Bunny is one of those books where you’re not sure what you’re reading ever. And then I finished it and was like that was something that I found interesting, but did I love it? Folks, to this date I don’t even know. Keep reading this book review of Bunny for my full thoughts.
Summary
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.
Review
Let me just say, reading Bunny was a confusing experience. I’d go from stages where I was actually obsessed, to ones where I had no idea what was happening – but was into that – to plain old confusion. The themes of friendship and the experiences of wanting so desperately to be accepted hit me in the feels. I think that’s probably the number one reason readers are drawn to Bunny. Part of why I think that is based mostly on the blurbs I’ve seen for Bunny. While it, on one hand has sort of a Mean Girls vibe to this Insider Outsider clique, it also explores how much of ourselves we will give up for this inclusion.
There are allegiances and lines drawn in the sand which change with the next gust of wind. It’s like one of those unspoken rules which can just as easily bring us in as push us out. There are so many different layers in Bunny that it;s hard sometimes to see them all at once. Bunny has varying extremes of creepiness to downright horror. Very quickly things aren’t what they seem and you’re drawn in like a fish on the line. If you’re a fan of unreliable or questionable narratives, Bunny should be on your TBR. The confusion for me lead to a very squishy ending.
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At some points, it’s like a carousel you want to get off of, but one you’re strapped into. Bunny‘s main strength is that it examines the transition to becoming a “we”. This haze of acceptance with everything danged on a string in front of us like a carrot. It’s a hazy reading experience. It feels like being in a smoke filled room and everything has a surreal quality. This can make it intriguing at some moments, but also hard to hold on to. So would I recommend Bunny? Well, for those who want friendship stories – and don’t mind horror – but for those who want clear cut probably not.
Find Bunny on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.