“Bunny”: One of the Funniest and Strangest Books I’ve Ever Read

A review of Mona Awad’s 2019 novel

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After reading and enjoying Mona Awad’s Rouge, I wanted to dive into her earlier work. I was surprised to find her 2019 novel, Bunny, among lists of popular books on social media. Inspired by Carrie, Heathers, and Alice in Wonderland, Bunny turned out to be one of the funniest and strangest books I’ve ever read — and I loved it.

Samantha Heather Mackey is an MFA graduate student at Warren University who feels like an outsider compared to her fiction writing cohort — a clique of rich girls who call each other Bunny. When the Bunnies invite her to their Smut Salon, she ditches her only friend, Ava. As Samantha delves deeper into the Bunnies’ world, partaking in their ritualistic workshops that conjure monstrous creations, reality and imagination begin to blur.

“Their hair grew shinier and longer, their eyes red, and I did not know which small hand belonged to which pink-and-white body, which coo came from which glossy mouth, which fingers were getting tangled in my hair. And then a voice like warm fur, her balmy lips very close to my ear. Go outside and bring us a bunny, Samantha.” — Mona Awad, “Bunny”