Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

Bunny, by Mona Awad

62 reviews

lapetitepaola's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, Rape, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, and Mental illness

m_wood's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I enjoyed this book, it was seriously gripping and made me desperately want to finish and understand. I’m not sure it was the right book for me. The plot is so well formulated and new and exciting to anything I’ve read before, and I know the characters personality was indicative of the plot, however, I think I prefer more exploratory, emotional, real characters?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Stalking, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

riffmonkey's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I don't know how many times I have layed the book on my chest after reading a chapter and just said to myself "what the fuck, what the actual fuck just happened". This whole book is like one big fever dream and it was excellent. I imagine someone could go on and on analysing every tiny little detail of this and tell you why it was brilliant. I just know that it was. 

This is definitely not a book you want to read when you are having any sort of hallucination-ish symptoms of any kind. I learned that the hard way and put it away immediately. It definitely makes you think you are going insane. But I fucking love that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Drug use

Moderate: Self harm

avciera7's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is just SO close to being what it wants to be. I wanted so badly for this to be a 5-star read & a favorite because all the bones are there. There's SO many interesting ideas and its humor, commentary, characters, and emotionality are more of a hit than a miss. But the pieces fail to come together in a satisfying way. I feel like the best way to describe this book is it feels like early 2010s-era tumblr. What I will say is it's a fun ride and elements of it will definitely stick with me in a good way. But I loved it more for its potential than for what it was. I also find one of the possible interpretations of the story to be a tired, harmful, and uninventive trope. So I think reading it literally, and as if everything that's happening is actually happening, makes for a stronger read.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Death of parent and Self harm

isolde_'s review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, and Grief

sjxa's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

A beautiful balance of literary and commercial interests and tone, deligtfully mysterious, thrillingly feminine and wild. A monument to and mockery of academic creativity. A feverish kiss, revelling in its own pretention and self-awareness. So perfectly, like, meta, but maybe, like, a little pleased with itself? Pleased with itself in, like, an erotic way though. It’s hot (in the voice of Paris Hilton but also in a deeply natural, sweaty, grimy way).

These are all things its own characters might say about it in one of the many truthy episodes of creative writing workshops at uni, which punctuate the text with “real life”.

Spoiler

I found the turning of animals into people was written with an enjoyable lack of clarity; not so much that any absolutely necissary elements are lost, but enough that we are caught up in the same fog as Samantha to the extent that the plot is believable enough. The moment when Ava is revealed to be a swan is so gorgeously ambiguous, and the killing of Max back to his stag form has a satisfying bite of clarity to it, the two compliment eachother like salty and sweet.

If Bunny falls short anywhere, it’s the plainer, *not like other girls, dead parents* features of Samantha’s [the narrator] character - which are especially noticable in the early portions of the book where the magic of the plot has not yet taken off. It could also have been more explicitly diverse, I imagined certain characters as non-white but I don’t remember any descriptions of skintone besides the pink-white of the Bunnies. If the whiteness of other characters were relevant it might have been hilighted more carefully, so, since it wasn’t, readers may fill in the blanks.

Anyway, it was gross and animal and gorgeous and sparkly and exciting in the best way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Murder, Animal death, Blood, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault

tindin's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Murder, Violence, Drug abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Cursing, and Blood

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Bullying, Addiction, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual content

lokes's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Drug use, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Murder, Drug abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Blood, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual violence, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Car accident, Medical trauma, Self harm, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Mental illness, Rape, Stalking, Bullying, and Kidnapping

krittyko's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I literally don’t know how to rate this. I love the way Awad writes and I was confused the entire time I was reading. Fuck dude. Art school is just Like That. 

EDIT: coming back to this a day later i have to rate it 5 stars simply for its staying power. i keep thinking about the ending and getting choked up. god. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Drug abuse, Murder, Gore, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Excrement, Gaslighting, and Death

skyeuqx's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Half wondering if the contents change with the reader. Some of this was too specific!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Vomit, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Violence, and Gore