Bunny” by Mona Awad is a dark and deceptive book that’s extremely hard to consume. While you can flip through the pages relatively quickly, it’s a difficult story to actually understand the complexities surrounding it.
“Bunny” is neither a literary nor a genre book, which is a bit off putting. The supernatural events that occur throughout the book are purely for a metaphorical effect, which was not clear to the reader. Some people said that this novel is quite gory or scary, but I would say it’s more confusing.
Throughout the novel we follow the character Samantha as she is getting her masters in fine arts at Warren University. She’s clearly struggling mentally throughout the book and trying to find her place in life. She has one friend when this book begins, Ava. While it’s unclear whether Ava is just a friend, we come to the realization that they are extremely close.
While Samantha is trying to find her place within her cohort she is invited to a party put on by the “Bunnies.” Ava and Samantha have always looked down on the “Bunnies” and saw them as a clique of materialistic rich snobs, which to be fair, the assumption turns out to be quite accurate.
The best way to describe the “Bunnies” is that they are essentially the Heathers from the 1988 film of the same name written by Daniel Waters. They even refer to all of them by the same name of “Bunny”, similar to the Heathers.
As Samantha attends this party put on by the “Bunnies,” she gets hooked into their whole cult-like world and gets disconnected from her normal life and society as a whole. We essentially stay within this cult-like uncomfortable atmosphere for the remainder of the book.
“Bunny’ is the kind of book that you either love or hate. There is really no in-between. There is no doubt that this book shows the complexities of female relationships, camaraderie and grotesque extremes. I just have to say that for me, it was not enjoyable to read and most of the themes of the book will probably fly over your head while reading it, leaving you in a confused state for the majority of the read.