REVIEW: 'Bunny' by Mona Awad is a wild ride that I still can't wrap my head around. Here are my thoughts.

the fever dream that booktok is going crazy over

Are you ready for this?!?!

Where to begin with Bunny by Mona Awad.

I rarely pick up a book on a whim, normally the process takes me hours, yes, hours, because I’ll search and search for the perfect one, then have to find a PDF so that I can read the opening, scan random pages, make sure I’m going to get along with the writing style. I’m high mantenance in an annoying way about my books, and so while I love the idea of simply waltzing into a bookstore and grabbing a book at random off the shelf, it has rarely, if ever, worked for me.

But there’s a first for everything.

You might recall that one Saturday several weekends back I was supposed to meet a friend downtown. Fast forward to me on the sidewalk with the news she wasn’t coming and a free day to myself and I thought, you know what? I’m making the most of it.

So I took myself on a little day date, and when I came across an indie bookstore I went in and waited for a book to choose me, pick me.

And you know what? It did.

Listen, if you're going to bring your dog into a bookstore, I'm going to take a photo of you.

And I’ll admit, it felt good to carry Bunny around, to sit with her at lunch, to notice the teenage girls whispering about me and assume it was because of my excellent literary choice in fiction, but also maybe they just wondered what the aging elder emo was doing at their favorite Greek place. It’s possible. Anyway, for me, that’s where this story begins.

GRECO, if you ever have the good fortune of being near one. 10/10 halloumi gyro.

Like most people, I was hooked by those opening pages. The writing is superb, and the dialogue is one of my favorite parts the best part of this book. It’s very satirical and very clever. There have been days the Bunnies’ voices will pop into my head, or I’ll type something and think, this sounds like something one of the Bunnies would say. It’s an invasive little book, and I like that.

The opening lines:

We call them Bunnies because that is what they call each other.
Seriously. Bunny.

Example:
Hi, Bunny!
Hi, Bunny!
What did you do last night, Bunny?
I hung out with you, Bunny. Remember, Bunny?
That’s right, Bunny, you hung out with me and it was the best
time I ever had.
Bunny, I love you.
I love you, Bunny.
And then they hug each other so hard I think their chests are
going to implode. I would even secretly hope for it from where I sat,
stood, leaned, in the opposite corner of the lecture hall, department
lounge, auditorium, bearing witness to four grown women—my
academic peers—cooingly strangle each other hello. Or good-bye. Or
just because you’re so amazing, Bunny.

What I love about Awad’s style is that it’s immersive in the sneakiest way. I’m constantly studying books from a writer’s perspective—that is, to learn, improve my own craft, and better understand how things are done. Very often, I was so immersed in her writing that I didn’t notice the tricks she was employing, which is an incredible skill all its own.

Not only that, she excels in areas I struggle with — scene setting for one, which does at times become tiresome, but for the most part, I didn’t mind. This is a common gripe on reviews of Bunny and I do largely agree that it was excessive. Sometimes I found myself skimming paragraphs because it was a little too much setting, and it didn’t actually aid in the plot or character advancement at all. But I must give credit where credit is due—I might not have cared for these parts, but the execution is flawless. Awad is a brilliant writer.

“You also didn’t want to disrupt the purity of cinnamon,” the Duchess observes. “Exactly,” Cupcake says, as though the Duchess has articulated a truth she’s been trying to pin down for years.”

― Mona Awad, Bunny

So what did I think?

This book has been EVERYWHERE, despite coming out nearly five years ago in 2019. (Thanks BookTok) and I’ve even seen it all over Substack. But when

Madeline Mills

raved about it in her own piece, I knew I had to read it.

I didn’t know much about it going in, but I expected it to be dark, twisty, and with some kind of major reveal at the end. The way everyone spoke about it was very divisive, and I certainly saw a lot of reviews complaining that it started strong and then went off the rails, so I suppose I spent a lot of time looking for that to happen.

In many ways, it did, and in others, it didn’t. There were large sections I skimmed through and others I couldn’t believe I’d just been reading for twenty minutes. It’s that kind of book. Fever dream is an especially accurate term or as

Madeline Mills

put it in one of her comments, “the book is very strange and isn’t very straightforward with what’s going on. It just takes you by the hand with no explanation.”

All this to say, I really enjoyed Bunny. But I do have a few bones to pick and I don’t know that YOU will specifically like it or if you should even read it. That depends on a few things.

“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.”
― Mona Awad, Bunny

If you’re wondering if you should add this to cart, my answer is:

Probably. This is a genre I’ve never read before and so it was my first foray into horror, magical realism, and close to my first time reading satirical literary fiction (with Yellowface by R.F. Kuang being my first).

I have no idea if this book would be considered normal for the genres, but my estimation is no, it’s not. It’s an outlier. And even still, I think you should pick it up, and just go along for the ride. Read a few pages online first, make sure the writing won’t drive you bonkers, but if not, it’s a quick read and I can pretty much guarantee you’ll never read anything like it again. As a writer, it stretched my imagination. As a reader, it put my critical thinking skills to use.

