete with irreverent psychological horror. Absolutely adored it.
With an increasingly unreliable perspective and a snarky internal dialogue, “Bunny” by Mona Awad takes its lead from such dark icons as “The Stepford Wives” or “Heathers.” At an exclusive university, Sam is the only person in the creative arts program who doesn’t dress in pastels and pumps. In fact, she much prefers to harpoon the airy-voiced “Bunnies” than interact with them. After an estranged relationship grows odd and a bout with the dreaded writer’s block, Sam accepts an invitation to attend one of the Bunnies’ salons. That’s when things get really weird.
“Bunny” is Funny. Sad. Sarcastic. Absurd. Honest. The topsy-turvy surreal experience draws startling correlations between art and magic. It looks at conformity and friendship verses truth to self and loneliness. Most spectacular of all, Mona Awad’s prose crackles with wit and sparkles brighter than a bunny’s glittery lip gloss.
Sharp, maniacal, witty roller-coaster. Addictive and hilarious.
I picked up this book because of the campus novel aspect, a genre I am invested in! The work is unique and experimental, reminiscent of the MFA program that is described within it. The whole work has a very Alice fell down the rabbit hole quality – as in a wonder where the main character was hallucinating or whether the entire novel was a metaphor for the artistic birth she was experiencing. Female relationships – both with haters, and with a lover is at the center of the work. This novel really got me thinking!!
Hilarious and subversive, magical and knife-sharp. This novel—a send-up of academia, an astute exploration of class in creative circles, and an ode to the uncanny power of art—confirms Mona Awad as one of our great chroniclers of what it means to be alive right now. Bunny is a stunner.
It is not an exaggeration to say that I devoured Bunny—teeth, fur, claws and all. Mona Awad has written a truly delectable novel that is equal parts wit, fancy, and wickedness. Unafraid to challenge some sacrosanct notions about women artists, female friendship, and writing, her book is a compulsively readable testament to the sheer creative force of loneliness and longing.