Bunny
Ratings422
Average rating3.5
this book is pretty much everything i look for in movies: wild. weird. wonderful.
This book had two strikes against it going in. First, I can't stand books about academics. Yawn. Second, it is constantly being compared to Heathers. It's not Heathers. It can't BE Heathers.
Still I decided to go for it. So, so sad.
Let me use my non-mouth words:
If you can get past the baby speak (and I work with small children, they do not sound like this), and the huge buckets of clever the author is trying to throw on your head, then there are parts of this book that are magic and which actually work. The project, for example, had me enthralled- actually gasping at times. That was excellent. Also the relationship between Ava and Samantha was win. The “Bunnies” are interchangeable and forgettable. Consider, also, that they have real names, and Samantha has nicknamed them and I could never remember what the difference between Creepy Girl and Cupcake was. shrug
Samantha is such an unreliable narrator-who the hell really knows what is going on. Because it doesn't seem to matter to Samantha, it stopped mattering to me. And I was left thinking how does someone still have glitter on their face 2 months later? Even if you don't bathe....wont it just wear off eventually?
Uhg. And no one works. And yet there is plenty of money for booze and food.
Waves hands It wasn't the worst thing I've read this year, it just wasn't great. Or a HORROR novel (this is showing up on horror lists). Not horror. Although, ironically, the movie I most want to compare it to is Braid.
On a side note, I am actually going to Providence, RI this weekend and this book has me convinced the crime rate is off the charts and that we might die. Hey! Maybe it IS a horror novel? Awad is clearly not a fan of the area.
A horror novel set in a prestigious MFA program with a distinct Heathers vibe is one hell of a hand sell. But I just can't resolve that this bunny coven is comprised of grad students. These squealing mean girls with their ski jump noses and peach fuzz cheeks endlessly hugging and filled with mutual adoration feel like they're pulled from CW central casting for the latest high school drama. The Plastics with literary pretensions set their eyes on outsider Samantha Heather Mackey and are determined to bring her into their Care Bear coven where horror quickly ensues.
It's grindhouse fables and ancient myth meets Alice in Wonderland by way of Riverdale High. It's shitty first drafts and killing your darlings. It starts to feel like it's comprised entirely of metaphors both literary and authorial and ends up so far up its own asshole that it needs to unzip just to be heard. The thing is bonkers sure, but I wanted more of the fun of a teen horror flick and less meta commentary about the MFA process. Still, lots of literary bingo to be had picking out the varied references scattered throughout.