A few favorite Goodreads reviews (no spoilers!) that I think make great points:

Perhaps my favorite, and the most accurate to my experience:

Because in the end, this was my experience too. At times, super invested, laugh out loud funny, clever, intoxicating, fever dream sign me up. Others, I found myself skimming paragraphs, wanting Samantha to stop whining, wanting Ava to stop talking, wanting to know the big twist with Jonah because he was SO WEIRD surely there had to be one, but oddly, accepting that I would probably never have the answers I was seeking which as it turns out, is mostly true.

If you’re someone who likes your endings neat and tidy you probably will not like this book.

If you’re someone who wants to understand why anything is happening, you probably will not like this book.

If you are someone who wants to think, and laugh, and skim, and then later let it all settle and have a good think about what it says about society, and culture, and friendship on the whole, you may like this book.

If you’ve read the book and are ok with spoilers, proceed.

You’ve been warned! Spoilers aplenty below. If you’d like to jump to Final Thoughts (Spoiler Free) scroll down to Final Thoughts.

Happy My Little Pony for spacing

All I could think about when they’d mention Pinky Pie

Immediate thoughts after closing the book:

• Boy that was weird

• Is this girl actually crazy

• I thought Ava was definitely a creation/draft/whatever? Did she not have gloved hands that Samantha made a point of mentioning a lot? Wait so did she CREATE Ava from the Swan and that’s why the Bunnies were interested in her? or was she always a swan? or was she nothing?

• Can we get one of those mini-food places in Boston??

• Jonah is mud????

• Great dialogue though

• Am I really supposed to believe this girl was squatting with a Swan the whole time?

• Am I supposed to accept that actual decapitations are going on at a regular enough rate that this is mentioned SEVERAL TIMES alongside various other murders??

• For real though, I want that mini-food place.

ALSO, is it a bit of a stretch the Bunnies became boy-crazy at the very end? And the level of crazy they ascended to? I think I understand this better after reading some reviews, but simply reading this as it was happening made me feel a bit of whiplash over the whole thing. I mean, our girls went downright feral in that last Workshop, didn’t they? It was the most jarring part for me (I know, that’s saying a lot) and I’m curious your thoughts on it.

Also why were her professors attacking her at the end? Was that even real? +1 to the janitor dialogue though, that was really A+.

“Can you untie me, please?” I try again.

He shrugs. Reaches down and mutteringly unties the ribbons around my wrists and ankles, which slip off pretty easily, lady

“Thank you, I gasp. You saved me. They were trying to kill me.”

He shakes his head. “You kids and your conceptual art.”

And then my opinion started to shift…

That thing that always happens: I start reading reviews and talking out loud, and suddenly, my opinion starts to shift. I want to note that it’s been 48 hours since I finished the book, and it is still shifting.

Perhaps more favorably, but it’s not just that. There’s a clarity that didn’t exist before. An understanding. For such a singular activity, I wonder if reading is better spent in a community. If we were never meant to process these things alone after all, but rather, rejoice in their themes, strange and unrealistic as they might be, together.

Because there’s something in simply hearing yourself reveal plot points out loud to a loved one, or commiserating with a stranger online about the parts you loved, the parts you didn’t get and perhaps most importantly the parts you missed altogether, that unites you to that book a little more. That draws you deeper in.

Hence, I suppose, book clubs.

Final thoughts

(Spoiler free!)

I described Bunny as a book I didn’t necessarily get excited to pick up, but that stuck with me for days after, and that’s true. It took me about a week and a half to get through it, but that was more about a rigorous reading schedule than any real longing to pick it up. Even still, I always found myself lost in it. I always spent hours thinking about it.

Is that the mark of a great book? I don’t know. I’d like to have both. A book that has me counting the seconds until I’m reading it again, that I get fantastically lost inside once I do. But I’ve read enough to know that creating a voice, however odd, is crucial. Not only that, it’s the trademark of a skilled author. Say whatever you want about the plot, the execution of that final half or third, but the writing is pure talent.

Now listen, god knows I found Samantha whiny and intolerable, to say nothing of Ava’s character. I honestly enjoyed the Bunnies the most, and was the most invested in them and their story, which is perhaps why the end felt a little unsatisfying to me. A sort of “ok” 🤷‍♀️

But there’s a voice to the novel that I couldn’t shake. Funny. Clever. Silly even. Absurd and hilarious, serious and satirical all at once. And it comes out of nowhere too, which I love.

That takes talent. It takes guts. And that very last line of the book? Perfection.

So sure, maybe I wasn’t a 5-star fan of Bunny like everyone else. Horror isn’t my genre. Magical realism isn’t my thing. I struggled with the protagonist, and the ending felt a little weak, but I liked it. I’m still thinking about it. And that voice. That’s something I can get behind. It’s something to be celebrated.

Or as Fosco would say, it’s doing The Work. Opening the wounds. Pouring it all out and hoping for the best. And for me at least, it’s working.

Note: there are some wild and meandering theories in this Reddit thread, if you’re interested in exploring further.