Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Bunny, by Mona Awad

128 reviews

lindsaylhunter's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

An absolute fever dream of a book. If you're looking for something eerie, graphic, or twisted, look no further. Just don't expect normal.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Injury/injury detail and Self harm

metanoialaxy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

i felt like i was in drugs wtf this is amazing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Gaslighting, Death, Injury/injury detail, Gore, Eating disorder, Blood, Body horror, and Addiction

olijordan's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Not my type of stuff but I appreciate it for what it was. It was super twisted and slightly horrific but still managed to connect you to the main character’s loneliness. The desire for connection and also a really good observation (and exaggeration) of studying the arts, stereotypes and cliques. 

I’ll admit I have absolutely no idea what was happening half the time or if certain things were meant to mean something in particular. But the writing was still succinct it was more the symbolism of it that I don’t think I totally understood

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Murder, Blood, Animal death, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

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

liv_jones's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The best way I can describe this book is if Heathers and Doki Doki Literature Club had a love child, and you and that love child got high together. Reading it feels like an acid trip in the best way. 

The setting of Warren University is the perfect backdrop for a story like this, and Awad gives an excellent description of a seemingly picturesque facade that is much more sinister after a closer look - a concept that many students at prestigious universities understand all too well! Samantha is not meant to be particularly likeable, and I like that her pretentious, holier-than-thou mindset is called out in a way that also calls out every “I’m not like other girls” main character ever. The ending seemed to come out of absolutely nowhere but there are clever elements of foreshadowing throughout that make sense only when the pieces are put together at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Blood, Gore, Self harm, Drug use, Injury/injury detail, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Car accident and Sexual content

dancingwithourhandstied's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship and Animal death

Moderate: Self harm

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Vomit, Body shaming, Sexual content, and Stalking

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

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

goddessbee's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Toxic friendship, Violence, Drug use, and Animal death

Moderate: Alcohol, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and Injury/injury detail